Home truths
Posted: October 22, 2012 Filed under: Affordable housing, Housebuilding, Private renting Leave a comment‘We’re not in any way complacent,’ Mark Prisk told the Today programme this morning – having spent his interview being just that.
It’s the first time I’ve caught a media appearance by the successor to Grant Shapps, who was so ever-present in the radio and TV studios that he was dubbed the minister for Daybreak. Prisk is not on twitter either so other than a few brief interviews and a few blogs he is still a bit of a mystery to me.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Rent spiral
Posted: October 19, 2012 Filed under: Housing benefit, Private renting Leave a commentRemember when David Cameron claimed that housing benefit cuts were bringing down rent levels? I bet he doesn’t now either.
Cameron said at prime minister’s questions in January that: ‘What we have seen so far, as housing benefit has been reformed and reduced, is that rent levels have come down, so we have stopped ripping off the taxpayer.’
Read the rest of the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing.
Rogue state
Posted: October 4, 2012 Filed under: Legal, Private renting Leave a commentThere is good news and bad news in a Shelter survey about rogue landlords out today but neither is quite what it appears at first glance.
The bad news is that complaints by tenants to their local authority about their private landlord are up 27 per cent in the last three years.
Worse, of 85,000 complaints in the last 12 months, 62 per cent related to category I and II hazards – things like dangerous electrics and damp that are serious or life-threatening, And there were 781 cases where health services had to get involved because of the behaviour or neglect of private landlords.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Home delivery
Posted: September 5, 2012 Filed under: Housebuilding, Planning, Private renting Leave a commentIt’s still very early days but the appointments of the new ministerial team at the DCLG team are already raising some questions for me.
According the line being spun by the new Conservative chair Grant Shapps on the Today programme this morning, the government is now at the delivery stage. Within that context, new housing minister Mark Prisk’s previous job as construction minister should bode well for the top priority of building more homes. Meanwhile the appointment of Nick Boles as planning minister looks to signal a fresh emphasis on reforming the planning system to boost the economy.
However, a brief look at their track record suggests some intriguing possibilities on policy – as well as some potential tensions. Here are three initial questions that occur to me about the green belt, private rented sector regulation and housebuilding.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing.
Our dysfunctional housing market
Posted: August 27, 2012 Filed under: Housing market, Mortgages, Private renting 5 CommentsAnyone wondering why the housing market is so dysfunctional can find plenty of explanations in figures released over the last few days.
Exhibit one: the Bank of England’s account of the effect its £375 billion (so far) quantitative easing programme. Most of the publicity has gone to the revelation that the richest 5 per cent of the population have gained 40 per cent of the benefits as the result of the way it has inflated the prices of assets like shares. However, it also includes an estimate of the way that borrowers have benefitted at the expense of savers because of record low interest rates. The total impact of lower rates on secured lending (mostly mortgages) is estimated at £94.4 billion since September 2008.
Give Montague a chance
Posted: August 24, 2012 Filed under: Affordable housing, Private renting Leave a commentHere’s why I think the housing backlash against the Montague report is being overdone.
From some of the reactions so far, the review group seem to a bunch of pin-striped latter-day Rachmans intent on squeezing out affordable housing and trousering the profits in between slaughtering the first born and unleashing plague, pestilence and famine.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Rise and fall
Posted: August 10, 2012 Filed under: Housing market, Mortgages, Private renting Leave a commentBehind the good news story of falling mortgage repossessions a different tale is starting to emerge of rising possession actions against tenants.
Figures published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) yesterday showed that its members repossessed 8,500 homes in the three months to June. That was the lowest quarterly total since the final quarter of 2010 and implies that the total for the year is likely to undershoot the CML’s forecast of 45,000.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Letting go
Posted: July 19, 2012 Filed under: Private renting Leave a commentLabour’s plan to regulate letting and managing agents is a good start to its policy review on housing – but no more than a start.
The idea enjoys widespread support – not just from private tenants who are fed up with being ripped off by outrageous fees but from private landlords and reputable agents too. As Labour points out: ‘It’s a peculiarity of current policy that while estate agents, who hold very little money on behalf of their clients, are regulated, letting agents who hold significant sums on behalf of landlords and tenants are not.’
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Plus points
Posted: July 17, 2012 Filed under: Housebuilding, Private renting Leave a commentThis blog has a tendency to be negative at times so I’ve been trying to accentuate the positive ahead of the announcement on housebuilding expected later this week.
The good news is that the government is definitely taking housing seriously. Peter Schofield, director-general of the DCLG, confessed at the CIH conference last month that the Treasury had barely considered housing when it drew up its original plan for growth last year. In the run-up to the growth plan mark 2 and publication of the Montague report on the private rented sector, I’m told that David Cameron has been making the point that ‘all roads lead back to housing’ while Nick Clegg was using housing to rally his party faithful over the weekend at the Social Liberal Forum.
Read the rest of this post at Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing.
Jules Birch 