Young Adults Had To Shelve Homebuying Plans In 2020

A number of young adults had to scrap their plans to buy in 2020, as the number of mortgages available to those with a small deposit diminished, the How We Live study from Aviva found. Last year saw the market lockdown stop house moves in March. Once the market reopened the stamp duty holiday did more to help homemovers and investors than first-time buyers. Almost a third (29%) of under-25s and two fifths (39%) of 25–34-year-olds had their home buying plans thwarted. Meanwhile seven in 10 (69%) potential first-time buyers rethought their homebuying plans. Read more on Property Wire.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/lots-of-young-adults-had-to-shelve-homebuying-plans-in-2020/

Scrap Benefit Cap To Avoid Eviction Crisis, Labour Tells Government

Ministers must scrap the benefit cap to avoid an eviction crisis when the ban extension ends, Labour has said. Shadow employment minister Seema Malhotra has written to the government demanding figures on how many households caught by the benefit cap are at risk of eviction once the current moratorium ends on 20 September. Figures released earlier this month showed that the number of households caught by the cap nearly doubled between February and May up to more than 150,000. Read more on the Labourlist website.

https://labourlist.org/2020/08/labour-calls-on-government-to-scrap-benefits-cap-to-stop-evictions-crisis/

Election 2019: Reports Labour Will ‘Drop Right-To-Buy Plan’

A report published over the weekend suggests Labour has dropped its controversial plan to offer tenants the right to buy their privately rented homes. The Financial Times reported the party has decided to abandon the plan amid fears the policy was ‘not workable’. It attributes the claims to “party figures familiar with its UK election manifesto”. Writing about the process of drawing up Labour’s manifesto, the paper goes on to say: “Senior figures involved in the process said that the private right to buy, floated by Mr McDonnell two months ago, had been dropped. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/election-2019-reports-labour-will-drop-right-to-buy-plan/

Plan For 25,000 Homes Must Be Scrapped Say Government Inspectors

Plans to build 25,000 homes in North Somerset need 'rewriting' after Government inspectors ruled council officers must go back to the drawing board. The process to create the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) must be restarted and will take years to complete, according to planning inspectors. The inspectors dramatically called a halt to meetings after identifying 'significant concerns' with the plan. In a letter the inspectors told the West of England authorities they could not be certain the sites had not been determined on a 'robust, consistent and objective' basis. Read more on the North Somerset Times website.

https://www.northsomersettimes.co.uk/news/inspectors-call-for-jsp-to-be-scrapped-1-6273057

Council Tenants On Universal Credit 16 Times More Likely To Abandon Tenancies

Council tenants on Universal Credit are 16 times more likely to abandon their tenancies and three times more likely to be evicted than those receiving housing benefit, a new report has indicated. A survey of local authority landlords by the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) also revealed that the new welfare system is costing councils hundreds of thousands of pounds in extra housing management spending. It showed that two-thirds (67%) of council tenants receiving Universal Credit are currently in rent arrears, owing an average of £564 – equivalent to seven weeks’ rent. In comparison, 21% of households on housing benefit are in arrears, owing £221. Download the report from the ARCH website.

http://www.arch-housing.org.uk/media/130243/arch_nfa_universal_credit_survey_2019_v4_web.pdf

Towerblock Residents Fear Cladding Nightmare Will Continue

Residents of towerblocks covered in flammable cladding still fear being made either homeless or bankrupt after being “abandoned by the government” despite minsters pledging £200 million to remove Grenfell Tower-style dangerous material. Campaigner Ritu Saha has told HuffPost UK that her south London high-rise is one of potentially scores will be excluded from the fund after the Tory U-turn, meaning months of anxiety, illness and financial pain will continue as their homes remain unsellable. Read more on the Huff Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cladding-residents-fears_uk_5ccb1497e4b0d123954fecad?guccounter=1

Government To Drop Plans To Create A National Tenant Voice

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has decided not to pursue a national tenants’ group, it is believed. 24housing has learned the government is due to drop the idea, first pitched in the Social Housing Green Paper. Although a discussion paper, the tenant voice was widely believed to be a key pillar of government housing plans. It is now thought government ministers will be conducting their own roadshows, as was used in the creation of the Green Paper. There is concern this will result in key issues, such as welfare reform, being ignored. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-to-drop-plans-to-create-a-national-tenant-voice/

Almost Half Of All House Sales Failed In Q4 2018

Newly released data from independent home buyer, Quick Move Now, has revealed that almost half of all house sales in England and Wales fell through before completion in the final quarter of 2018. According to the data, although the fourth quarter figure of 49.8 percent is a sharp rise from the third quarter figure of 28.3 percent, the annual fall through rate for 2018 remained steady at 30.6 percent - just one percent higher than the 2017 annual fall through rate. This shows that, although 2018 was somewhat of an uncertain year for the UK Property market, overall the number of sales falling through before completion remained fairly consistent. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/almost-half-of-all-house-sales-failed-in-q4-2018.html

Policy Change Soon? Minister Meets Buy To Let Tax Campaigners

Housing minister Gavin Barwell has met campaigners to scrap anti-buy to let measures introduced by the Cameron government in the past two years - and won their praise for his handling of the meeting.  Landlords have been campaigning for around a year for the scrapping of section 24 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2015 which they describe as an infringement on buy to let investors’ rights. A hearing to decide whether they can trigger a Judicial Review into the specifics of the clause - which restricts mortgage interest relief for landlords - will be heard next month. Read more on the Estate Agent Today website.

Council Rejects Landlord Licensing Plan

Wandsworth Council has abandoned plans to introduce landlord licensing.At a meeting to discuss the issue the authority noted that as there had been a reduction in the number of complaints about PRS homes and a high level of tenant satisfaction there was no evidence to justify bringing in additional or selective licensing. As an alternative it has come up with a 10-point plan to tackle criminal landlords and regulate the PRS using existing powers. These are:

·         Prioritising housing enforcement in the wards with the most complaints

·         Setting up targeted action days

·         Streamlining administration support so officers can concentrate on landlord / tenant activity

·         Improving information and advice on the council’s website

·         Reviewing processes for serving legal notices

Read the other five on the RLA website.

Housing Benefit Cuts 'Risk Damaging UK's International Reputation'

Theresa May risks damaging Britain's international reputation if she fails to scrap housing benefit cuts facing the disabled, veterans and other vulnerable people, Labour has claimed. Shadow communities secretary Grahame Morris warned ministers they must go further and reverse the planned changes to supported housing scheme funding. He warned the cuts will "jeopardise the safety" of people fleeing domestic violence and also affect the elderly, people mental health difficulties and the homeless. Mr Morris said a failure to change the policy would raise serious questions about the new Government's priorities while also accusing them of "breaking the covenant with our veterans".  Read more on the Liverpool Echo website.

Tories Ban Scheme Which Offers Residents A Council House For Life

The Tories are quietly banning a scheme which offers poor residents a council house for life. Lifelong secure tenancies - which meant tenants could keep council homes until they died and hand them on to their children - will be phased out in the Housing and Planning Bill. Instead councils will only be allowed to offer secure tenancies of two to five years and 'review' the tenant's circumstances before deciding whether to kick them out. When children or other relatives apart from a spouse inherit a tenant's home, the tenancy will be capped at five years - after which it could be handed on to someone else. Labour's shadow housing minister John Healey blasted the move. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Residents And Landlords Need Flexibility On Tenancies

If plans to scrap lifetime tenancies for new social housing tenants go ahead, landlords must be given the flexibility to support different tenants in different areas. It is vital that decisions about how fixed term tenancies are used can be made locally.  A strength of the current voluntary system is that it has allowed individual landlords to consider local circumstances and to use fixed terms to work towards a variety of different objectives in different areas. If the government is going to make the use of fixed terms mandatory, it is essential that it does so in a way that retains as much local flexibility as possible. This should also include some local flexibility to identify exceptions as, undoubtedly, there will be occasions where it is simply much more appropriate to continue using lifetime tenancies. For example, this might help to make downsizing into sheltered housing a more attractive option for some. Read more on the CIH website.

Government Plans To Scrap Lifetime Tenancies

The government is planning to scrap lifetime tenancies for new social housing tenants in favour of fixed-term contracts. Under government plans, social landlords would no longer be able to automatically issue tenancies on a lifetime basis and would instead be forced to offer fixed-term lets for prospective tenants. Since 2012, councils and housing associations have been able to offer five-year fixed-term tenancies to new tenants. However, according to official figures, just 13% of new general needs social housing lets were made on a fixed-term basis in 2014/15, compared with 9% in 2013/14. Read more on the Independent website.

Benefit Cut Could Force Social Landlords to Turn Tenants Away

David Cameron’s pledge to cut the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000 if the Conservatives win the next election could force housing associations to turn away families in need of social housing. Chief executives of two major housing associations warned that the cut would jeopardise their tenants’ ability to pay rent, putting their main source of steady income at risk. Mick Sweeney, chief executive of One Housing Group said associations may be forced to abandon plans to build much-needed new homes as result of the change. They may also have to turn away certain tenants, he added. “We’re going to have to say, if they’re wholly benefit-dependent and they can’t afford even the sub-market or social rents that we’re charging, [then] we can’t house you,” he said. Elizabeth Austerberry, chief executive of Moat  said that rent was the biggest source of steady income for associations. Rental streams are already placed under threat by the introduction of universal credit. Read more on the Guardian website.

Developer to Fight Commitments to Build Affordable Homes

A developer has announced that it must abandon commitments it made to build new affordable housing alongside a number of construction schemes. Sandhurst New Homes says it will scrap plans to build 100 flats across four sites in Essex if it can't renege on the section 106 agreements it signed up to when it originally applied for permission. The developer has claimed that it is no longer economically viable for it to build the affordable housing, and is attempting to use new legislation to escape its section 106 commitments. Read more on 24dash.

Top Tories Try to Torpedo Green Deal

Leading Tories believe the £14 billion “Green Deal” must be ditched because it risks leaving key “squeezed middle” voters out of pocket by several thousands of pounds.  Under the Green Deal, millions of householders would be encouraged to install energy-saving home improvements such as loft insulation or cavity wall insulation, with no up-front charge.  The work would be funded with loans of up to £10,000 which would be paid back though a surcharge on household energy bills.  Many ministers have long been sceptical of the scheme.  However, their mood has hardened into outright opposition following revelations this week of a new stealth “conservatory tax” faced by householders, estimated at adding around 10 per cent to the total bill for improvements. Under the proposal, those who wanted to extend their homes – or undertake repairs – would be required to sign up to the Green Deal as a condition of gaining planning permission for the work.  The group of ministers, which includes Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps, want the Government to abandon not just the compulsory “tax” element of the scheme, but the entire Green Deal.  Read more on the Telegraph website.