Tenants Excluded From Covid-19 Housing Delivery Taskforce

The London Tenants Federation has expressed disbelief at tenants’ exclusion from the Deputy Mayor for Housing’s new taskforce for the recovery of London’s housing sector after lockdown. Deputy Mayor Tom Copley announced the new taskforce on 28th April, promising it would bring together leaders from ‘across the housing sector’ to speak with ‘one voice’. “How have we been so quick to forget the lessons of Grenfell?” Asked Pat Turnbull, representative for London Tenants Federation (LTF). “With tenants excluded from this task force, we fear things will return to ‘business as usual’ once lockdown eases.” Read more on the London Tenants blog.

https://londontenants.org/blog/tenants-excluded-from-londons-covid-19-housing-delivery-taskforce/

London Needs 40,000 New Social Rented Homes A Year

London Tenants Federation (LTF) is calling for 40,000 new social rented homes to be built each year in London for the next 10 years to address the city’s housing crisis. In a statement, A positive future for social housing in London, published ahead of the Social Housing Green Paper, LTF call for the government to make social housing central to a radical shift in housing policy. Since 2005 average delivery rates for social rented housing in London have been below a tenth of what is needed. LTF, an alliance of democratic tenants and residents’ organisations in the capital, is calling on the government to provide sufficient grant funding, ringfenced for social housing, to address this shortfall within the next 10 years. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/london-needs-40000-new-social-rented-homes-a-year/

Tenants Say ‘Pay To Stay’ Policy Punishes Them For Working

Under the Pay To Stay policy, announced in last year’s budget, families or individuals with a total income of £40,000 a year in London, and £30,000 outside the capital, will have to pay the rental market rate, with the increase going not to local councils but to the Treasury. Housing associations can voluntarily impose the cap, and retain the higher rents. Originally the cap was £100,000. According to the London Tenants Federation, a family with an income of £40,000 paying an average market rent in London will be £11,963 worse off than if earning just less than £40,000. The chancellor, George Osborne, estimates that pay to stay will save the government £250m a year and affect 10% of social housing tenants. Read more on the Observer website.

Affordable Housing Delivery in London 'At Lowest Point Since 2004'

Affordable housing delivery in London is at its lowest point for over 10 years, a new report reveals. Research carried out by the London Tenants Federation shows the number of homes for social rent and 'affordable rent' delivered in 2013/14 dropped to 4,221 - the lowest total since housing targets were first set in the 2004 London Plan. According to the research, only 50% of Boris Johnson’s annual target for 13,200 additional affordable homes was met while just 28% of the total new and additional homes delivered in 2013/14 were affordable with the rest being private homes for sale or buy to let. Read more on 24dash.