West Midlands Housebuilding Figures ‘More Than Doubled’

Nearly 17,000 homes were built in the West Midlands last year – double the number of homes constructed in the region in the last eight years. According to latest figures from MHCLG, a total of 16,938 properties were built in 2018/19 – a 15% rise on the previous year and twice the UK average increase. The number compares to just 7,500 homes built in 2011. The numbers come as a “major boost” for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area – said to need to build 215,000 new homes by 2031. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/west-midlands-housebuilding-figures-more-than-doubled/

West Midlands Partnership To Deliver 4,000 New Homes

More than 4,000 new homes are set to be built across the West Midlands, after a deal between the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Lovell Partnerships. The partnership is due to bring together public and private sector skills and investment to unlock old industrial land for development. Outlined in proposals, the 4,000 new homes will be constructed over the next eight years, aligning with the region’s efforts to build 215,000 new homes by 2031. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/west-midlands-partnership-to-deliver-4000-new-homes/

Housing: Sales – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the disparity in discounts on properties offered to (a) council tenants and (b) right to buy schemes.

Kit Malthouse: The Voluntary Right to Buy pilot currently underway in the Midlands is giving thousands of housing association tenants in the East and West Midlands the opportunity to apply to purchase their homes at Right to Buy level discounts. The pilot will be independently evaluated after completion and future policy decisions will be taken in light of that evaluation.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-07-11/276185

Black Country leads the way to provide free housing for rough sleepers

Ministers announced earlier this year that the West Midlands had been chosen to pilot the £9.6 million Housing First scheme, which provides homes for people sleeping on the streets. And the Express & Star can reveal that Walsall Council has led the way on the project, with the authority housing 29 rough sleepers so far. Meanwhile, Sandwell Council says it helped 40 homeless people into secure accommodation when the Beast from the East hit earlier this year. It came as West Midlands Mayor Andy Street announced a winter plan for rough sleepers aimed at combatting homelessness in the coming months. Read more on the Express and Star website.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/politics/2018/12/17/black-country-leads-the-way-to-provide-free-housing-for-rough-sleepers/ 

Housing Association Tenants In Midlands To Be Given Right To Buy

The government has announced a £200m pilot scheme to extend right to buy to housing association tenants, with a pledge to replace each property sold with a new affordable home. The announcement came days after the government scrapped a plan from 2015 to force the sale of council homes in areas with high-value properties. That proposal had been intended to fund the national rollout of the right-to-buy policy for housing associations tenants. It is now unclear how the nationwide scheme will be paid for. The pilot will be funded by £200m from funding already earmarked in the 2017 budget, with places on the scheme allocated via a ballot. Tenants have one month from the scheme’s launch to make their application. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/16/housing-association-tenants-in-midlands-to-be-given-right-to-buy

Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what the funding arrangements are for the Right to Buy pilot for tenants of housing associations in the Midlands this summer; and how long the pilot will last.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: In the Autumn Budget 2017 the Chancellor announced funding of £200 million for the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot, which will be launched this summer. The Government will fund the cost of the discounts, and all sales under the pilot are expected to be completed by March 2020.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-06-18/HL8720

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to the pilot on right-to-buy for housing associations to date; and how much has been committed in funding for that right-to-buy for each year from 2018-19 to 2022-23 inclusive.

Alok Sharma: In the Autumn Budget the Government announced a £200 million voluntary Right to Buy regional pilot in the Midlands, allocating £50 million of funding for 2018/19 and a further £150 million for 2019/20. This will give thousands more housing association tenants the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of home ownership.

Delayed Right To Buy Pilot For Housing Association Tenants To Go Ahead

A question mark has hung over the pilot that was first announced at the Autumn Statement last year after it was not introduced as expected in April. However, Autumn Budget documents reveal that funding has been set aside for the pilot - with £85m of additional spend planned in 2019/20. The total cost will be £200m. The Budget states: “The Budget confirms that government will proceed with a £200m large-scale regional pilot of the Right to Buy for housing association tenants in the Midlands”. There was no further mention of the sale of high-value council homes in the Budget documents, which is supposed to fund the wider roll out of the scheme. Read more on Inside Housing.

West Midlands Associations Consider Using Choice-Based Lettings For Right To Buy

Housing associations in the West Midlands are considering using the region’s choice-based lettings system to help those in ineligible properties for the Right to Buy identify alternative homes. The region would act as a full-scale pilot of the RtB extension, meaning associations are obliged to identify an alternative, available housing association home where properties are excluded. This could occur due to planning conditions, financial covenants on a property or specific types of housing such as rural. In a smaller pilot last year, around a third of more than 50,000 homes in the pilot were excluded. Read more on Inside Housing.

West Midlands 'Selected' As Right To Buy Pilot Region

The government is understood to have chosen the West Midlands as the area for its regional Right to Buy pilot. However, it is understood little detail was given in the early conversations about how the pilot would work in practice. The area had been strongly rumoured to be in line for the pilot since the Autumn Statement last year, when chancellor Philip Hammond announced a regional Right to Buy pilot. The government has budgeted £25m for the Right to Buy pilot in 2017/18, with £90m next year and £250m in total through to 2021, with more than 3,000 tenants expected to buy. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right To Buy Extension Pilot Could Damage Supply In West Midlands

A West Midlands pilot of the Right to Buy for housing associations could add to stock pressures in the region, a new report warns. The report, which was authored by independent think tanks Futures Network West Midlands and the Human City Institute, argues that associations offering tenants the right to purchase their homes at a discount could lead to dwindling numbers of high quality social housing stock. Housing minister Gavin Barwell has said the West Midlands is a “strong contender” for a regional voluntary Right to Buy pilot for associations. Read more on Inside Housing.

Farron Attempts To Curb Right To Rent Policy

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has tabled a motion to axe the Right to Rent plans that Farron has blasted as ‘dog whistle politics of the worst kind’. A trial of Right to Rent, introduced in the West Midlands in 2014, resulted in only one fine being issued to a landlord. The burden is enormous with England’s 1.8 million private landlords, 75% of whom only own one or two properties, being required to check prospective tenants’ immigration status from 1 February. Campaigners fear that, rather than carry out the checks, some landlords will simply select people on the grounds of their name or ethnicity. Read more on 24dash.

Report Finds Right To Rent Discrimination

Private landlords have instructed letting agents not to let to “any foreigners” as a result of the Right to Rent checks, a government report has found. The finding was included in a Home Office evaluation into the government’s scheme to force landlords to check the migration status of their tenants or face a fine of up to £3,000 per tenant. Ministers today also said the scheme, which has been piloted in the West Midlands since December 2014, will be rolled out across the country from February 2016. The Home Office report said: “[Letting agents] reported that they had landlords who had instructed them not to let to non-European Economic Area (EEA) applicants or to ‘any foreigners’.” Download the report from the Home Office website.

“Limited Evidence” Proves Need To Think Again On Migrant Rental Checks

Government efforts to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to access rented housing have been left in tatters following the publication of a new report. With the Home Office confirming that the scheme will be rolled out across England from the 1st February next year, its own analysis of the pilot scheme has undermined the central purpose of the policy. The assessment notes that there is only “limited evidence” from the pilot scheme area “that illegal migrants’ access to the private rental sector…was being restricted.”The findings show also that of those landlords in the West Midlands who had carried out Right to Rent checks, the proportion that now always request photo identification of tenants has increased from fifty one per cent to eighty one per cent. Download a copy of the report from the Home Office website. 

Immigration Plans See Lawful Tenants Refused Housing

The warning comes on the day that new research indicates the difficulties caused by the Government’s ‘Right to Rent’ scheme, piloted in the West Midlands. Under the Government’s plans, private sector landlords are legally responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants. Having been piloted, the Government announced last month that it would be expanded nationwide, with landlords facing up to five years in prison for failure to undertake the right checks. According to research published by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, landlords in the West Midlands are becoming increasingly cautious about renting property out to any tenant with identity documents which are not familiar, with many landlords unclear about the processes they are expected to follow. Read more on the RLA website.

'Right to Rent' Checks Start In West Midlands

Landlords in the West Midlands who fail to check whether prospective tenants are in the country legally will face a £3,000 fine, under a new rule expected to be rolled out across the UK. The Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton area is the first where the check must be made. Landlords now must ask to see evidence of a person's identity and citizenship. In cases where a passport cannot be produced, landlords can request further checks via a government website.  Read more on the BBC website.

Coalition Rolls Out Immigration Rental Check Scheme

The coalition government has begun an immigration rental check pilot scheme across five local authority areas in the Midlands. From 1 December, private landlords in the regions of Sandwell, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley will be required to check that their prospective tenants have a right to live in the UK before letting to them. Though the new rules will only apply to tenancies begun after 1 December, landlords that rent to anyone not legally entitled to reside in the country after that date will face a fine of £3,000. The new rules also apply to those who take in lodgers to "share their accommodation with a licence to occupy the property". Read more on the RLA website.

Tenants to Save After £11m Eco Scheme

Social housing tenants in the West Midlands are set to save "hundreds of pounds" on their household bills after the completion of a £11 million eco improvement programme. Social landlord Whitefriars Housing has spent three years making its homes more energy efficient - and has claimed that some tenants could see savings of up to £300 a year. Contractor Wates Living Space, which carried out the works in partnership with British Gas, has made adaptations to more than 1,000 homes in Willenhall over the course of the programme. Read more on 24dash.

Social Landlord Appointed As Help to Buy Agent

Social landlord Orbit Group has been awarded contracts to deliver the government's help to buy scheme in the West and East Midlands. The contracts, which were awarded by the Homes and Communities Agency, are for two years, with an option to extend. This contract win means Orbit, which provides more than 38,000 homes across England, continues to be one of the largest help to buy agents in the country. The social landlord has been delivering HomeBuy and help to buy contracts for the last five years. Read more on 24dash.

'Virtual Merger' To Support Tenants Hit By Welfare Reform

Councils and social landlords across the West Midlands have come together in a 'virtual merger' and are pooling together stock in a bid to help tenants hit by the Government's welfare reforms.  According to the Government's impact analysis, some 60,000 working age claimants across the West Midlands will be affected by the under-occupation rules alone, losing on average £14 a week.  In response to the welfare changes, seven of the largest West Midlands local authorities and nine of the largest social housing providers are joining forces to agree joint action on welfare reform.  Diane Middleton, Chair of the West Midlands Making Best Use of Stock (WMBUS), said: “We have a duty to protect our residents.  To do this we intend to pool some of our housing stock, jointly identify where and what local and regional needs are, share best practice and communicate consistently to customers.”  WMBUS, which is being supported by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Best Use of Stock Team, is hosting a summit on June 21 for the housing providers, private landlords and regional developers involved in the group.  Read more on 24dash.