More is less
Posted: January 29, 2014 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Housing benefit, Social housing | Tags: Affordable Housing Programme | Leave a commentThere are at least three contrasting and sometimes conflicting imperatives at the heart of the prospectus for the Affordable Homes Programme published this week.
The first (let’s call it the HCA one) is a pragmatic desire to do more with less in difficult circumstances. The second (the political one) is the imperative of big numbers to be able to quote in press releases and in parliament. The third (the ideological one) is a determination to exploit these circumstances to accelerate the slow death of social housing. Amid the tensions between these three aims several vital issues are barely addressed or else ducked completely.
Taking the pledge
Posted: January 27, 2014 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Housebuilding, Housing benefit, Social housing | Tags: Ed Balls, Labour | Leave a commentThe weekend’s big speech by Ed Balls looks like significant news for housing under a future Labour government – and not just for the obvious reasons.
The national headlines from the shadow chancellor’s speech to the Fabian conference were taken by his pledge to restore the 50p rate of tax and subsequent accusations that Labour is therefore anti-business. The undoubtedly good news for housing was that it will be ‘a central priority’ if Labour wins power in 2015.
But it was Balls’s message about ‘fiscal discipline’ that was more interesting to me:
‘We won’t be able to reverse all the spending cuts and tax rises that the Tories have pushed through. We will have to govern with less money, which means the next Labour government will have to make cuts too. No responsible Opposition can make detailed commitments and difficult judgments about what will happen in two or three years time without knowing the state of the economy and public finances that we will inherit.
‘But we know we will face difficult choices. The government’s day-to-day spending totals for 2015/16 will be our starting point. There will be no more borrowing for day-to-day spending. Any changes to the current spending plans for that year will be fully-funded and set out in advance in our manifesto.’
While you were away
Posted: January 2, 2014 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Bedroom tax, Help to Buy, Housebuilding, Housing benefit, Housing market, Right to buy, Social housing | Tags: David Cameron, government guidance, House of Commons, housing market, housing supply, James Meek | Leave a commentNot everything stops for Christmas and New Year. I’ve just written a post for Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing, on what’s happened in housing over the break.
The post features government guidance on housing allocations for local people, a House of Commons Library note on housing supply, an FT report on David Cameron’s fading interest in garden cities, a 5 Live programme on the housing market in 2014, James Meek’s London Review of Books essay on housing plus the latest on the bedroom tax.
Read more here.
10 things about 2013: part 1
Posted: December 23, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing benefit, Legal, Local government, Social housing, Welfare reform, Welfare state | Tags: Grant Shapps | Leave a commentThe first of a two-part look back about the issues and people that I’ve been blogging about this year.
1) The year of the bedroom tax
Thinking back to the beginning of January it was obvious that the under-occupation penalty would be a huge issue for housing in 2013. What soon became clear was that it would go mainstream in the national media and parliament too. The closer we got to implementation in April, the more scrutiny it received, and the more that happened the clearer the unfairness and the contradictions at the heart of the policy came into focus. All the attention seemed at first to take the government by surprise too. It wasn’t until February that Grant Shapps came up with the government’s preferred term: the spare room subsidy. That prompted me to blog about the battle of language on the issue and in the wider debate about welfare/social security.
Mark their words
Posted: December 19, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing benefit, Social housing | Leave a commentThe postcode lottery facing disabled applicants for discretionary housing payments (DHPs) revealed today may be shocking but is it so surprising?
A survey by the National Housing Federation found that 29 per cent of disabled victims of the bedroom tax were denied DHPs by councils around the country.
But freedom of information requests revealed huge variation around the country, with the proportion of disabled people making successful applications as low as one in seven in parts of Kent and less than three in ten in North East Derbyshire, Basildon, Rotherham and parts of Lancashire.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Free exchange
Posted: December 11, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Housebuilding, Planning, Social housing | Tags: George Osborne, Nick Boles, Policy Exchange | Leave a commentAlex Morton’s move from Policy Exchange to the No 10 Policy Unit is a powerful symbol of something – but what exactly?
For some it’s a signal of a ‘housing dream team’, with Morton joining Nick Boles in a push to take the Yes to Homes message to the heart of government. Boles is of course planning minister but he was also the first director of the organisation dubbed ‘David Cameron’s favourite think tank’.
And it’s not just them either. Boles was succeeded as director by Anthony Browne, now Boris Johnson’s adviser for economic development, and Browne was succeeded by Neil O’Brien, who is now a special adviser to George Osborne. Three other alumni became Conservative MPs in 2010.
For others it will seem more like housing’s worst nightmare. Morton has developed some controversial as well as influential ideas and now the Exchangers are now well placed in No 10, the Treasury, the DCLG and the main city with a housing problem.
Running on empty
Posted: November 20, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing benefit, Social housing, Wales | Leave a commentAs the bedroom tax celebrates its debut in the Oxford English Dictionary, there is new evidence today that it is creating empty homes rather than removing ‘spare’ bedrooms.
A survey published by Community Housing Cymru (CHC) today suggests that the first six months of the under-occupation penalty have cost more than 1,000 affordable homes in Wales.
Welsh housing associations say they have 727 homes standing empty as a result the policy. Meanwhile 78 per cent have seen an increase in their rent arrears, with over £1 million attributed to the bedroom tax. Some 51 per cent of tenants are paying the shortfall, 37 per cent are part-paying and 12 per cent are not paying at all.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
The bedroom tax: the day after
Posted: November 13, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing benefit, Social housing, Welfare reform | Tags: bedroom tax vote | Leave a commentYesterday’s bedroom tax vote has left me wondering if our political system is capable of righting what is such an obvious wrong.
A Labour motion calling for immediate repeal was defeated by 26 votes – a narrower margin than the government might have expected – while a government amendment effectively saying it is all Labour’s fault passed by 31 votes. Could things have been different?
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Drawing the line
Posted: October 30, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Affordable housing, Shared ownership, Social housing, Squatting | Tags: asset management, council house, social cleansing | Leave a commentWhere does sensible asset management stop and social cleansing begin?
That’s the issue highlighted for me by the sale of ‘Britain’s most expensive council house’ and the protest that followed.
I put that in inverted commas because I’m not sure the building near Borough Market in Southwark was actually being used as a house but what is clear that it was sold at auction for £2.96 million, 30 per cent more than was expected last week.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
One direction
Posted: October 22, 2013 | Author: julesbirch | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Social housing | Leave a commentThe line-up of the band may change but the ministerial song remains the same at the Communities and Local Government department.
Parliamentary questions yesterday brought the first chance to see new boys Kris Hopkins and Stephen Williams perform alongside Nick Boles, Brandon Lewis and the ageing star Eric Pickles. After poor Mark Prisk was told he had to ‘step aside for a younger generation’ only to find that his replacement was just a year younger, I can’t help thinking of them as a boy band (the two female CLG ministers are both in the Lords).
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
