Ministry Announces Plan For Localised Homelessness Reduction Boards

MHCLG is considering the creation of area Homelessness Reduction Boards and is going out to consult as to how they could be set up for future function. The prospect of boards – along the lines of existing bodies like Health and Wellbeing Boards – is pitched in the Tackling homelessness together consultation paper on structures that support partnership working and accountability over homelessness. To MHCLG, such boards are seen as convening relevant local delivery partners, ensuring a strategic, joined-up area specific approach to reducing homelessness, and identifying and delivering the services and interventions that deliver their agreed objectives and outcomes. The consultation can be found on the MHCLG website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-homelessness-together

Social Housing: Tenants Will Need Four Years To Be Eligible

New tenants trying to get council and other social housing are to be required to live in the local area for four years instead of the current two. The white paper, The Best of Both Worlds – Our Special Status in a Reformed EU, makes clear that the change in the “residency test” will not just apply to new migrants but also anyone moving within Britain. The Foreign Office paper says that existing official guidance to local authorities in England already makes clear they should require a potential tenant to live in the area for at least two years before they are considered for social housing. Download the paper from the GovUK 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.

Local Areas to Decide On Replacement RtB Homes

Local areas will be free to decide the type of affordable housing to replace housing association properties sold under the extended Right to Buy scheme, the government has confirmed. The CLG refused to deny that shared ownership or ‘Starter Homes’ could replace social and affordable rented properties sold under the policy. Official planning guidance states that ‘affordable housing’ can include low-cost homes for sale for buyers whose needs are not met by the market. Starter Homes – properties sold at a 20% discount to first-time buyers under 40 years of age – will also be counted as ‘affordable’ under proposed changes to planning guidance. A spokesperson for the CLG confirmed that the type of affordable housing would be decided by “local areas”.  Read more on Inside Housing.