Housing Association Housebuilding Completions Drop By Fifth

 The number of homes built by housing associations fell by almost a fifth in the 2020/21 financial year due in part to the pandemic. Data collated by the NHF showed that approximately 44,000 homes of all tenures were started in 2020/21, with 38,200 completed. In terms of homes built, housing associations completed 4,240 social rent homes, a decline of 13% on 2020. Affordable rental home completions fell by 19% to 16,038 and affordable homes for sale fell by 19% to 11,959. Total affordable home completions stood at 32,237 a drop of 18%. Market rent completions stood at 1,095 during the year, a drop of 12%, and market sale homes dropped 19% to 4,910. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-association-housebuilding-completions-drop-by-fifth-72715

Universal Credit Cut ‘Puts 100,000 Renters At Risk Of Homelessness’

THOUSANDS of renters could be made homeless due to the £20 cut to Universal Credit, a housing charity has warned. More than 100,000 low income people in England will be at least two months behind on their rent when the benefit is reduced. Research by Crisis found that the cut, which coincides with the end of other financial support schemes, could be a disaster for thousands of families who rent their homes. Universal Credit was boosted by an extra £20 a week during the pandemic, amounting to £1,040 a year. Read more on the Sun website.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16309553/universal-credit-renters-risk-homelessness-your-rights/ 

Average UK House Price Fell By £10,000 In July

The average UK house price fell by £10,000 in July compared with a month earlier, official figures show, as the housing market appeared to cool after the phasing out of the stamp duty holiday. The average UK house price was £256,000 in July, which was £19,000 higher than a year earlier, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Average house prices in the year to July rose by 8%. However, the increase was down on the 13% recorded in the 12 months to June. The housing market fell slightly in July, as many homebuyers had rushed to complete their purchases before the stamp duty holiday deadline of 30 June. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/15/average-uk-house-price-fell-by-10000-in-july-stamp-duty

House Prices Fall For First Time This Year

House prices have fallen for the first time this year, according to property website Rightmove. It said the average price of property coming to market in August fell 0.3%, a drop of £1,076, to £337,371. That was prompted by the ending of the stamp duty holiday and a subsequent fall in demand for bigger homes. "Average prices have only fallen in the upper-end sector," said Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58206513

House Prices Fell In June As Full Stamp Duty Holiday Ends

House prices fell last month for the first time since January in a sign that the overheating UK housing market is finally starting to cool, according to lender Halifax. Month-on-month, the price of the average home slipped by 0.5% in June to £260,358, a drop of £1,284 from £261,642 in May’s average. But on an annual basis, Halifax said property prices were still 8.8%, or about £21,000, higher than they were a year ago, with the strongest growth in Wales, Northern Ireland and north-west England. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/07/uk-house-prices-fell-in-june-as-full-stamp-duty-holiday-ended-says-halifax

Use Of Discretionary Housing Payments Dropped Last Year Despite Pandemic

The use of funding allocated to local authorities to help those unable to keep up with housing costs dropped last year despite widespread financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local authorities in England and Wales spent 94% of their allocated Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) in 2020/21 compared to 98% the previous year. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to housing benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting housing costs. Councils can decide whether to give a DHP, how much will be paid and for how long the claimant will receive the payment. Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-financial-year-2020-to-2021/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-analysis-of-end-of-year-returns-from-local-authorities-data-for-april-2020-to-march-2021 

Affordable Housing Starts Fall By A Fifth, Homes England Data Shows

 In the year to 31 March 2021, the number of affordable homes started through Homes England programmes fell from 35,809 to 28,191 due to pressure placed on the housing industry by the coronavirus pandemic, the agency said. Total housing starts also fell by 22% from 47,965 to 37,330, while completions fell 13% from 40,452 to 34,995. The figures represent an improvement on the number of housing starts recorded half way through the year, which were down 38% compared with the year before. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/affordable-housing-starts-fall-by-a-fifth-homes-england-data-shows-71250

Average UK House Price Falls For First Time In Months

The average price of a UK home fell 1.9 per cent between March and April but was still 8.9 per cent higher than it was in April 2020, according to HM Land Registry’s latest House Price Index. The index showed the average price of a property in April 2021 was £250,772, down from £255,707 the month before. Since at least May 2020, average house prices within the UK have increased incrementally. The increase in mortgage lending throughout March, itself boosted by the Stamp Duty holiday, to £35.6bn was thought to have boosted April’s sales, even though the average price fell. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/average-uk-house-price-falls-for-first-time-in-months/

Cut Of £40m In Help For Tenants Will ‘Drive Up Homelessness’

The government is cutting the funding it gives to councils in England and Wales to help struggling tenants by more than a fifth, with critics warning the move will drive up homelessness following the recent end of the Covid evictions ban and the end of the furlough scheme in September. Discretionary housing payments (DHPs) provide financial support to people claiming housing benefit or universal credit who face rent shortfalls or need assistance with payments such as rent deposits in order to move home. The government boosted DHP funding from £139.5m to £180m in 2020/21 amid the pandemic, but is now cutting that back to £140m in 2021/22 – a reduction of 22%. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/06/cut-of-40m-in-help-for-tenants-will-drive-up-homelessness 

England Has Five Million Fewer Council Houses Today Than In 1979.

·         In 2020, the latest published figures, England has just 1.6m council houses and FIVE MILLION FEWER than in 1979. Just 1 in every 17 of England’s 24.6m houses is a council house when it was 1 in 3 in 1979.

·         1979 saw England have 0.35m housing association properties making a social rented sector total of 6.91m. By 2020 England had 2.5m HA properties making a SRS total of 4.08m.

·         1979 was the high point of council housing with a record 6.6 million which was 32% of 20,826 houses in all of England and 1 in 3 of all houses in England was a council house.

Read more on the Housing Writes blog.

https://housingwrites.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/5m-fewer-council-houses-in-england-than-in-1979-and-other-housing-miscellany/ 

'Mad Rush' To Buy Homes Faded In April

The "mad rush" to buy properties to take advantage of stamp duty holidays waned in April, official figures suggest. Transactions fell by 36% compared with the record level of UK home sales in March, according to HM Revenue and Customs. An extension to the deadline for stamp duty relief into the summer is likely to have been behind the fall. However, analysts expect interest and prices to remain high. Read more on the BBC website.

'Mad rush' to buy homes faded in April - BBC News

Banks May Start To Hit Mortgage Lending Limits

Senior Bank of England official issues warning as government reports highest April lending since financial crisis. Banks might have to reduce mortgage lending to stay within regulatory limits, a senior Bank of England official has warned as official figures released this morning showed loans at their highest level since the global financial crisis. Sir Jon Cunliffe the Bank of England’s deputy governor, said steep rises in prices meant mortgage lenders were pushing against regulations introduced in the wake of the 2008-09 crash to ensure that 85% of mortgages advanced are less than 4.5 times the borrower’s annual income. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/banks-may-start-to-hit-mortgage-lending-limits/5111939.article 

Shocking Fall In Numbers Of Social Rented Homes

The number of council and housing association homes being let at social rent fell by 210,000 between 2012 and 2020, the Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH) UK Housing Review has revealed. The report found that 280,000 social rent homes have been sold, converted to higher rents or demolished since April 2012, while just 70,000 new social rent homes have been built. Right to Buy sales, which accounted for 120,000 homes, and conversion to higher affordable rent tenures, which accounted for 116,000 homes, were the two biggest reasons for the loss of social rent homes. Read more on the CIH website.

https://www.cih.org/news/uk-housing-review-2021-highlights-shocking-fall-in-numbers-of-social-rented-homes

Almost 40% Fewer Social Homes Let During First Six Months Of Pandemic

 The number of new social housing lettings in England fell by 39% between April and September last year compared with the same period in 2019, the latest government data shows. A total of 76,458 social homes were let during the first six months of 2020/21, compared with 125,149 in the first six months of 2019/20. The data covers the majority of the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, starting just eight days after the first national lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/almost-40-fewer-social-homes-let-during-first-six-months-of-pandemic-70260?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Affordable Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

 Stuart Anderson: [166569] To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to build more affordable homes and reduce social housing provider waiting lists.

Christopher Pincher: The new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will leverage up to £38 billion of private finance and provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. Approximately 50% of the homes delivered will be for affordable home ownership. We will also deliver more than double the homes for social rent compared to the current programme, with around 32,000 social rent homes due to be delivered. Furthermore, [the] Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme will deliver approximately 250,000 new affordable homes.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-03-10/166569

Affordable Housing: Building Plans Cut By Two-Thirds For Second Programme

The number of homes built in London with funding from the Affordable Homes Programme is to drop by two thirds, mayor Sadiq Khan has announced. About 35,000 homes are planned by 2026, using £4bn of government funding - an average of £114,000 per house. The cost per house of the first programme, under which 116,000 homes were to be constructed, was £41,551. The Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservative group has accused the mayor of "failing Londoners". A spokesman for the mayor's office said Brexit and the cladding crisis had contributed to an increase in costs. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56222957 

Pandemic Will Hit Housing Association Income By 6% This Year

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will wipe £105m off housing associations’ incomes when compared with pre-pandemic forecasts, according to credit ratings agency Moody’s. New analysis by Moody’s projected that the financial pressures brought by coronavirus will see an increase in unemployment, with arrears rising by one to two percentage points in the year. This equates to 5% to 6% of social housing providers’ (SHPs) income which is now expected to be £105m lower than predicted before the outbreak. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/pandemic-will-hit-housing-association-income-by-6-this-year-moodys-predicts-69762?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Rough Sleeper Numbers Down 37% In England During Covid Pandemic

The number of rough sleepers in England plummeted during the pandemic, data shows, with 2,688 people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2020, down 37% from the previous year. However, the numbers are still 52% higher than in 2010 when such data first started being collected. Homelessness charities said the decrease showed the success of schemes, such as the Everyone In initiative brought in during the first lockdown, to bring people off the streets and provide safe accommodation, but warned numbers could rise once lockdown ended if the government did not make plans to tackle homelessness permanently. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/25/rough-sleepers-england-covid-pandemic-homelessness

Housing Activity Cools In January

The number of properties changing hands dampened down in January, government research shows. There were 121,640 transactions in January 2021, 2.4% less than the month before. However the transaction count is still 24.1% higher year-on-year. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/so-resi-unveils-shared-ownership-sales-agency/ 

London Rental Demand Plummets

All regions of London are experiencing significant drops in rental demand, research from flatshare site SpareRoom has found. West Central London has seen the biggest drop in demand at -43%, followed by East Central (-39%) and West London (-26%). Ipswich (86%), Warrington (84%) and Northampton (82%) are experiencing the biggest increases in rental demand year-on-year. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/london-rental-demand-plummets/