Shapps: Bedroom Tax Savings to Be Used To Build New Homes

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps has said that the money the government has saved through the bedroom tax will be used to build new homes for people on housing waiting lists. The former housing minister was defending the controversial under-occupancy policy in his constituency of Welwyn Hatfield, where rent arrears have soared by 60% since its introduction last April. It is thought to be the first time that a senior member of the coalition has outlined how the money the bedroom tax has netted for the government will be spent. Read more on 24dash.

Council Wins Challenge over ALMO Assessments

A council which contracted out its homelessness decision making to an ALMO acted lawfully, a court has ruled. Welwyn Hatfield Council faced appeals from three residents who were denied priority need after being assessed by the ALMO. Under the council’s constitution, ‘discretionary decision making’ powers cannot be contracted out, and the appellants had argued it was therefore unlawful to put the ALMO in charge of homelessness assessments. But Justice Robert Jay, sitting in the High Court, dismissed the challenge after finding that decisions on who is owed a homelessness duty are a ‘tightly controlled statutory scheme’, not discretionary. Read more on Inside Housing.

When Is a Bedroom Not a Bedroom?

When it’s in a Welwyn Hatfield Council area.  Welwyn Hatfield Council lies in the Constituency of Grant Shapps, former Housing Minister. The Cabinet of Welwyn Hatfield Council have decided to ‘Reclassify Bedrooms’.  According to the minutes of a recent Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust Panel meeting “The Panel recommended that Council homes with one bedroom which was less than 50 square feet (4.65 square metres) be reclassified so that a room of this size or smaller was not classed as a bedroom for welfare reform purposes.

RESOLVED:

That the Panel’s recommendation be approved and Council homes with

one bedroom which was less than 50 square feet (4.65 square metres) be reclassified so that a room of this size or smaller”   Read more on the Michelle Kent blog.

MP Attacks Allocation of £1.4m of Right to Buy Cash

A former Labour housing minister has accused the government of favouring Tory areas when allocating £1.14 million of funding to promote the right to buy.  John Healey, the MP for Wentworth and Dearne, made the claim after questions he submitted in parliament revealed Welwyn Hatfield was one of the areas to receive funding. Welwyn Hatfield is the constituency of former Conservative housing minister Grant Shapps. The government has said right to buy marketing spending was allocated based on levels of housing stock, but Welwyn Hatfield comes 63rd on the list of stock holding councils. Read more on Inside Housing.