Homes England Considering Tough New Green Building Standards

 Homes England is considering bringing in tough new sustainability standards for the homes produced by its partners or on its land. The possibility of new stretching standards is being considered as part of a major review of the housing quango being conducted by its new chairman, former Argent boss Peter Freeman. The agency’s chief land and development officer, told Housing Today there was a “live conversation” about whether the agency needed to ask development partners to produce homes to higher environmental standards than those called for by building regulations. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/homes-england-considering-tough-new-green-building-standards/5111358.article

Partnership Praised For Joined-Up Approach To Reducing Homelessness

A partnership between the NHS and Peabody has been praised by London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for its joined-up approach to reducing homelessness and preventing repeated readmissions to hospital. The Peabody run service works to ensure homeless people who are medically fit to be discharged from hospital don’t go back onto the streets, providing short-term accommodation and ongoing wide-ranging support. As well as helping people after a crisis, protecting them from harm and boosting wellbeing, the service also works to free up hospital bed spaces, reduces pressure on wards and saves the NHS money through reduced readmissions. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/partnership-praised-for-joined-up-approach-to-reducing-homelessness/

Universal Credit Report: Urgent Action Is Needed

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Universal Credit (UC) has launched a report outlining how the UC system can be improved, following their inquiry into the issue. The key recommendations are:

·         Ending the controversial five-week wait

·         Make payments fortnightly by default

·         Split payments to each member of a couple

·         End the freeze on benefits and the two-child Limit

·         Pay childcare costs in advance

·         Allow claimants the option for direct payment to their landlord from the start of the claim.

Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/universal-credit-report-agrees-nla-urgent-action-needed

Mismatch Between Wages And House Prices Increases

Airline pilots,flight engineers, electronics engineers, rubber process operatives, energy plant operatives, and merchandisers and window dressers all have seen housing affordability improve over the past five years. These account for just 2 per cent of occupations. The figures, compiled by mortgage broker Private Finance and based on information from the Office for National Statistics, highlight the growing mismatch between wage rises and house price increases. While average earnings grew by just 9 per cent from 2011 to 2016, the average house price soared by 26.7 per cent, meaning the number of years’ earnings required to afford the average home increased from eight to 9.2. Read more on the FT Adviser.

Regulator Warns Housing Associations On Value For Money

Housing associations must improve their performance on value for money evidence, or the regulator will step in, the housing sector has been warned. Fiona MacGregor, executive director of regulation at the HCA, told the Homes 2016 event that the regulator remained ‘very strongly interested’ in value for money and called on social landlords to provide a common framework against which to measure their performance. She said: ‘We are very keen that the housing sector comes up with its own value for money metrics. If it doesn’t though, we will take a look ourselves.’ MacGregor added that she remained ‘concerned’ on the transparency of value for money statements by housing providers and said that many were still ‘weak’. Read more on the Homes Event website.

94% Of Social Housing Providers Demand Improved Housing Policy

Independent research across 100 senior decision makers in social housing shows 94% believe the government needs to improve its housing policy – because present policy leaves them and the communities they serve at risk. Transformation specialist Civica releases the finding in a new report  ‘The Changing Landscape for Social Housing’ prepared in partnership with SOLACE and The CIH. Specifically, senior housing decision makers want policy to focus on a broader range of tenures beyond home ownership (65%) and to reduce or scrap the annual 1% rent cut entirely (49%). Priorities over the next 12 months are identified as the safeguarding of jobs (59%), cutting costs and driving efficiencies (57%), improving customer service and satisfaction (57%) and dealing with changing regulations and reforms (52%). Read more on 24housing.

A Small Win For Energy Efficiency: Tenants Can Now Request Improvements

The 1st of April was a small step forward for energy efficiency: tenants in private rented accommodation now have the right to request energy efficiency improvements. There are numerous caveats, even loopholes. Nevertheless, where a tenant requests their landlord’s consent to making energy efficiency improvements to the landlord’s property, subject to certain requirements and exemptions, the landlord ‘may not unreasonably refuse consent’. This precedes a more significant change from 2018 when it will become illegal for very poor quality (EPC band ‘F’ and ‘G’) properties to be let – albeit with more conditions and exemptions attached. Read more on the Sustainable Homes website.

Good Data Won’t End Homelessness But It’s A Key Part Of The Solution

A long-awaited report by the body responsible for safeguarding the quality of official statistics has concluded that the way in which homelessness data is currently collected and reported by Government requires significant improvement. And this amidst growing concern that official statistics misrepresent the true scale of the homelessness problem in England. The report, released by the UK Statistics Authority, found that statutory homelessness data need a range of improvements to retain its status as ‘National Statistics’. The CLG’s prevention and relief and rough sleeping statistics were also looked at as part of the assessment and were found lacking. Above all, the UKSA says that the Government needs to be more transparent about what the three datasets collectively tell us about the state of homelessness in England. Read more on the Crisis blog.

70% of Households Would Ban Landlords from Renting Inefficient Homes

A total of seven in ten UK households say landlords should be barred from renting out homes unless they improve their energy efficiency levels, according to research. The Energy Saving Trust, which polled more than 2,000 respondents in an Ipsos MORI survey, found 70% of UK households said landlords should not be allowed to let out properties that have very poor levels of energy efficiency. Among renters, 78% supported this intention. The survey also found more than half (51%) of people living in rented properties said they experience cold homes during the winter.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Leaseholders Charged Tens of Thousands for Repairs

The Brighton and Hove Leaseholders Association has met with the government over "excessive bills" for improvements to properties where the council owns the freehold. The association said many of its members faced bills for tens of thousands for improvements. The invoices are being issued by a contractor working on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council. A leaseholder who bought the leasehold of a former council flat in 2006 has recently received an estimated bill of more than £34,000 for planned building work. Read more on the BBC website.

Independent Living For Disabled People Diminishing

Independent living for disabled people is in reverse, six years on from a government strategy to deliver improved choice and opportunity, a damning report has concluded.  Across social care, income, work opportunities and access to services, there has been “no evidence of significant progress” in disabled people’s experiences since the independent living strategy was published by the last Labour government in 2008. The strategy set a five-year goal to give disabled people more choice and control over the provision of support for daily living and to make significant progress in reducing barriers to opportunities and access to employment, transport, health and housing.

Download the report from the Disability Rights UK website.

Council to Consider Homesteading Scheme for Empty Homes

Durham County Council is considering plans to offer long-term empty homes for sale at discounted prices. It has developed the ‘homesteading’ scheme, which will see two and three-bedroom homes for sale from as little as £18,000, in partnership with local housing providers. Members of the authority’s cabinet will be asked to agree to give the plans the go-ahead when they meet next week. If approved, the scheme would be introduced on a pilot basis, with 14 council-owned homes being offered for sale. The initiative could also see buyers offered an interest-free loan of up to £15,000 to carry out repairs and improvements. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Council Set To Approve Raft of Housing Measures

Birmingham City Council is set to approve a raft of housing measures including building new council homes, improving existing council housing and procuring new repair and maintenance contracts for council housing. The council's cabinet is set to approve the full business case for the construction of 106 council houses for rent today.  The opportunity to continue the council’s housing development programme through the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) is due to procurement efficiencies and the availability of a windfall grant from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). As well as providing more affordable houses for rent, the scheme will boost the economy and support the further creation of training and apprenticeship places. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Rent Arrears: Social Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment he has made of trends in rent arrears in social housing. 
Stephen Williams: Housing association arrears at the end of 2011-12 were 4.8% in England—an improvement in performance on the previous year when they were 5.1%.

'Green Deal' Energy Efficiency Scheme Too ‘Complex’

An ambitious Government scheme to improve the energy efficiency of millions of homes is so “complex” it is likely to be discouraging the public from signing up, the head of the company funding the project has admitted.  Mark Bayley, the chief executive of the Green Deal Finance Company, admitted that the complexity of financing the Green Deal could be putting off a lot of homeowners from taking part. This can involve a number of “home visits”, multiple forms to fill in as well as delays in credit checking. “There are still too many complexities facing the consumer,” he said. Read more on the Independent website.