Leaseholders Of Flats Face £40,000 Bills Over Grenfell Type Cladding

Residents of 80 flats whose freeholds are managed by a company owned by David Cameron’s half brother-in-law are each facing bills of up to £40,000 because the building is clad with flammable panels similar to those used on Grenfell Tower, in London. Leaseholders of the Sesame apartments in Battersea, south London, fear they are trapped in unsellable homes and William Astor’s company claims it is not responsible for the costs. A spokesman said the firm’s duty was to the unnamed pension fund which owned the freehold and on whose behalf the firm managed the building. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/19/leaseholders-of-flats-face-40000-bills-over-grenfell-type-cladding

Restore Lifetime Tenancies To Vulnerable Tenants, Say Peers

Ministers are being urged to give councils and housing associations back the right to offer lifetime tenancies to those they consider vulnerable. Peers are debating the issue of lifetime tenancies for those in social housing, which started to be phased out by David Cameron's Tory government. They will consider proposals to restore lifetime housing rights to those who have suffered domestic abuse. Council bosses want this to go further and cover other vulnerable tenants. These may be people with mental illness or disabilities. Read more on the BBC website.

Corbyn Slams Universal Credit As ‘Institutional Barbarity’

The government is once again under pressure from outside about cuts being made to a key part of the welfare system.  Jeremy Corbyn focused on the cuts being made to Universal Credit, which he accused Theresa May of trying to “slip them through the back door.” The PM replied: “The introduction of universal credit was an important reform.” Corbyn hit back on the cuts, saying they are the same ones David Cameron tried to push through on tax credits. He also highlighted research that stated three million families will be £1,000 worse off from the cuts.  Corbyn highlighted research, which underlined the relationship between benefits sanctions and the rise in use of food banks, as well as one in five UC sanctions ending in a claimant becoming homeless. Read more on 24housing.

Homeless Children Up By 60 Per Cent Since The Conservatives Came To Power

The number of homeless children has risen by nearly 60 per cent since the year the Conservatives came to power, official figures suggest. According to data collated by CLG there are now 114,930 children living in temporary accommodation every night. This figure is up by 58 per cent since 2010, when David Cameron came to power. The number of families with children declared homeless are similarly up by 70 per cent – with such families now making up two thirds of homeless cases. Read more on the Independent website.

Troubled Families Scheme Has Made 'No Significant Impact'

A government initiative to help the most disadvantaged families in England has made no "significant impact", a report suggests. The Troubled Families Programme launched in 2012 at a cost of £448m, with £900m added as it was extended. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research suggests it has had no measurable effect on school attendance, employment or behaviour. But the government says lives have been "transformed" and the scheme works. The programme - set up by former Prime Minister David Cameron following the 2011 riots in English cities - was intended to turn around the lives of 120,000 of the most "troubled" families. Read more on the NIESR website.

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.

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.

The Housing And Planning Act Is A Direct Attack On Local Government

Back in 2009, David Cameron said his party would give local councils much more power and responsibility. This agenda was the basis of the 2011 Localism Act. But those reforms have been shattered by the 2016 Housing and Planning Act. The end to lifetime council tenancies, the pay-to-stay rule increasing rents for council tenants earning more than £40,000, and provisions to force local authorities to sell off their high-value homes, will effectively kill off council housing. The extension of right-to-buy privileges to housing associations also threatens to cause a wider decline in affordable housing. But this is not just about housing. The new Act also has immediate implications for local democracy, by giving no fewer than 32 new powers to the secretary of state for housing. This means local authorities face further financial pressures and will lose vital powers once granted by the Localism Act. Read more on the Guardian website.

Four In 10 Renters Fear They Will Never Own A Home

David Cameron’s pledge to build a property-owning democracy is called into serious question by a landmark survey revealing that almost four in 10 of those who do not own a home believe they will never be able to do so. According to an exclusive poll for the Observer on attitudes to British housing, 69% of people think the country is “in the throes of a housing crisis”. A staggering 71% of aspiring property owners doubt their ability to buy a home without financial help from family members.  More than two-thirds (67%) would like to buy their own home “one day”, while 37% believe buying will remain out of their reach for good. A further 26% think it will take them up to five years.  Read more on the Observer website.

Homelessness 'Rising Twice As Fast Among Ethnic Minorities'

A sharp rise in homelessness since David Cameron came to power has been driven by even steeper increases in people from ethnic minorities with nowhere to live.  Official data shows that the number of those people classified as “black and minority ethnic” accepted as homeless by councils has risen by 63 per cent since 2010 – around twice as high as the 33 per cent increase across all ethnic groups. In total 19,260 people from ethnic minorities were declared homeless by local authorities in 2015 – up from 11,790 in 2010. Read more on the Independent website.

Cameron Is Refusing EU Funds To Help Homeless

Green mayoral candidate Sian Berry has accused David Cameron of “inhumanity” for refusing to use EU funds to help homeless people in London.  Ms Berry used her party’s spring conference speech to attack the Prime Minister’s decision not to draw down funds from a £2.5 billion pot that could help destitute migrants. Campaigners believe the Government should use the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived which helps member countries provide material assistance to the most deprived. She told supporters: “David Cameron actually opted the UK out of this scheme in 2013, and has refused to apply again despite pleas from poverty campaigners across the country.” Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Cameron’s £140m To Tear Down Sink Estates Is A Loan

David Cameron’s promise to spend millions on bulldozing and rebuilding sink estates as a key part of his prime ministerial legacy appeared to be unravelling as it emerged that the small amount of money set aside for the project can only be accessed by private developers in the form of loans. The prime minister announced his intention in January to potentially tear down 100 of the UK’s worst estates to tackle drug abuse and gang culture. The modest size of the £140m “fund” set aside by Cameron to meet costs was widely questioned at the time, but Downing Street insisted that the redevelopment programme would reverse decades of neglect. Now the Observer has learned that the £140m is only available in loan form to private sector organisations who come forward to regenerate stricken areas. A statement quietly released by the CLG in February admitted: “£140m of loan funding has been set aside by government, to be used as a springboard for partnership and joint venture arrangements, with the active involvement of communities.” Read more on the Observer website.

Clegg: Tories Blocked Social Housing As It Produced Labour Votes

David Cameron opposed increased funding for social housing in the last parliament because it would “produce more Labour voters”, Nick Clegg has claimed. The former deputy prime minister said both the prime minister and the chancellor privately rejected Liberal Democrat calls for more money for social housebuilding under the coalition government. Mr Clegg gave his account of his attempt to allocate more money for social housing: “When the Lib Dems pushed repeatedly in the last parliament for money to build social housing, the prime minister and chancellor rebuffed them with the stark message: ‘All it does is produce more Labour voters.’” Downing Street did not deny that the comments were made. Read more on the Independent website.

Housing Investment Cut Despite Soaring Housing Benefit Bill

David Cameron has warned “every penny you spend on housing subsidy is money you cannot spend on building houses”. However, a House of Commons Library analysis shows that the Government has in fact been spending more on housing benefit than its predecessors – and less on building houses. A lack of affordable homes is thought to be in part responsible for increases in rents that feed into higher social security costs. Despite Cameron’s warning, housing benefit expenditure grew from £20 billion in the last year of the Labour government to £24.3 billion in 2014/15 under the Coalition. The same analysis found that total Government housing development expenditure has fallen from £11 billion in 2009/10 to just £5 billion in 2013/14 and £6 billion in 2014/15. Read more on the Independent website.

Just 200 Homes Have Been Built On Public Land Sold Off By The Government

Just 200 homes have been built on public land sold off by the Government over the last five years, new figures have revealed. Despite the land having a capacity for 109,000 homes, the only record of any homebuilding points to a fraction of them being actually constructed, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee heard. The statistics came just weeks after David Cameron pledged to build hundreds of thousands of homes every year, as he battles to make housing a key legacy of his premiership. Shadow Communities Secretary John Healey told HuffPost UK: "As usual on housing, the Prime Minister has promised big but delivered little". Read more on the Huffington Post website.

Goldsmith Slams Tory Definition Of £450,000 Homes As 'Affordable'

Zac Goldsmith signalled a split in the Tory ranks over housing policy today, slamming the party's outrageous new definition of 'affordable homes.' The London mayoral hopeful said: "Legally an 'affordable home' is a 20% discount. But in the real world a 20% discount on a £600,000 home in Primrose Hill is not an affordable house to the vast majority of people. " It follows the Tory attempt to redefine "affordable homes", which currently applies to homes available to rent to people who can't afford market rates. But the new housing bill being pushed through parliament by David Cameron and George Osborne, broadens the definition to include so-called 'starter homes' on sale for up to £450,000 to first-time buyers. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Cameron Has 'Earned £500,000 Renting Out His Home Since Becoming PM'

David Cameron has come under fire for saying he worries about his children being able to afford a home after it was revealed he is believed to have earned £500,000 in rent during his time as Prime Minister. His comments over his children's future have now been slammed by opposition politicians. Shadow housing minister John Healey said: 'If he thinks his kids have a problem buying a home, he should take a moment to think about what life is like for everyone else. Cameron and Osborne have shown no understanding of the housing pressures facing millions.' It comes as a Conservative housing bill is currently being debated in Parliament that would end life tenancies for council house residents and sell off a large swathe of social housing. Developers would then be allowed to build flats worth up to £450,000 instead of new social housing. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Cameron Makes A Great Case For Abolishing Bedroom Tax

The final government report into the removal of the spare room subsidy, the policy known as the bedroom tax, was released on the last day of parliamentary business in 2015. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what everyone, from David Orr to Sajid Javid has known all along: By the criteria against which the policy was drawn up, it is an unmitigated disaster.  Let's put aside the Prime Minister's new, shiny and bellicose statement of intent to literally destroy social housing by tearing it down and replacing it with something else. Frankly there are no policy details in the sink-estate clearance proposal, despite him setting out his slightly rabid ideological stall. All we can really be sure of is that either the physical regeneration will never come to pass, or it will leave in its wake a lot of “unintended consequences” that will be widely publicised but never heard. Read more on 24dash.

Number Of MP Landlords Has Risen By A Quarter Since Last Parliament

The number of MPs supplementing their incomes by acting as landlords has risen by a quarter since the last parliament, with David Cameron and George Osborne among those earning extra money by renting out properties. Almost a third of MPs are now letting out their houses or flats, with 196 declaring rental income on the official register of interests this year. The majority of those are earning more than £10,000 a year from the property, topping up their basic MP’s annual salary of £67,060. The Conservative party has the highest number of landlord MPs at 128, meaning 39% of Tory MPs are landlords, compared with 26% of Scottish National party MPs and 22% from Labour. Read more on the Guardian website.

Cameron’s Talk Of ‘Sink Estates’ Hides The Reality Behind Council Housing

David Cameron has unveiled the newest target of Tory policy- so-called ‘sink estates’. According to the PM, such estates need to be emptied and demolished, with little thought as to the communities that live there and where they will be re-housed- or what will replace them. This narrative stigmatises those living in social housing in the same way that his government has consistently stigmatised those on benefits. Rather than attacking tenants directly, Cameron is instead attacking the supposed conditions in which they live, allowing his rhetoric to pass as benevolent social reform rather than the continued ideologically driven undermining of the British welfare state.  Cameron was unable to guarantee that tenants forced to move due to redevelopment would be rehoused in their local area, let alone in the actual developments that replace existing estates. By invoking the spectre of the sink estate he attempted to pass off social cleansing as an opportunity for social mobility. Read more on the Independent website.