Summer Budget: Reactions from the Sector

A wide range of housing organisations have given their reactions to the Budget. They include CIH; NHF; homeless charities Shelter, Crisis and Centrepoint; Generation Rent; YMCA; the London Assembly; Midland Heart; Hometrack; Placeshapers and Metropolitan Housing.  Read more on 24dash.

‘Big Society’ Cash Scramble

Housing associations could get a share of the nine figure sum the government is releasing for community projects through its Big Society Bank. The prime minister envisages the charity sector - of which housing associations are part - will increasingly deliver public services in the ‘big society’. Bill Payne, chief executive of Metropolitan Housing Partnership, warned aspects of the ‘big society’ plan needed scrutiny. Any expansion of the voluntary sector into public service provision needs to be monitored properly, he said. ‘We have a statutory and legal responsibility for looking after vulnerable people and I am nervous about care and support for them being replaced by volunteers’, he said. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Association Bosses Earn More than David Cameron

Some 50 housing association bosses earn more than the prime minister, housing minister Grant Shapps said as he pledged to "shine a light" on salaries paid from the public purse. The information was released on the same day that the pay and perks of senior civil servants earning more than £150,000 (which is more than the prime minister) were published, in the first step of a pledge to remove the "cloak of secrecy" from government information. Highlighting a top salary of almost £400,000 a year, Shapps said the executives running the arms-length bodies which manage council housing should be subject to the same scrutiny. The figures, which relate to last year, showed the highest-paid was former Anchor chief executive John Belcher. Read the full on The Guardian website by clicking on the logo below.

Social Landlords 'Unprepared' For TSA - CIH Research

New skills research commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) indicates that many housing organisations may be under-prepared to meet the challenge of the TSA’s new regulatory framework for social housing from April. The research, undertaken by an independent research company on behalf of CIH, involved in-depth surveys with 150 human resource professionals and senior housing executives working in ALMOS, housing associations and stock holding local authorities. Respondents were asked what impact the introduction of the TSA would have on their organisation. Almost a half of respondents (45 per cent) considered TSA would have minimal impact on their organisation, or were still unsure what the likely impact would be on their organisation. Overall just over one third of all respondents (36 per cent) stated they thought the TSA would have an impact or a major impact on their organisation. Read the full story on the CIH website.