From reputation building to building affordable housing
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For a year now, the Rural Services Network has been running a campaign for fairer funding for rural authorities: the campaign – their point being that councils such as East Devon District Council, like other rural councils, suffer from the current funding formula which disproportionately favours urban councils. And only last month, Devon County Council complained it is set to lose £10 million from the 2025/26 grant settlement.
Certainly the councils in Devon are not under the same debt burden as their urban counterparts – with the press today asking how far in the red is YOUR council? – and making comparisons between council debt across the country.
Here’s a chart from today’s Mail:

In the same vein, a local commentator makes this point:
“I suppose in a way EDDC have done well to only have this amount of borrowing after all they spent on the new Council Offices. But really, in my opinion, councils now spend on things which are not stuff I expect my council to provide. I wish they would just do their core tasks properly and stop all the posturing and reputation building and waste!”
Of course, the district council spent heavily on its Knowle relocation project – certainly part of its ‘posturing and reputation building’.
The question is what we mean by ‘core tasks’ for any council…
There has been a lot of talk about “shaking up local government” and who will manage what here in East Devon and Sidmouth – with the district council trying to give responsibility for assets/liabilities such as public toilet provision to the town council – but hanging onto money-spinners such as car parks and beach huts.
And only in the last day there have been a few stories about councils spending funds on affordable housing.
In Northleigh in the Upper Coly Valley, there has been a start on site for new affordable homes – “made possible thanks to funding from Homes England, East Devon District Council and Teign Housing.”
And in Torquay, hotels are to be turned into affordable homes – thanks to the council’s Hotels to Homes scheme, support from a £3m UK government grant, and investment from the Devon and Torbay Devolution Deal, along with investment by Torbay Council.
However, councils are very much dependent on developers – and so we learn this week that there will be no affordable homes in major Exeter waterside development plans because of claims that the costs of dealing with the brownfield site are just too much.
Perhaps, then a solution to our housing problems might be to give councils powers to buy land. Or, as another local commentator asks:
“Why doesn’t the district council borrow the money to buy up the land banks accumulated by the big builders which make up Sidmouth’s housing allocations – and build some social housing?!”
Which would certainly push up the amount of public debt – but would it fulfil a ‘core task’ for the council?
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