New Sleaze Allegation Against Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick

The Times has revealed new allegations concerning the behaviour of Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. Last year Jenrick - along with junior housing minister Jake Berry - intervened in the process of awarding hundreds of millions of pounds of public money to local areas under a regeneration scheme called the Towns Fund. The newspaper alleges that in September of 2019 - a few months before the General Election - Jenrick and Berry personally chose 61 of the 101 towns which would each receive £25m. Typically, the selection would have been made by civil servants acting impartially. No fewer than 60 of the areas selected were in Conservative-held seats or target seats to be won at the election. Read more on Estate Agent Today.

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2020/9/new-sleaze-allegation-against-housing-secretary-robert-jenrick 

Landlords Pushing Up Rents To Exploit Housing Benefit Shortfall

Benefit cuts and unscrupulous landlords have combined to create an explosion in temporary housing that is costing taxpayers more than a billion pounds a year. The latest figures reveal that housing benefit does not cover rents in 95 per cent of the country, pushing thousands of families into homelessness. The gap between welfare support and costs is more than £100 a month in much of England and in excess of £900 in central London. Spending by councils on emergency bed and breakfast accommodation has risen by 147 per cent in five years. The number of units has grown by only 32 per cent, leading to claims that rates are being inflated by “wily landlords” to take advantage of spiralling demand.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/landlords-pushing-up-rents-to-exploit-housing-benefit-shortfall-bpvht6lbg

Hammond Rebuffed Over Budget Plan For Green Belt Housing

Theresa May is resisting calls from Philip Hammond to free green belt land for housing as he seeks radical cost-free measures for the budget. The chancellor wants to use next month’s statement to continue to tackle Britain’s poor productivity, and the lack of housing in high-demand areas is regarded as a key factor. Mr Hammond has been arguing within the cabinet for months that some of the protected countryside should be reclassified as part of a housing package that could allow extra borrowing to fund house building.  Read more on The Times website.

Renters On Housing Benefit Barred From Buy-To-Let Homes

Banks are pushing families to the brink of homelessness by banning buy-to-let landlords from renting to people on housing benefit. Two thirds of the biggest lenders will not accept applications from landlords who let to tenants who are receiving help from the state. The policy excludes a significant number of the working poor from accessing a large chunk of private rented accommodation, research shows. With greater demand on social housing and a buoyant rental market, low-income workers often have no choice but to accept unsafe or unsanitary housing. In the worst cases they have to accept temporary or emergency accommodation, according to Shelter, the housing charity. Read more on the Times website.

Loophole Opens Way For Green Belt Homes

Thousands more homes could be built on the green belt because of loopholes in the government’s plan to accelerate housebuilding, according to a conservation group. Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, told MPs on Tuesday that the green belt was “safe in our hands” and that the government would keep all its “existing strong protections”. However, the housing white paper contains a proposal for councils to review their plans in which they allocate land for housing at least every five years. Read more on the Times website.

Bid To Stop People Refusing Social Housing

A scheme will be introduced across all local authorities within the next six months in a bid to crack down on those refusing social housing, the housing minister has said. Simon Coveney said that every county council would be required to introduce the scheme, which is designed to get tenants into social housing more quickly. Read more on the Times website.

Working Families Shut Out Of Help-To-Buy

A third of working private tenants cannot afford to take advantage of three government flagship schemes to help them own a home, a study by the housing charity Shelter reveals. The help-to-buy, starter homes and shared ownership schemes are too expensive for more than 830,000 of the “treadmill families” for whom they were intended, according to an analysis of the official family resources survey and data on households with below average income. Help-to-buy allows people to buy with a 5% deposit and a government equity loan of 20% of the price, while starter homes are sold at a 20% discount to under-40s. Shared ownership allows them to buy 25-75% of a property and pay rent on the rest. Read more on the Times website.

Hotel Bills For Homeless People Run Into Billions

Councils have spent billions of pounds putting homeless people up in bed and breakfasts, hotels and private rented homes. In London, where the problem is worst, councils spent more than £1.25 billion over five years. Spending on temporary accommodation has risen by 143 per cent since 2011-12 and spending on B&Bs nearly trebled. Data provided by London councils shows that the average length of stay rose by more than a third to 268 days, despite the rules stipulating a six-week limit. Read more on The Times website.

Oxford to Buy Houses for Homeless Outside City

The city of Oxford will today put forward plans to buy social homes from outside its boundaries for the first time because of spiralling house prices, which are rising faster than in London. The local authority will be the first outside the capital that can no longer afford to provide social housing for its homeless families. The plans came under immediate attack from housing organisations, which said that it was “shocking” that families had to be uprooted and sent miles away from their community. Read more on the Times website.

London Council Plans to Build Houses for Its Tenants outside Capital

A London borough is planning to build hundreds of council houses outside the capital for the first time to meet a critical housing shortage. Westminster council said it could no longer build enough affordable homes in the city to keep up with demands so it had decided to look at buying land in the commuter belt. The scheme, now out for consultation, has to overcome planning and logistical obstacles and may be opposed by councils where the homes would be built. Read more on The Times website.

Jobless May Lose Share of Home In Return For Benefits

Unemployed homeowners will have to give a stake of the equity in their home to the State in return for help in paying their mortgage, under a plan favoured by ministers. The move would break new ground in funding the welfare state and could save millions of pounds. Under the proposals, unemployed homeowners who qualify for the scheme would be given indefinite help paying the interest on their mortgage. The State would recoup some of the money when the claimant died or sold their house. From The Times.

Charities Call For Under 25s to Keep Housing Benefit

A letter from 13 charities calling on the government not to cut housing benefit for the under 25s has been published by The Times.  It said the cut would penalise young working adults with low earnings. It stated: ‘It will take away a vital safety net for young adults who lose their job, experience domestic violence, become ill or disabled, or who are themselves bringing up children. We urge the prime minister and the coalition government not to cut housing benefit entitlement for under-25s.’  The letter is signed by heads of charities including homelessness charity Shelter, umbrella group Homeless Link, charity the Children’s Society and the charity for single parents Gingerbread.  Read more on the Shelter website.

We’re Picking Up The Bill For Right-To-Buy

It’s folly that taxpayers pay for poor families to live in luxury homes. We need more social housing. Laughable though it sounds now, the stated purpose of reforming housing benefit two years ago was to save the taxpayer money. The result is a housing benefit bill that will soar by 15 per cent to £19.6 billion this year and which pays 550 families sums in excess of £30,000 a year. The farce that is the housing benefit system has its origins in the right-to-buy policy introduced 30 years ago by Margaret Thatcher. Read the rst of this opinion piece on The Times website by clicking on the logo below.