Don't Believe The Letting Agents: Banning Fees Is Good For Tenants

The government’s decision to ban letting fees to tenants is a victory for the country’s 11m renters, and common sense. It has also enabled the chancellor Philip Hammond to announce what is effectively a several-hundred-pound giveaway for “just about managing” households that, conveniently, doesn’t cost the government anything. One in three private renters move home each year, and upfront fees cost the typical two-adult household £400 when starting a tenancy. Tenants pick a property based on its rent and suitability: they have no say over which agent the landlord appoints to manage the tenancy. As a result agents have a captive market that they can charge whatever they like. This has resulted in fees for the same basic service ranging from £40 to nearly £800. Read more on the City Metric website.

Councils Are Granting Enough Planning Permissions – So Why Aren't We Building Housing?

One of the housing objectives of David Cameron’s government was to increase the amount of land that was permissioned for residential development. The number of units given planning permission in England increased from 176,209 in 2011 to 261,644 in 2015. The planning system is now yielding enough permissions to meet the roughly 250,000 new homes many housing economists think we need to keep up with household growth. This doesn’t mean that they are all in a position to be built out the very next day. But the number of plots approved for residential development in a given year has increased, by 48 per cent between 2011 and 2015. However, starts have risen over the same period by just 26 per cent, from 110,820 in 2011 to only 139,680 in 2015. Read more on the City Metric website.

England’s Population Is Moving To The South

England’s population is shifting further south, according to the latest official population projections. The overall population is growing fast, and growing almost everywhere – but the growth is disproportionately in London and the South East. The Office for National Statistics “Sub-national Population Projections” (SNPP) are the first local breakdown of the official 2014 projection for England’s growth. Today’s new figures – and the household projections that will later be based on them – are hugely important for planning. They frame the debate on where we need to build more homes, and will eventually feed through to the housing targets set in local plans. The last breakdown, two years ago, projected growth almost everywhere, but disproportionately in the South East. These latest projections confirm this trend.  Read more on the City Metric website.

Could Co-Owned Homes Help Solve The Housing Crisis?

Currently, the private rented sector naturally encourages increased rents: as properties are re-let, rents can be set against higher averages. There is also little tenant security.  Under the co-owned model, tenants are central: enterprises provide greater security through long-term lets (although tenants can leave when they want), and affordability, through rents benchmarked to lower market levels and or income levels. Reducing the biggest cost to households – housing – enables people to save (for a deposit, perhaps), and curbs imbalances between tenures. Co-owned housing is not simply a rental optional: it’s a credible alternative to home ownership. It would cater for many Londoners on incomes from £20,000 to £60,000, including the growing army of self-employed. Read more on the CityMetric website.

Here Are Some Possible Solutions To Britain’s Housing Crisis

The housing crisis facing the UK, and particularly London, is rarely out of the news. While those on lower incomes cry out for suitable homes, we’re facing a growing house price bubble, an oversupply of luxury flats, and a government obsessed with home ownership at the expense of renters. The causes are numerous and well-rehearsed; but the solutions are less straightforward. UCL recently gathered an expert panel of housing experts and a number of possible solutions were suggested.

·         Change the tax system to encourage building

·         Designate land use for different types of housing

·         Build on the greenbelt

·         Improve other things that make a house worth living in

·         Mobilise generation rent

Read more details on the CityMetric website.

Britain’s Rural Housing Crisis

There is a major housing crisis in rural England. Allowing people to live close to where they work is critical in rural areas, where public transport links are often poor or non-existent. Without access to housing – especially housing suitable for younger people – rural businesses will struggle to attract quality employees. The crisis holds back economic development, as well as community well-being. Traditionally council houses and housing associations have provided affordable housing. But in villages of fewer than 3,000 people these now represent only 8 per cent of the housing stock (compared to around 20 per cent in urban areas). It is vital that this stock of houses is protected – and the government’s proposed extension of Right to Buy places them at serious risk. Read more on the City Metric website.

Could “Right To Rent” Checks Put Domestic Violence Victims At Risk?

New “right to rent” rules essentially mean landlords must carry out a government-approved check on all prospective tenants to confirm that they have a right to live in the UK.  One group in particular that could suffer under the new rules: domestic violence victims, particularly if they are migrant women. Migrant women in the UK are also not entitled to legal aid, benefits, and may be at a disadvantage with language skills. Migrant women with documents, meanwhile, are likely to have them taken away by controlling partners: hiding a women's passport is a classic abuser tactic, and could affect non-migrants too, since landlords are technically meant to check every tenant's right to rent. Read more on the CityMetric website.

Defining The Problem: How Do We Count Britain's Homeless?

For the thousands of people who are sleeping on the streets or are in temporary accommodation, winter is one of the hardest times of the year. Being able to provide relief during this period depends, at least in part, on understanding how many people are affected by homelessness – and who they are. In the UK, a person is legally defined as homeless if they have accommodation but can’t reasonably be expected to occupy it, or if they don’t have any accommodation at all. But the first thing to know is that there’s a big difference between the number of people who the state recognises as homeless and how many people actually are. This is known as the distinction between the “statutory” homeless, and the “non-statutory” or “single” homeless.  Read more on the City Metric website.

Eight Thoughts On Cameron's £140m “Sink Estate” Revamp Policy

David Cameron has announced plans to spend £140m rebuilding up to 100 of Britain's worst sink estates. Here, in no particular order, are eight thoughts on the plan.

·         Rebuilding some estates is probably a good thing

·         It helps solve the land problem

·         You can probably get more homes on this land than they currently contain

·         The money is a joke

·         So is the commitment to replacement housing

·         Right-to-buy makes this harder

·         It's all a bit utopian

·         These are still people's homes

Read full details on the City Metric website.

Deal Over Right To Buy Could Lead To Privatising Housing Associations

Rather than face the prospect of legislation that would force associations to sell their homes the National Housing Federation, has spent the summer conducting secret negotiations to offer a “voluntary deal” to the government.  There is a great deal of ambiguity about the exact legal status of housing associations – but at present, their £60bn of debt does not sit on the government’s balance sheet. A compulsory Right to Buy scheme could change this forever: if private assets can be forcibly sold, they are clearly not private assets. The government could decide to move to privatise housing associations. The rumour is that investment bank Goldman Sachs has been appointed, to model how a nationalisation and privatisation of housing associations could be carried out.

The NHF believes that introducing a voluntary Right to Buy scheme will avoid compulsion and stave off privatisation. Read more on the CityMetric website.

Most Expensive Council Houses On Sale for £3 Million Each

In late July, two houses in Southwark went on the market for more than £3m each. There's nothing particularly unusual in this – houses sell for a lot more than that in central London. But what made this estate agent listing slightly out of the ordinary is that the two properties are former council houses. Britain's most expensive council houses.  Southwark council put 21 and 23 Park Street up for sale back in 2013, to raise money for new housing stock. The Grade II listed building, which needed £500,000 of work to make it habitable, was snapped up by a developer for £2.96m. The sale sparked an occupation protest in the property, accusations of social cleansing and questions over the ethics of flogging off social housing in expensive parts of London. Read more on the CityMetric website.

Talk Of a National Rent Strike

“As far as I’m concerned, all rent is theft,” says David Dahlborn, union accommodation officer at University College London (UCL). “But we’ll take it one step at a time.” Dahlborn is addressing a meeting led by the Radical Housing Network (RHN), as part of the Brick Lane Debates. We’re here to discuss rent strikes; their feasibility, the legal implications, the practicalities of organising, the possibility of change through a mass refusal to pay landlords. UCL students are doing this right now. Since 8 May, around 60 students have refused to pay rent, on the grounds that conditions are unliveable in halls of residence. The strike has got messy, with the university refusing to meet its demands. Students have been told that, unless they pay, they won’t be allowed to graduate and may be expelled from courses.  Read more on the CityMetric website.