Will Housing Benefit Cuts Force Kids Out?

Housing bosses insist they are hopeful that no families will be forced to leave Hammersmith and Fulham after Government benefit cuts. The council admits, though, that up to 1,200 school children could be ‘potentially affected’ by Government housing benefit caps to be fully implemented by 2013. Labour Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter said “Hammersmith Tories pioneered social cleansing with their estate demolition and cuts to local services like Sure Start, youth clubs and community centres. So it is no surprise to see them relishing the eviction of thousands of families forced out by housing benefit cuts.” Read more on the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle website.

Localism Means Better Housing Management, Says Council Leader

Major changes to the housing finance system will lead to better management as more authorities see their homes as an asset, Conservative council leader Stephen Greenhalgh has told housing professionals. Councillor Greenhalgh, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, set out his view of the abolition of the housing revenue account (HRA) subsidy system next April, and said it would mean less direction from Whitehall as councils decide how they spend rent receipts. “Virtually every aspect of council housing is driven from the centre,” he told the Chartered Institute of Housing conference in Harrogate. Under self-financing, councils could set rents in line with local markets. “We are going to see better management,” he added. “We can attract investment and make local decisions about the level of debt we carry and the rents we charge.” Read more on the CIH website.

‘Social Housing Should Be a Launchpad’

Social housing should not be for ‘losers’ but should be a launchpad, Stephen Greenhalgh said. The leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council pointed to figures from research by academic John Hills showing that just 22 per cent of social housing tenants are employed, compared to 43 per cent in the early 1980s. He said social housing should do more than house people in the greatest need but should provide support for a larger cross-section of people. He also said: ‘We have in the past had increasing national control, every aspect of the council housing system determined from the centre, through rent restructuring, access to money through the HCA and also rent levels in the LHA system.’ Read more on Inside Housing.

Tory Minister Declines to Oblige H and F Leader

The days when the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham was portrayed by Project Cameron as its great sage of localist innovation may be gone. Residents of the Gibbs Green and West Kensington estates have campaigned to confound Stephen Greenhalgh's plan to have their homes demolished as part of a huge redevelopment scheme. Residents intend to thwart Greenhalgh and his developer partners with powers which, although created by the previous government, are to be activated by the current one in keeping with its Big Society agenda. The powers - set out in Section 34a of the Housing Act (1985) - will require local authorities, even flagship Tory ones, to, as minister for decentralisation Greg Clark puts it:
Grant local authority tenants the right to explore a change of landlord and place a new duty on councils to co-operate with their tenants, where transfer is the favoured and viable option.
The "change of landlords" desired by the campaigners is from Hammersmith and Fulham to a housing association set up by themselves. Clark's words were contained in a letter to Greenhalgh dated March 14, 2011, responding to the latter's request that tenants desiring such a "change of landlord" should be subjected to a "wider benefits test" before their wish is granted. Greenhalgh believes the government should ensure that such objectives take priority over tenants' "right to transfer". Read more on The Guardian website.

Council Defends Calls to Axe Homelessness Strategy

Hammersmith & Fulham - one of the three councils planning to combine services in a 'tri-borough' London merger - has defended a request it made to the Government to scrap the statutory duty placed on councils to provide a homelessness strategy. In a submission to the Government - as part of its response to the Coalition's calls for ideas to reduce the regulatory burden placed on councils - it called for an end to the strategy. Other suggestions on how the Government can reduce regulatory burdens, it said, include: changing the law so that a High Court order is not needed to evict squatters and cutting the amount of paperwork needed to take action against noise nuisance neighbours. The homelessness strategy requires councils to set out their approach to tackling homeless. The council believes the production of such a strategy should be at councils' discretion. A council spokesman said: "We want to focus all our effort on front line services, with officers working on homeless interventions and not spending months producing reams of paperwork and strategies.” Read more on 24dash.

Plea to Axe Council Duty to Draw Up Rough Sleeping Strategies

Hammersmith & Fulham Council will ask the government to remove its obligation to draw up homelessness and rough sleeping strategies. The Communities and Local Government department has asked councils to suggest ‘old and unnecessary burdens or barriers preventing councils from getting on with their job’ as part of an overhaul of local government regulations. A consultation on removing some of the 1,200 legal duties placed on councils closes on Monday (25April), and Hammersmith & Fulham has said it will ask the CLG to scrap the obligation to draw up a multi-agency strategy for tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. Communities secretary Eric Pickles has insisted that the review of regulations would not change councils’ duties to homeless people. Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Agrees To Close ALMO

A London council has approved plans to close its arm’s-length management organisation and manage its 17,000 homes in house. Cabinet members at Hammersmith and Fulham Council last week agreed to close H&F Homes after a ballot of tenants showed that 70 per cent of those who responded wanted to return to the council. The ALMO will be replaced by a single housing and regeneration department, which is expected to save taxpayers more than £400,000 a year. H&F Homes was set up in 2004, and is due to complete its decent homes programme in March. The ALMO will close in April. Read more on the H&F website.

ALMO Pays Chief Exec £260k Per Year

Hammersmith and Fulham Homes is paying its chief executive more than twice the average salary of the heads of England’s largest ALMOs. The 18,000-home ALMO has been employing Nick Johnson on a £260,000 consultant’s salary for the past two years. He has been employed on an interim basis by Hammersmith and Fulham Council since he started in 2008. The average salary for the chief executives of the sector’s five largest ALMOs is £123,286. The council has not renegotiated the terms of Mr Johnson’s contract since he started at the ALMO. Hammersmith and Fulham Council said that it had always intended for Mr Johnson’s appointment to be a temporary one prior to bringing management of its stock back in-house. It advertised for a new housing director in September. Read more on Inside Housing.