黑洞社区

As the light fades over Lincoln Road in Peterborough, huddles of young men form on the pavement in front of the brightly lit fast food joints, internet cafes and coffee shops. Outside Budget Guest House, four teenagers smoke cigarettes and drink cans of Foster鈥檚. One block down, a young woman pulls the shutters down at the Work Force Plus agency and hurries into the bar next door.

Cars speed up and down the main road, windows open and music blaring. A large minibus pulls up to the curb and discharges dozens of workers in fluorescent jackets and maroon trousers 鈥� people shipped in and out daily from the fields and factories on the outskirts of Peterborough. They chat briefly and then trudge up one of the numerous streets lined with terraced houses coming off the main road at right angles.

Inside Paulo Loureiro鈥檚 bar on Lincoln Road, techno music booms out of the speakers. The bartender lines up shots for his Portuguese friends playing pool, while out the back young Polish women chat with friends back home on the internet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 funny,鈥� Paulo says peering out on to the street. 鈥淚t used to be so quiet around here 鈥� so quiet. Now it鈥檚 very very busy.鈥�

But behind the bustle, Peterborough is a city in trouble. A sudden influx of migrant workers E E the past three years has pushed public services to the brink. Peterborough has the third highest number of registered workers in the country. More than 16,000 migrants have come to live and work in the area since May 2004, when eight eastern European countries joined the EU 鈥� a population increase of 10%. This influx, known locally as 鈥渢he explosion鈥�, caught the city completely off guard. Starved of sufficient funds, public services and local amenities are struggling to meet needs.

One of the hardest hit sectors is the housing market. The city is in the midst of the worst housing crisis in its history. The council鈥檚 waiting list has hit an all-time high at over 9,000 applicants. Just four years ago it was 4,500. There are also more homeless people than ever before 鈥� more than 600 last year. Many local residents blame 鈥渢he explosion鈥� for the longer wait for council homes. They say the foreigners have taken their homes and get housed before local residents do.

Unsurprisingly, a closer inspection of the housing figures reveals that the proportion of migrant workers and foreigners on these lists has been at a constant 10% for at least five years. It is not outsiders who are inflating these numbers, but local Peterborough residents, people who have been living in the city for years and years. The reality is, most migrant workers have gone straight into the private rented sector 鈥� sparking a boom in the buy-to-let market and a subsequent affordability crisis.

鈥淭here鈥檚 enormous pressure on the housing market,鈥� sighs Julie Rivett, housing options support team leader at Peterborough council. 鈥淭he problem stems from the private rented sector. This is where most migrants go to be housed so these properties are being snapped up by local residents at inflated prices to let out as houses in multiple occupation [HMOs].鈥�

鈥淚t used to be that the council used these homes to house people on the waiting list,鈥� Rivett adds. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 a valuable resource we can no longer tap into.鈥�

Contrary to popular belief, the council does not have a legal duty to house the migrant workers. The government denied members of the eight European countries rights to housing benefits when they joined the EU in 2004, to reduce the political fallout of allowing them to work here.

HMOs are being snapped up by local residents to let out 鈥� it鈥檚 a resource we can no longer tap into

Julie Rivett, Peterborough council

Councillor John Holditch, cabinet member for housing at Peterborough council, is desperate to resolve the situation. Soaring property prices mean that local young couples can no longer afford to buy a home in Peterborough. Houses that used to cost around 拢100,000 have risen in price by 40% since 2001. 鈥淭hese homes are being snapped up by cash buyers to convert into HMOs so the number of homes available to the market is greatly diminished. It鈥檚 not professional landlords coming up from London doing this. It鈥檚 local people,鈥� Holditch explains. 鈥淚n simple terms, people are being priced out. Now, those that wouldn鈥檛 normally need social housing are finding themselves on the housing register, swelling the numbers.鈥�

The severe shortage of homes for Peterborough鈥檚 growing population means that rents have also shot up. Holditch estimates that in the last two years rents have increased by at least 拢100 per month for a typical HMO. The average wage in Peterborough is also below the national, and even regional, average due to the large number of low skilled jobs in the area. 鈥淭he gap between affordability and earnings is just widening and widening,鈥� Holditch says.

Housing associations are not able to offer relief, either. The four based in Peterborough 鈥� Accent Nene, Minster, Axiom and Cross Keys Homes 鈥� are too busy dealing with the increased numbers on the council list to take any action. Cross Keys Homes manages 10,000 homes and has recently borrowed an extra 拢100m to build 1,500 homes. But chief executive Mick Leggett knows that this won鈥檛 solve the affordability crisis. 鈥淲e鈥檙e full up,鈥� he says, throwing his hands in the air. 鈥淭he city is totally full. Only around 0.3% of our properties are empty here. Last year we built the largest number of homes ever in Peterborough, but only 17% of those were affordable. It鈥檚 just not good enough.鈥�

Leggett also admits that the housing associations are not as geared up to help E E migrant workers as they could be. 鈥淭he impact of the migrant workers has not reached our sector yet as they have all gone to private rented homes,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we know that they will probably come as they settle more. We have no set strategy yet but we are working on one.

鈥淲e need to get people working here [at Cross Keys] that speak Portuguese, Polish and Slovakian,鈥� he adds. 鈥淣o one speaks those yet apart from the cleaners. There鈥檚 so much building going on in Peterborough that we should be more welcoming to the migrants, who are doing most of the construction work, so they don鈥檛 go away again and mess up our plans.鈥�

If the migrant workers were to be found homes by housing associations, they would be spread throughout the city. As it is, the majority have so far ended up in the neighbourhoods of Millfield, New England and Dogsthorpe, to the north of the city centre. These areas 鈥� referred to locally as 鈥淥ld Peterborough鈥� 鈥� have become ghettoes of foreigners and resentful natives.

Residents say their area has gone to the dogs. Every week without fail, Holditch receives some 30 letters from locals complaining about the HMOs. 鈥淭hey usually tell me that there are hundreds of people living in this house or that one and that we should go and investigate. Either that, or they鈥檙e complaining that all the foreigners have stolen their homes.鈥� Holditch dutifully dispatches one of his four-strong team to investigate every complaint but, because the government鈥檚 migrant figures fell far short of the reality (see box), his department is grossly under resourced.

There is no doubt that many people living in these HMOs are living in substandard conditions. Kat Chiva, a community development worker at New Link, the council鈥檚 asylum and migrant centre based in Millfield, has heard a constant stream of stories from clients about these appalling conditions.

鈥淚 am told that two or three-bedroom houses can have up to 14 people in them,鈥� she says. 鈥淪ometimes the landlords don鈥檛 even convert the buildings to house more people 鈥� they just let them pile in. I went with a client to view one house and the walls were black, it had damp,E E it stank and looked like it had never been cleaned 鈥� and the landlord wanted 拢60 per week. I wouldn鈥檛 let my dog live in a house like that.鈥�

In one house the walls were black and damp and stank. I wouldn鈥檛 let my dog live in such a house

Kat Chiva, New Link

Still worse, migrants in Peterborough have been living in tents on the banks o f the river Nene after being thrown out of their accommodation when their work contract ran out. They were subsequently re-housed by homelessness officers.

The problem is, the council does not know how many HMOs there are in the city and so cannot control them. Landlords were obliged to register from April 2006 but so far only 200 out of an estimated 900 have done so. Earlier this week, the East of England Regional Assembly organised the first conference bringing together residents and public services, to try to improve the situation for both sides.

In an effort to get more HMO landlords signed up, Holditch and his team attempted to knock on every suspected HMO door, to find out exactly how many people were living there. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 find many true HMOs,鈥� Holditch admits. 鈥淥ften there would be a large number of toothbrushes or pairs of shoes by the door but when they said not all those people lived there 鈥� we couldn鈥檛 argue with that. It is not a problem to the extent the public feel it is, we know that much at least. It鈥檚 very difficult to quantify.鈥�

In an effort to appease the locals, the council asks the migrants to modify their behaviour. 鈥淲e work very hard with the police, asking the migrants not to stand around on the streets and scare the locals,鈥� Holditch says. 鈥淚f we get a complaint from a long-term resident, we take it very seriously.鈥�

The solution, Legett and everyone else working in housing in Peterborough knows, is to regenerate Old Peterborough. The neighbourhoods need sprucing up, he says, which would attract a mix of tenures and nationalities, and make them a pleasant place for everyone to live in again. But this just isn鈥檛 feasible. Despite the HMOs鈥� grotty appearances, demand has pushed house prices in the area unnaturally high. This makes it hard to attract outside private investment, Leggett explains, as well as making it too expensive to compulsorily purchase particularly shabby properties.

There is, however, plenty of private outlay at the other end of town in the Hampton district to the south of the city centre. Here, thousands of homes are being built by developers such as George Wimpey, Bovis Homes and David Wilson as part of the government鈥檚 expansion plans for Peterborough. An integrated growth study report by Arup earlier this month recommended that 25,000 homes be built in Peterborough by 2026 鈥� around 1,300 units per year.

Rivett knows that these new homes, a large proportion of which will be for families, will only go a certain way to solving Peterborough鈥檚 housing crisis. A recent analysis of the housing register revealed that over 55% of applicants required a one-bedroom unit, up from around a third a few years ago. The Hampton homes are also priced well outside the migrant workers affordability range 鈥� a three-bedroom home costs on average 拢215,000.

But it is not just the lack of homes that is the problem. It is the shortfall in funding from central government to deal with the sheer number of people. Sorting out the population figures, and the corresponding funding, is Holditch鈥檚 number one priority. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 plan services because we don鈥檛 know who we鈥檝e got here,鈥� he laments. 鈥淭he problem has been there have been so many so fast. And coaches arrive here every day direct from Poland full of people. I see it with my own eyes. It鈥檚 out of control and our services can鈥檛 cope. We鈥檙e the ones working on the ground. We know how hard it is.鈥�