RTB Properties Re-Let Privately Pose ‘Major Challenges’

One of the most contradictory and problematic developments in private renting lies in the growth in Buy to Let tenancies on council estates, a new report says. Published by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the report identifies the anomaly that sees councils housing homeless families in former Right to Buy properties converted to private rental. According to the report, around 40% of all Right to Buy properties are now re-let privately, posing “major challenges” for housing management in driving up Housing Benefit bills and maintenance problems on flatted estates. Download the report, Private Renting: Can social landlords help?, from the LSE website.

http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cr/casereport113a.pdf?from_serp=1

Housing Estates: Regeneration – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what budgets and programmes have been established since 2014 to help the regeneration of council housing estates.  

Baroness Williams of Trafford: A total of £290 million of loan funding has been allocated by the Government to help the regeneration of local authority housing estates. The first tranche of this funding was announced jointly between the Greater London Authority and the Department for Communities and Local Government on 13 June 2014, and the second was announced by the my rt. hon. Friend, the Prime Minister on 11 January 2016.

Savills: Regen Model Could Create 360k Homes

Up to 360,000 extra homes could be created in London by redeveloping council estates to a higher density along street patterns, according to a government-commissioned report, Completing London’s Streets, carried out by consultancy Savills. The report compares a conventional approach to estate renewal, under which estates are replaced with new high-rise blocks, to an alternative ‘complete streets’ model. Under ‘complete streets’ estates are re-built in a street-based pattern. Savills estimates 1,750 hectares of London’s 8,500 council housing estates could be capable of ‘complete streets’ regeneration, leading to an increase in the number of existing homes of between 54,000 and 360,000. The modelling, carried out for the Cabinet Office, was based on a detailed study of six estates in London. Download the report from Savills website.

Cameron's 'Ideas' For Council Estates Are As Ill-Formed As They Are Patronising

Once a decade, whichever party is in power, its leader notices that life on council estates isn’t quite the same as in – say – Chipping Norton. Then they make some noise about sprucing them up a bit. Perhaps the Prime Minister or an adviser saw an estate looking shabby from the train into Paddington station, or maybe in the run-up to last year’s general election they visited one briefly to canvass votes. The PM is to deliver just such a speech having noted that some of the 2011 rioters, apparently lived on estates and promising a paltry £140 million for a spruce up. Given this is to be split across 100 estates, that should allow for a few repainted front doors and giant wheelie bins then. The idea that some estates can be demolished and others rebuilt out of such a miserly sum is simply risible. Read more on the Independent website.