The soul is being ripped out of many residential areas. Social landlords’ sales policies need more scrutiny

This strategy has allowed homes to move among providers and protect social rent in the process.

Each property is sold with the protection of ‘existing use value’, meaning that if it had been sold on the open market, it could have turned into a private let at £850 pcm or a short-term let of around £1,000 per weekend but now retains its social rent status and goes for the much more palatable approximate of £90 a week to a family desperate for stability.

These pepper-potted properties are of particular interest to Arawak Walton as they help the association to knit its stock together to make a bigger impact on areas being lost to the private rented sector.

As we walked the area and viewed various websites, my eyes were opened to the world of ‘party houses’, renovated by developers keen to capitalise on Manchester’s growing popularity as a destination city.

“Manchester has worked hard to push back against the invasion of inappropriate HMOs, but how many housing associations elsewhere are really aware of what happens to the properties they sell on the open market?”

I saw how the soul can be ripped out of traditional working-class areas, not only by large amounts of student housing but also by Airbnb accommodation and the plethora of other online booking platforms. How the glossy websites can mask some pretty unscrupulous practices.

Now that these issues have come to the fore, Manchester has worked hard to push back against the invasion of inappropriate HMOs, but how many housing associations elsewhere are really aware of what happens to the properties they sell on the open market, not just at the point of sale but also three, five, 10 years later?

Are they in the hands of first-time buyers, being thoughtfully and tastefully improved and giving a young family a first step on the housing ladder?

Or are they to be found listed on one of the party house websites? A three bedroom home sleeping 14? With the plaster removed to make it look more edgy (thereby taking out the last vestige of sound insulation), rented out at £1,000 a weekend, rubbish left in the alleyway, sex toys and drug paraphernalia where the kids play on their bikes?

These issues are not exclusive to London and Manchester. Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle and similar have all suffered an influx of such enterprises.

It is obvious that any home that comes onto the market can end up like this, not just the homes that housing associations sell. But at the very least, we need to be aware of, and maybe think twice about, the choices we make.

“It would make so much difference if Homes England grant was available to buy street-front homes”

Arawak Walton, like some other associations, has been buying street-front properties and breathing life back into them, turning them into decent family homes where people can thrive.

But what about the ones that get away? The myriad of private sales that fall into the hands of developers who forge forward with oversized conversions that sit empty for most of the year.

These are often our heartland communities where the workers of the city live, forced into feast or famine scenarios. If the situation continues to escalate, in a few years’ time they could be looking at streets lying half-empty on weekdays, with no neighbours to be seen.

It would make so much difference if Homes England grant was available to buy street-front homes. With grant to purchase from the open market for the purposes of social rent, homes would become part of planned programmes, cyclical maintenance and carbon reduction strategies.

They could form the basis of housing co-operatives, a new generation of community-led housing. The possibilities are endless and, most importantly, they will have families living in them – families with a few extra pounds in their pocket saved on rent, with secure tenure and a stake in the place they live.

Alison Inman, board member, Colne, Saffron and Tpas; former president, CIH; co-founder, SHOUT