First for Wales

Posted: November 18, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Homelessness, Legal, Private renting, Regulation, Wales | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

Legislation introduced today marks a historic moment for housing in Wales but it has wider significance for the rest of the UK too.

It makes history by becoming Wales’s first Housing Bill since it acquired greater devolved powers. The Housing (Wales) Bill aims to ‘ensure that everyone in Wales is able to access a decent home’ (though ministers behind all Housing Bills everywhere say that). The details are what count and the timing and the context are what create the wider significance. As Carl Sargeant, the Welsh minister for housing and regeneration, puts it: ‘Despite the impact of austerity measures and budget decisions taken by the UK Government, the Welsh Government is determined to improve the supply, quality and standards of housing and the proposals in this Housing Bill are crucial in achieving this.’

Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing

The bedroom tax: only fair to private tenants?

Posted: October 17, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Bedroom tax, Housing benefit, Northern Ireland, Private renting, Social housing, Wales | 10 Comments

Of all the arguments made for the bedroom tax, the most slippery is the one about it being ‘only fair to private tenants’. That should change after an all-party report published this week.

It’s the third and probably least used of three arguments made by ministers for what they call the removal of the spare room subsidy but it’s also the one that has received the least scrutiny.

Read the rest of this entry »

Renting reform

Posted: May 23, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Civil service, Legal, Private renting, Social housing, Wales | Leave a comment

Wales is set to go where England failed to tread on tenancy reform under plans put forward this week.

The Renting Homes white paper published by the Welsh Government is an updated version of the Law Commission proposals that the previous government in England seemed to like at first, then dithered over and finally allowed to lapse at the last election.

So now Wales is set to reap the benefits of two simple and clearly understood forms of tenancy while England continues to cope with a mess of different ones. These are more than just technical, legal changes. The white paper argues that: ‘The current differences between renting a home from a local authority, housing association or private landlord contribute to weaknesses in the way the whole housing system works. Renting a home is not always seen as a good choice. Indeed, it is sometimes considered to be the last option.’

Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing

Worst fears

Posted: February 19, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Wales, Welfare reform | Leave a comment

So the government has finally admitted the potentially devastating consequences of welfare reform in a cumulative impact assessment.

Before anyone starts to think that Iain Duncan Smith has undergone a dramatic change of heart, I should add that I am of course taking about the Welsh government, not the UK one.

The second stage review of the impact of welfare reform in Wales is accompanied by an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) of the effects of welfare reform on labour supply in Wales.

Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing

Newer Entries →