Features
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• The Greater London Assembly has commissioned a special study of the total costs - including housing - of living and working in London. It will be the first assessment in 30 years. • UNISON is pushing for a £4,000 London weighting allowance to recognise housing costs in the capital.
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The gap between public service pay and the amount needed to buy a house in the UK is ever-increasing. Laurence Pollock discovers what this means for members
Priced out
As house prices edge up, bringing a gleam to the eyes of estate agents and property speculators, public services suffer. Pay is falling behind mortgage costs in many areas.
This means staff often cannot live in the area where they work, which hits recruitment and retention and affects the quality of services. It also damages the environment through the need for more travel - especially by car.
London is notorious for its spiralling living costs and there are severe problems throughout the south east. But there are plenty of difficulties elsewhere, according to a recent survey by Labour Research.
The survey measured the difference between the cost of a house and the mortgage available to two people on average incomes in 171 local authorities in England and Wales.
It logged deficits of £73,000 for health staff in Rutland and £26,000 for nurses in Wiltshire. It also noted financial headaches in Devon, Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.
In Hertfordshire, Labour Research estimated that the mortgage available to two local government staff on average pay would be £84,000 short of the cost of an average house.
UNISON member Seema Aggarwal (pictured left), for example, an assistant personnel officer with Hertfordshire county council, could not buy a home in Hertfordshire on her current salary. She paid £135,000 for a two-bedroom maisonette in St Albans with her husband Vishal - which also means she has to make a 25-mile round trip to work.
The location is a compromise between his need to catch a train to London and her ability to travel to Hertford, by car, to work at County Hall. Hertford itself is too expensive to live in.
They would like to buy something bigger but prices are high. "We need both salaries to meet all the bills," she says. "I would not be able to cope in this area on my salary alone."
Ms Aggarwal is also committed to public-sector work. "You might get more money in the private sector, but I believe there is a better commitment from the employer to the employee in the public sector and I get a sense of drive from my job."
The government launched a £250 million scheme last year to help 10,000 'key' workers - mainly nurses, police and teachers - find accommodation in the south of England.
Heather Wakefield, senior national officer in local government, says the attention given in the media to 'key' workers has meant the contribution of other public sector workers, including local government, has been overlooked.
UNISON believes a range of measures is needed, including control of public housing to ensure public-sector workers can live near their job.
"Councils should be holding on to their housing stock and using them to help people who are squeezed by local house prices - both their own staff and others providing vital services," says Ms Wakefield.
"Plans to transfer thousands of homes to housing associations fly in the face of this logic."
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Dear U magazine, I currently live in Bolton, Lancashire and work for Manchester City Council. I have been successful in applying for a job for North Wiltshire District Council and have been offered the post. However, I am in the position you have described in your article; the house prices are probably going to prevent me from taking the job offer. The price of housing in the North Wiltshire area is prohibitive to moving, being situated in the "M4 Corridor" the house prices reflect the salaries of those commuting into London. My husband and I cannot contend with the artificially inflated prices. The problems you described with recruitment and retention of staff is not adequately addressed with the housing assistance and relocation packages available as they do not take into account the vast difference in pay to house prices. You have commented on the lack of council housing which once housed relocating personnel until affordable housing could be purchased - this is no longer an option as the housing stock has been sold off in North Wiltshire. Whilst I am aware that I am one of many, the situation I am faced with is having to turn down a job offer because of the housing problems it is extremely frustrating and disappointing. I hope that this situation can be resolved in the future with the government accepting that the house prices are not just a "London" problem. Margaret Slattery
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This article first appeared in U magazine, UNISON's quarterly magazine for members. Above is a response from one reader.
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In Bath and north east Somerset, two average local government salaries would fall £80,000 short of an average-price house. In the village of Bathampton, a three-bedroom terrace sells for £120,000. UNISON member Joy Davis (pictured above), a home help, could not afford to buy a home like this and she believes she is lucky to live in one of just nine housing association properties - formerly council owned - in Bathampton. Public-sector staff on low incomes are in a double bind: they cannot buy starter properties, but social housing is increasingly hard to find. "I was born and brought up here," says Ms Davis. "Without council housing I would never have been able to live here. Even so, the rent is not cheap at £300 a month. Bathampton is very lovely but very expensive - and it is not easy to live in if you are working in the public sector. I could not afford to buy a garden shed in this village." Council housing has now disappeared from the district after tenants approved a transfer of stock to a housing association by a wafer-thin majority. This means, according to Ms Davis, that promises of better repair and investment in her housing association property have not been delivered. "They promised us a new kitchen and bathroom but still nothing has happened." |
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