Closing ALMOs Produces Mixed Results For Housing Services

The number of ALMOs has halved over the past decade, with a number of high-profile closures in the past two years. Local authorities often cite efficiency savings and performance improvements as reasons for taking the service back in house, but Inside Housing’s research suggests the picture is mixed. While some authorities saw improvements in areas such as tenant satisfaction, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) finances and re-let times for empty homes after shutting down their ALMOs, others have seen declines in performance. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/almo-closures-how-are-they-affecting-services-60071

RTB Properties Re-Let Privately Pose ‘Major Challenges’

One of the most contradictory and problematic developments in private renting lies in the growth in Buy to Let tenancies on council estates, a new report says. Published by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the report identifies the anomaly that sees councils housing homeless families in former Right to Buy properties converted to private rental. According to the report, around 40% of all Right to Buy properties are now re-let privately, posing “major challenges” for housing management in driving up Housing Benefit bills and maintenance problems on flatted estates. Download the report, Private Renting: Can social landlords help?, from the LSE website.

http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cr/casereport113a.pdf?from_serp=1

Rent Rise Flexibility To Remain For Supported Housing

Supported housing providers will still be able to raise their rents on re-lets by up to 10%, despite the 1% social rent cut, a local government minister has confirmed. While landlords will still be forced to cut their rents by 1% a year over four years, they will be able to implement a one-off rent rise of up to 10% on supported and sheltered housing re-lets. They will only be able to do this once for each property. The concession could mitigate some of the effects of the annual rent reduction for supported housing providers, which the National Housing Federation says will cost housing associations £3.9bn over four years. However, it will not offset the problems set to be caused by the decision to cap housing benefit for new social tenants at Local Housing Allowance rates. Read more on Inside Housing.

Full Data Released: Right to Buy To Let

Nearly 40% of all council flats sold under the Right to Buy in England are now being rented out privately. Figures released by 91 councils under the Freedom of Information Act show councils sold 127,763 leasehold properties, with 47,994 leaseholders living an another address. This is a strong indication they are being sub-let. The full data reveals that Milton Keynes, Stevenage and Blackpool had the highest percentage of Right to Buy flats re-let, at 69.6%, 65.4% and 64.2% respectively. See all the figures on the Inside Housing website.

Right to Buy Scandal As Almost Half Sold Are Now Rented Out

Government plans to extend right to buy have received a fresh barrage of criticism after it emerged almost half of the homes sold under the legislation in Cambridge could currently be let out. Cambridge City Council retains the freehold on 1,133 of its properties sold under right to buy. And the council says 482 of these are currently being rented out – despite the whole point of the legislation being to empower people to own their own home. City MP Daniel Zeichner said: "It is no surprise that so many properties sold under right to buy are now being let – and sadly, many of these will be occupied by people on low pay who qualify for housing benefit.” Read more on the Cambridge News website.

Do We Have To Sell Off High-Value Council Houses?

The plan to sell off high-value council houses would require the top third in value of all council houses to be sold when they fall vacant, an estimated 15,000 sales per year. A report from a group of London boroughs estimates they’d need to sell 3,500 houses and flats in the next five years. This gives a real measure of the scale of the disaster that’s about to befall those areas where these more valuable homes are located.  The effects will be concentrated in certain areas rather than being pepper-potted, as the government is believed to be planning to define ‘high value’ regionally (so London will be one of the regions). In Westminster this would literally mean all relets – 400 units per year – being sold, with none being available to families on the waiting list. Read more on the Red Brick blog.

Council Privately Rent Houses - As 1,700 Still On Waiting List

Council houses are being offered for rent on the open market because people do not want to live in them – despite 1,779 tenants on the waiting list for properties. Dozens of hard-to-let council houses have already been rented out in Stoke-on-Trent. The unwanted properties have been snapped up by people attracted by the cheaper rents compared to the private sector. People must have a 'local connection' and be able to afford the rent to qualify for one of the homes. Many of the properties shunned by tenants are two and three bedroom homes. The situation has been blamed on the Government's welfare reforms which have seen tenants penalised for having spare bedrooms. Read more on the Stoke Sentinel website.

HCA Restricts Affordable Rent Re-Lets Following Benefit Bill Concerns

The government has banned some social landlords from converting re-lets into its new affordable rent product because of the impact it could have on the housing benefit bill. The Homes and Communities Agency has told landlords which had their bids for development funding rejected they would be unable to convert empty social homes into ‘affordable rent’ properties because it would inflate the housing benefit budget. An HCA spokesperson said: ‘The conversions under the programme have been fully costed in terms of impact on the benefit bill. The government does not want further uncontrolled conversions.’ However, the agency said failed bidders could charge affordable rents, at up to 80 per cent of market rates, on new homes built without grant. Read more on Inside Housing.