Posted: December 31, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing associations, Housing benefit, Local government, Pay to stay, Poverty, Right to buy, Scotland, Social housing, Tax credits, Wales |
Originally published on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
My look back at the year in housing on my blog concludes with five more big issues including the future of social landlords, welfare reform and poverty. For Part 1 go here.
6) Wrong or right to buy
Nothing sums up how just much turned on the election result as what happened with the Right to Buy. In February I blogged about the clarification that meant even fewer homes sold under the existing policy were being replaced than previously thought. April brought a buccaneering Tory pledge to extend it to housing association tenants and fund it by forcing councils the sell their ‘expensive’ stock. It was hard to see how it could possibly stack up except as a political gimmick but that was pretty much the point. It was an eye-catching election promise by a party desperate for victory and it seemed designed as a manifesto commitment that could be traded away in coalition negotiations.
Except that it worked. The Tories were unexpectedly elected with an overall majority and the mash-up of think tank proposals written on the back of an envelope somehow had to be implemented. The results would be disastrous for local authorities and the government faced a long battle in the House of Lords. And then everything changed all over again as the most vociferous opponents of the policy decided to accept it voluntarily.
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Posted: December 30, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Buy to let, Help to Buy, Home ownership, Housebuilding, Housing market, Pay to stay, Private renting, Social housing, Starter homes | Tags: Housing and Planning Bill |
Originally posted on December 30 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
Has there ever been a year quite like it for housing? Here’s the first part of my look back at the issues I’ve been blogging about in 2015.
1) Be careful what you wish for
It was the year that Homes for Britain became Home Ownership for Britain as political campaigning turned into political salvaging. Housing professionals made their case from Land’s End to London, filled the Albert Hall and secured wide ranging support for its case for more homes. But the election result changed all that – and many of them had booed the representative of the party that won.
True, housing and the need for new homes moved up the political agenda as the year went on but not quite in the way campaigners had imagined. As the election neared the Tories promised a ‘housing revolution’. What amounted to Plan C, the third revolution in five years, took a poor record on supply, and traded it in for what amounted to homes for votes on a grand scale. The campaigners who had filled the Albert Hall found themselves facing the extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
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Posted: December 21, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bed and breakfast, Homelessness, Tenants | Tags: Chris Holmes, Shelter |
Originally posted on December 21 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
When Chris Holmes died this time last year we lost one of our most passionate advocates for better housing and against homelessness
A collection of essays in his memory published today reflects on an extraordinary career that spanned the voluntary sector, local government, housing associations, co-operatives and community activism as well as roles advising central government and on housing commissions. That combination of campaigning, policy, politics and practice is rare enough in any career but the essays also reveal a bigger story (much of it new to me) about what can be achieved with the right mix of principles, purpose and pragmatism. ‘Furious commitment’ is what Jeremy Swain calls this ability to go beyond outrage and get things done.
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Posted: December 17, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Social housing |
Originally posted on December 17 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
So here it is, sneaked out on the last day of the parliamentary year: the independent evaluation of the bedroom tax (or removal of the spare room subsidy).
This is the final report to complement the interim evaluation that the DWP just happened to publish on the day of the Cabinet reshuffle in July 2014. Its conclusions were subsequently used by the Liberal Democrats to withdraw their support from the controversial policy under the coalition.
The evaluation was only commissioned in the first place to comply with a House of Lords amendment to the Welfare Reform Act. This final report covers the first 20 months of the policy up to November 2014, making me wonder just how long the DWP has been sitting on it.
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Posted: December 15, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Housing associations, Local government, Pay to stay, Regulation, Right to buy, Social housing | Tags: Brandon Lewis, ONS |
Originally posted on December 15 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
Tuesday morning’s announcement by Brandon Lewis on deregulation of housing associations delivers on the government’s side of The Deal and its pledge to get them reclassified as soon as possible,
However, it also completes the division of what we used to call the housing ‘sector’ into two very different camps: councils forced to do what the government says; and associations giving a new meaning to the ‘voluntary’ sector.
The housing minister told the Communities and Local Government Committee that amendments will be laid to the Housing and Planning Bill aimed at enabling the ONS to re-reclassify housing associations as private sector while maintaining proportionate protection for lenders and tenants.
The biggest move was to make Pay to Stay voluntary for housing associations, which is quite a climbdown. However, the amendments will also include removal of the consents and disposals regimes so that associations no longer have to seek permission of the regulator and the abolition of the disposals proceeds fund so that they no longer have to spend receipts from the right to buy according to criteria set by the regulator. More detail is here.
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Posted: December 9, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Scotland, Social housing, Supporting People, Wales |
Originally posted on December 9 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
In a country not very far away they are doing things differently. Funding for Supporting People (remember that, England?) is protected. Social Housing Grant (remember that?) is increased.
Wales cannot escape the constraints of Westminster-imposed austerity completely – there is also disappointment over a cut in Homelessness Prevention Grant and an announcement on rents policy is still awaited – but the Draft Budget for 2016/16 shows that it continues to go its own way on housing.
Where Supporting People has been savaged in England following the removal of the ringfence, in Wales research has recently demonstrated the positive impact of the programme on the NHS and social services. And a ‘Let’s Carry on Supporting People’ campaign led by Cymorth Cymru and Community Housing Cymru has been successful. The budget for next year will remain at £124.4m.
Where funding for new social housing has been all but abandoned in England, Wales continues to believe in it. Funding will be increased by £5m in 2016/17 to £68.8m.
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Posted: December 4, 2015 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Section 106, Social housing | Tags: Brandon Lewis, Greg Clark |
Originally posted on December 4 on Inside Edge 2, my blog for Inside Housing
First, the good news: new government figures show that the supply of affordable housing is at a 20-year high. The 66,640 homes delivered in 2014/15 represented the highest output since 1995/96 and is among the highest seen since new council housing investment was killed off in the 1980s.
Yes, the surge in output is partly explained by the rush to beat the April 2015 deadline for the 2011-2015 Affordable Homes Programme, but it is still testament to the efforts of everyone involved: housing associations, government agencies, local authorities and housebuilders.
And given the usual doom and gloom on this blog maybe I should even allow ministers a moment in the sun too. Greg Clark and Brandon Lewis were understandably quick to seize on what was also the biggest increase in supply seen since 1992/93, when another Conservative government invested in housing in the wake of the housing market crash. Here’s what Clark had to say for himself:
‘Today’s figures show how far we’ve come to get the country building, bringing the industry back from the brink to deliver the highest annual increase in affordable housebuilding for over two decades. But we are far from complacent and the doubling of government investment in housebuilding announced at the recent Spending Review reaffirms our commitment to deliver a million new homes by 2020. Affordable homes to rent and buy are a key part of that, helping to give young people and families across the country the best possible start in life.’
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Jules Birch 