2,000 Birmingham Households Moved To B&Bs Up To 100 Miles Away

Almost 2,000 Birmingham households have been moved by the council up to 100 miles away in the last five years as a result of the chronic shortage of social housing. Birmingham City Council says vulnerable families and individuals made homeless in the city are having to live in temporary accommodation - almost always in ‘bed and breakfasts’ - in cities as far away as Manchester, Nottingham and Leicester. The data underlines how councils are struggling to cope with long waiting lists for social housing, and that the practice of placing people in temporary accommodation outside of their home area has now stretched beyond London. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/birmingham-temporary-accommodation_uk_5af3269be4b0a0d601e94325

House Prices Set To Increase Up To 7%

House price growth across the UK’s biggest cities is set to be stronger this year than previously predicted, according to an index. Values across the 20 biggest cities are now expected by property analysts Hometrack to increase by 6 per cent to 7 per cent over the course of 2017, higher than its previous prediction of 4 per cent made in December 2016. Continued robust house price growth in large and vibrant regional cities, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, despite uncertainty over Brexit, is behind the raised expectations. Read more on the Independent website.

Housing Crisis: More Than 200,000 Homes In England Lie Empty

More than 200,000 homes in England with a total value of £43bn were empty for at least six months during 2016 despite the desperate shortage of properties to rent and buy. According to official figures, Birmingham was the worst affected city outside London with 4,397 empty homes worth an estimated £956m, followed by Bradford and Liverpool. The wealthy borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with 1,399 empty homes worth £664m, was the worst performer in London as super-rich owners rejected renting them out or selling up in favour of leaving their properties lying idle. Read more on the Guardian website.

Buy-To-Let Hotspots Revealed

Landlords looking to invest in buy-to-let properties are still flocking to the capital, as London sits at the top of a list of UK hotspots. It's closely followed by Birmingham and Bristol in the top 20 areas where buy-to-let properties have been bought in the last year, according to data from Barclays Mortgages. Nottingham, Manchester and Leeds also saw a big jump in demand. London landlords also unsurprisingly get the biggest monthly rental revenues, with an average income of £1,900 per month. However, while Barclays highlighted rental amounts, it failed to drill down into the yields on offer - rental return as a percentage of purchase price.  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Council in 'Social Cleansing' Row

A London council has been accused of “bribery” and “social cleansing” after it was revealed that it had offered council tenants up to £7,000 to move to Birmingham. The Tory-led council of Wandsworth in south London sent a letter to social tenants last week informing them that they could have “access to a garden” and “a private driveway” if they chose to move away from London. It said it would pay tenants £3,500 for a two-bedroom property, £4,000 for a three-bedroom property and £5,000 for four- and five-bedroom properties, as well as help with removal costs up to £2,000. Read more on the Guardian website.

Birmingham's Empty Homes Success Is a Nice Little Earner

Birmingham City Council has boasted that it success in bringing 1,400 privately owned empty properties back into use has given the city's housing stock a "massive boost" and brought financial gains too. The decision taken by the council to remove the Council Tax exemption for empty homes has meant that in 2013/14 Birmingham generated £777,000 of additional charges via the empty property premium. And by bringing the properties back into use, the city will also receive an additional £1.8 million, included in the overall New Homes Bonus of £4.6 million in 2014-15. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Council Considers Building Bungalows to Free Up Family Homes

Birmingham Council is considering building bungalows to free up family-sized homes in the city in the wake of a successful pilot scheme. The city began building 25 bungalows across two sites in 2012, in a bid to encourage elderly tenants to move out of their family-sized homes. With the project nearing completion, the council has filled 24 of the homes and is considering a programme of 50 bungalows a year to help tenants hit by the bedroom tax. Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Set To Approve Raft of Housing Measures

Birmingham City Council is set to approve a raft of housing measures including building new council homes, improving existing council housing and procuring new repair and maintenance contracts for council housing. The council's cabinet is set to approve the full business case for the construction of 106 council houses for rent today.  The opportunity to continue the council’s housing development programme through the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) is due to procurement efficiencies and the availability of a windfall grant from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). As well as providing more affordable houses for rent, the scheme will boost the economy and support the further creation of training and apprenticeship places. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

'Move To Birmingham' City Council Tells Tenant

People in Oxford in urgent need of housing are being offered properties as far away as Cardiff and Birmingham by council officials. Single mothers with nowhere permanent to live are among those who have been told they will have to relocate out of the county if they want city council help to find a house. People on benefits who are being priced out of Oxford’s private rented market are having to turn to the council for assistance. And officials say landlords are turning them down – leaving them with no choice but to sometimes look further afield for accommodation. Read more on the Oxford Times website.

Councils Call For Tougher Antisocial Behaviour Powers

Urban councils in England are calling for more powers to tackle deliberate and persistent antisocial behaviour. They want the automatic power of arrest for repeat offenders. They claim antisocial individuals and groups, in particular those who beg, have been allowed to "cause havoc".  In a letter to the government, Birmingham, Nottingham, Slough, Southampton and City of Westminster councils criticised plans to replace antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs). Read more on the BBC website.

Londoners Housed Outside Capital Doubles

London boroughs have more than doubled the number of homeless families they are placing outside the capital as a result of the soaring costs of private rented accommodation. Unpublished documents by London Councils reveal that in the past 12 months to June, 789 households have been housed in 69 local authority areas as far flung as Manchester, Birmingham, Swansea and Accrington. In the first quarter of 2012/13 just 113 people were placed outside London. But figures for the first quarter of 2013/14 show this figure rocketed 129 per cent to 259. Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North, said: ‘This suggests the crisis of affordability is rippling out across the outer boroughs. It is hard to see how local authorities can avoid this trend accelerating rapidly [when the overall benefit cap hits].” Read more on Inside Housing.

Project to Tackle Young Tenants' Debt Problems

Over 6,000 young social housing tenants in Birmingham are to be targeted by a project designed to prevent them from spiralling into debt. Run by Ashram Housing Association in partnership with Birmingham City Council, St Basils, Birmingham’s Social Housing Partnership, Groundwork West Midlands and others, 'Pay Ahead, Stay Ahead’ is aimed at 16-24 year olds.  It is hoped the scheme will teach the young tenants how to manage their finances with confidence, including how to save and budget before they hit crisis point. Read more on 24dash.

Make Half a Million Social Homes into Co-Operatives

A new report by Birmingham-based thinktank the Human City Institute proposes to extend mutualism across the housing sector, through the creation of more co-operatives in existing social housing stock and community land trusts. The report found co-operative housing has higher levels of housing management performance and tenant satisfaction, and is more effective in building social capital and creating stronger communities. Co-operative housing accounts for between 5%-15% of housing in Europe, but in the UK this figure is only 1%. The report recommends bringing the UK's figure more in line with Europe through the mutualisation of at least 500,000 social homes. Download the report from the Human City website.

Evicted Young Mothers May Be Rehoused 200 Miles Away

Twenty-nine young single mothers facing eviction from the UK's largest hostel for homeless young people in London have been told they may be rehoused as far away as Manchester, Birmingham and Hastings as a result of cuts and welfare reforms. The exodus, which represents potentially one of the largest displacements of vulnerable people since the coalition's social security reform programme began, was triggered after housing support funding for young parents at Focus E15, a specialist hostel in east London, was cut by Newham council.  Read more on the Guardian website.

Thousands of Affordable Homes Axed

Housebuilders and councils in Britain's biggest cities are failing to comply with affordable housing targets, and even ripping up legal commitments to build cheaper homes. A three-month study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for Society Guardian has established that 60% of the biggest housing developments currently in the planning system are falling short of local affordable housing targets, preventing thousands of cheaper homes being built. The investigation reveals huge cuts to the proportion of affordable housing in one of the largest housing projects and how none of Birmingham's biggest housing developments meet its 35% affordable housing target. Read more on the Guardian website.

Homeless Households 'Off the Radar' Of Public Services

Homeless households are being sent out of London to bed and breakfast hotels as far away as Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds without the councils they are moving to knowing that they are there, a Guardian investigation can reveal. Councillors and housing campaigners warn that the failure to inform receiving boroughs of the new arrivals could put vulnerable families at "urgent risk".  Last year, 580 homeless households were sent out of London into temporary accommodation, according to research by the housing charity Shelter. Newham council, in east London, has been sending homeless households to the Bailey hotel in Birmingham since last year, possibly longer. But a Birmingham city council spokesman says it has no knowledge of these households and has received nothing from Newham. He describes these families as "completely off the radar" of public services.  Read more on the Guardian website.

36 Councils Call On Government to Abolish Bedroom Tax

Councillors representing 36 local authorities have urged the government to abolish its controversial bedroom tax policy. At a special summit held at Manchester Town Hall, Labour councillors representing Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Birmingham, Nottingham and 31 other cities outlined the damage they believe is being caused by the under-occupancy policy.  The participating councils also agreed to work with housing organisations on a set of interventions to support residents who get into financial difficulty as a result of the government's changes to housing benefit.  A detailed report on the meeting's findings will be sent to the government in the coming weeks. Read more on 24dash.

Council Wants Own £2m Bedroom Tax Support Pot

Birmingham Council will write to Eric Pickles to ask for permission to create a £2 million discretionary housing payment fund in its own housing revenue account. The council has already awarded 887 DHP payments to tenants hit by the bedroom tax. This has used up £300,000 of the £716,000 the DWP has suggested the council set aside from its £3.8 million DHP allocation to help tenants affected by the under-occupation penalty.  Although the council is allowed to increase its total DHP funding pot to £9.4 million through its general fund, it says this is difficult due to budget pressures.  Instead, it wants to set up a £2 million DHP pot in the separate HRA, but this requires a direction from the secretary of state for communities and local government. Read more on Inside Housing.

Landlord Finds Just 6% of Tenants Will Downsize

A survey of residents by a Birmingham-based housing association has found that only 6 per cent intend to move to a smaller house as a result of the ‘bedroom tax’.  The figure is more than four times fewer than the number the Department of Work and Pensions predicted would move when it carried out an impact assessment into the under-occupation penalty in 2011. Castle Vale Community Housing Association visited the 500 of its 2,500 tenants that will be affected and found that the vast majority - 88 per cent - would try to make up for the shortfall in housing benefit that will be applied by them having spare bedrooms.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Forced To Withdraw Local Plan

Coventry Council has been forced to withdraw its local plan after an inspector found it had not ‘engaged constructively’ with neighbouring local authorities on housing numbers and had breached legal requirements.  The Council has published a letter it had received from the government’s Planning Inspectorate which stated that its plan ‘does not meet the legal requirements of the 2004 Act in that council has not engaged constructively with neighbouring local planning authorities on the strategic matter of the number of houses proposed in the plan’. As a result, the Council must look again at evidence for how many homes it thinks it will need before 2028, alongside its neighbouring councils such as Birmingham Council.  Read more on Inside Housing.