MHCLG To Consult On Mandatory Accessible Housing Standards

MHCLG is to consult on mandatory accessible housing standards in building regulations – ensuring new properties are built with good accessibility standards to reflect the needs of older and disabled people. The commitment comes in the Spending Review with Government having been warned of an accessibility crisis. And the Review also accounts for disabled adults to be direct beneficiaries from funding for adult social care services. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/mhclg-to-consult-on-mandatory-accessible-housing-standards/

Housing: Standards – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has allocated to the decent homes programme (a) in each of the last ten years and (b) in each of the next five years.

James Brokenshire: [Holding answer 25 April 2019]: The number of social homes failing to meet the Decent Homes standard fell by 32 per cent between 2010 and 2017. Between 2011 and 2016 we provided a total of £1.76 billion to 45 councils across England to help them tackle their backlog of non-compliant homes. It helped to make over 158,000 homes meet the relevant standards. Private registered providers – such as housing associations - are expected to maintain their homes to the Decent Homes Standard using their own resources. In the year to March 2018, private registered providers spent £1.7 billion on capital improvements to existing stock. The Social Housing Green Paper asked whether there are any changes to what constitutes a decent home that we should consider.

https://qnadailyreport.blob.core.windows.net/qnadailyreportxml/Written-Questions-Answers-Statements-Daily-Report-Commons-2019-04-26.pdf

Rogue Landlord Enforcement Funding Cut By 25%

Councils across England have cut the amount they are spending on enforcement work to tackle criminal landlords by a quarter in less than 10 years. Whilst spending by local authorities in England on housing standard activities was £44.5 million in 2009/10, by 2017/18 that had fallen to £33.5 million, a drop of £11m. With over 150 Acts of Parliament containing more than 400 regulations affecting the private rented sector, the RLA is arguing that better enforcement of these laws, backed up by greater funding, is key to driving out the minority of landlords who can make life a misery for tenants and bring the sector into disrepute. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/rogue-landlord-enforcement-funding-cut-by-25/

Plan To Introduce Landlord Licence Gets The Green Light

Controversial plans which could see landlords in Nottingham have to sign up for licences has been officially approved by the council, and the matter has now been sent to the central government. The scheme aims to improve housing standards in the city’s private rented sector, and after extensive consultation with landlords and tenants, the proposals have changed considerably. The council's executive board voted unanimously to approve the revised selective licensing scheme. When the scheme was first announced, in February, the council said it was being proposed to raise standards, reduce anti-social behaviour, and tackle rogue landlords. Read more on the Nottingham Post website.

Rogue Landlords Could Be Forced To Repay Housing Benefit

Landlords could have to re-pay 12 months’ worth of housing benefit if they illegally evict tenants or fail to maintain their properties, under government plans. A government discussion paper says, “An effective enforcement regime is essential to drive up housing standards in the private rented sector and tackle criminal landlords.” The document says ministers are “exploring the scope” for extending ‘rent repayment orders’ – a tool in which a court can order a landlord to repay up to 12 months of rent after an application from a council or tenant. The cash can be retained by the local authority and used for housing purposes where the rent has been paid through housing benefit. Currently, rent repayment orders can only be applied where a landlord has failed to obtain a licence for a licensable property. Download the consultation paper from the CLG website.

Pickles Confirms End of Code for Sustainable Homes

Eric Pickles has confirmed that the Code for Sustainable Homes is to be scrapped in his long-awaited conclusion to the Government’s Housing Standards Review. The review aimed to slash the number of standards applied to the construction of new homes with the Government claiming that building new homes to a high standard will become easier and cheaper. Pickles released a statement outlining how the new standards for housing in England which are being introduced as part of the Deregulation Bill will be implemented. Local planning authorities should not set any “additional local technical standards or requirements relating to the construction, internal layout or performance of new dwellings” in their emerging Local Plans, neighbourhood plans, or supplementary planning documents he said. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Government Announces Plans to Raise Housing Standards

Government plans will make it easier and cheaper to build homes to a high standard, according to Communities Minister Stephen Williams. Currently, house builders face a myriad of different standards to implement each time they build new homes in an area - with the standards imposed varying between areas, and often leading to duplication and even contradiction. Publishing the government’s response to its housing standards review, the minister said the move would remove this confusion from the system. The measures will reduce 100 standards to fewer than 10; bringing down the numbers of remaining pages of guidance from 1,000 to fewer than 100, saving councils and developers both time and money. Read more on the Gov UK website.

Government Acknowledges Size Matters

The Government has published its proposals to review the housing standards in the hope that this will ‘free up the building industry, support growth and get high quality homes built’.  Over 100 standards currently available to local councils, such as Lifetime Homes, face abolition.  For the handful of housing standards that will be kept, councils will only be able to apply them after conducting ‘a rigorous viability and need assessment’.  While this will undoubtedly cut red tape, it’s likely to be seen as bad news by localists: if the proposals go ahead local communities, via their councils, will have far less scope to develop standards for the homes built in their locality.  The good news is that the Government is willing to consider a national space standard for all new homes. Read more on the Shelter blog.