Less Than 15% Of £163m Community Housing Fund Allocated As Deadline Looms

Just £21.1m of the government’s £163m Community Housing Fund has been allocated less than a month before the deadline for bids passes. As of 4 December, 194 applications had been successfully allocated a share of the fund, while nine were unsuccessful and 81 were still pending decisions. According to data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, the biggest share of funding went to housing co-operative Homes for Wells with £584,433, followed by £570,000 for Peak District Rural Housing Association and £535,000 for Bristol City Council. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/less-than-15-of-163m-community-housing-fund-allocated-as-deadline-looms-64464?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Just £10m Allocated In Voluntary Right To Buy Pilot

Only 5% of a £200m pot for a pilot scheme to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants has been spent since its launch last summer, it has emerged. Meanwhile, only 181 sales had been completed by 10 June. However, MHCLG said that “several hundred” applications are at the formal offer stage. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/just-10m-allocated-in-voluntary-right-to-buy-pilot-62248

New Project To Examine Allocation Of Social Housing In England

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is launching a new project to explore how social housing is being allocated across England. The Rethinking allocations project aims to analyse what housing associations and councils are doing now and why they are doing it, and hopes to stimulate debate about how things could be improved. Rethinking allocations is the next stage of CIH’s Rethinking social housing project, which saw more than 3,000 people have their say on the future of social housing via workshops, an online survey and public polling. Read more on the CIH website.

http://www.cih.org/news-article/display/vpathDCR/templatedata/cih/news-article/data/New_project_to_examine_how_social_housing_is_allocated

Government Announces Allocations Of Rough Sleeping Fund

Following on from the launch of its Rough Sleeping Strategy last month, the Government has today announced provisional allocations of a £34m fund to provide local support for those living on the streets. Councils across England with the highest numbers of rough sleepers will receive a share of the funding to back on-going initiatives in their area, such as dedicated support teams and securing additional bed spaces. It will be allocated for council spending over the next two years and is an extension of the £30m that we provided to councils in June through our Rough Sleeping Initiative Fund. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-announces-allocations-of-rough-sleeping-fund/

Council Jobs Set To Be Moved To New Housing Company

An extra 260 council staff are set to see their jobs transferred to a new housing services company. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has founded Unitas which is due to take over responsibility for housing repairs and maintenance from Kier Stoke on February 4. But now council leaders want to expand Unitas' remit to include other housing services, such as allocations, homelessness, housing management and private-sector housing, from mid-2018. That would see 260 council staff move to Unitas this year - in addition to the 500 Kier Stoke maintenance workers already due to be transferred. Read more on the Stoke Sentinel website.

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/260-more-council-jobs-set-1051718

Councils Have ‘Urgent’ Concerns Over Homelessness Reduction Act Delays

Sir Steve Bullock, executive member for housing at London Councils and mayor of Lewisham Council, said in a letter to homelessness minister Marcus Jones that with only seven months until the Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force, councils are still waiting for “much delayed information”. This includes a promised code of guidance from government and “detailed” funding allocations, he said. London Councils has said if the guidance and allocations are not published soon, the act should be delayed until September 2018. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Backs Homelessness Bill With £48 Million For Councils

Councils are to receive a further £48 million funding to help them deliver new and expanded services to prevent and reduce homelessness. This new funding will be available to councils in England to meet the costs of the Homelessness Reduction Private Members’ Bill, which if passed by Parliament, will mean anyone at risk of losing their home will get the help they need more quickly. Under the Bill, local authorities will be required to help all eligible people – whether they are single or a family - for 56 days before they are threatened with homelessness. Those who are already homeless will get support for a further 56 days to help them secure accommodation. Read more on the CLG website.

Investigation Into Fresh Allegations Over Corrupt House Allocations

Fresh allegations over corrupt council house allocations are being investigated by Sandwell Council. Leader Steve Eling confirmed the issue is among a series of matters now being probed by the council’s internal audit team. It comes in the wake of the publication of the Wragge Report earlier this year. Councillor Eling said: “A number of things following the Wragge Report are being internally investigated by the council. This could relate to a number of people. If there is wrong-doing about council house letting, then no member of the council would be able to do it on their own, they would have had to engage with officers also.” Read more on the Express & Star website.

£1.5bn Of New Homes Bonus Cash Allocated

The government has announced New Homes Bonus grant allocations worth a total of £1.5bn for 2016/17. The CLG has revealed the amount of bonus each English local authority will receive. The New Homes Bonus currently rewards councils with a payment equivalent to six years’ council tax for each additional new home they add to their housing stock. The allocations are set to be the last based on six years of council tax. The government has proposed reducing this to four years from 2017/18. It has also suggested changing the scheme so that payments are reduced if planning permission for new homes is granted on appeal and that councils without a Local Plan do not receive any bonus. Find details of the allocations on the CLG website.

DHP Allocations Announced

The DWP has announced individual local authority Discretionary Housing Payment allocations for 2016/17. The DWP published detail of how £150m of government contributions to DHP will be distributed. DHPs are time-limited payments administered by councils to help people with their housing costs. The government increased the overall annual DHP pot by £20m to £150m for 2016/17. Individual allocations are calculated based on assumptions based on previous levels of housing benefit expenditure by councils, and about the impact of policies such as Local Housing Allowance caps, the bedroom tax and the overall household benefits cap. Download details from the DWP website.

High Court Stops Council from Blocking Access to Social Housing for the Homeless

A family lost their privately rented home in Westminster because the benefit cap meant they could no longer afford their rent. Westminster Council agreed it had to accommodate them. But first it placed them in Enfield and then it applied a new rule blocking them from bidding for social housing in Westminster for 12 months. This happened despite the law requiring that homeless people are to be given a “reasonable preference” in the allocation of social housing in the area to which they apply. Westminster’s thinking was that it would use the 12 months to find homes for homeless applicants in the private rented sector – in order to bring its own duties to an end. The High Court has decided that Westminster’s new rule unlawfully blocked homeless people by denying them the preference the law requires them to have. The judge declared the new provisions (brought into Westminster’s Housing Allocation Scheme last year) to be unlawful. Read more on the Garden Court Chambers website.

Council Tenants Demand Control of Their Own Homes

A London local authority's tenants should be given control of their homes for the first time, a meeting of councillors and residents has recommended.  Members of the Economic Regeneration, Housing and the Arts Policy and Accountability Committee officially asked the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham to explore options to give its tenants control of how their homes are run. The Labour-run council will now be asked to create a new residents’ commission on social housing. The committee also asked the council to develop a new policy on how its homes are allocated. Read more on 24dash.

Council Allocation Policies Challenged By Court Ruling

Councils across the country may be forced to tear up allocation policies denying people from accessing housing waiting lists following a successful court challenge. Last Thursday, the Court of Appeal ruled that Hammersmith and Fulham’s policy, which disqualified Lina Jakimaviciute from its housing register because she was living in temporary accommodation, was unlawful. The court found that the policy breached the 1996 Housing act, which requires councils to give ‘reasonable preference’ to homeless people. Lawyers now believe that the ruling sets a legal precedent for other English local authorities. Read more on Inside Housing.

HCA Fully Funds More Than 70% of Affordable Homes Bidders

More than 70% of the providers that bid for government grant funding under the latest affordable homes programme have been allocated the full amount they requested. The HCA allocated £900m of its £1.7bn pot to 164 providers in July, leaving £800m to be allocated throughout the life of the programme. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request the HCA has now confirmed that, unlike previous programmes, 118 bidders received the full grant applied for. A further 46 providers that bid for a total of £549m were collectively refused £93m. There were no outright rejections. Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Consults on Revised Housing Allocations Policy

Barnet Council is consulting on proposed changes to the way it allocates council and housing association homes. Under the new proposals being consulted on, applicants will generally have to live in Barnet for at least five years before they qualify for help with their housing under the allocations scheme.  Applicants currently must live in the borough for at least two years. The council will continue to provide accommodation to people with less than five years residency where it has a statutory duty to do so under homelessness legislation. Read more on the Barnet Council website.

HCA Gives Council £15m to Tackle Housing Shortage

Hull City Council has been awarded over £15 million by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to tackle a shortage of housing stock in the city. The affordable homes programme funding, totally £15,165,300, will be used to deliver 634 'affordable' rented homes through a number of projects across the city, the council says. Read more on the Hull City Council website.

Councils Win Larger Share Of New HCA Allocations

Forty councils will receive funding from the HCA under its 2015/18 affordable homes programme, a big increase over the 19 receiving grant in the 2011/14 programme. They include many ARCH members. Birmingham will get funding for 147 homes, Sheffield for 45 and Epping Forest for 40 grant-aided and 17 nil-grant units. The largest allocations go to stock-retaining councils Hull, for 634 homes, and Leeds, for 408. In addition, 13 London boroughs will get funding for affordable homes from the Mayor of London. These allocations provide further confirmation that councils are planning substantially to increase the number of new homes they are building. Read more on the ARCH website.

Government Announces Latest Round of Affordable Homes Spending

Ministers have announced the successful bids for almost 62,000 homes under the first phase of the £23 billion programme, which will deliver 165,000 new affordable homes over 3 years from 2015. Download the initial allocation list – by provider – from the HCA website.

£900 Million of Allocations for 2015-18 Affordable Homes

A total of 160 housing providers across England are set to benefit from £886 million of affordable homes funding, according to initial allocations published by the HCA.  A total of 43,821 new affordable homes will be delivered across 2,697 schemes, making a significant initial contribution to the Government’s ambition for 165,000 new affordable homes by March 2018, while supporting overall housing supply and local economic growth. The initial allocations have been made under the HCA’s 2015-18 Affordable Homes Programme, following a competitive bidding process for £1.7 billion of funding. They are the result of rigorous assessment, based on fit with local priorities, value for money and deliverability. Allocations have been discussed with the relevant local council to align investment with local priorities for their area.  Read more on the HCA website.

New Homes Bonus Returned Funding Grant Determination For 2014 To 2015

This is funding that was originally allocated from the Local Government Finance Settlement 2014 to 2015 to fund the New Homes Bonus. There was a commitment that any funding not used for this purpose would be returned to local authorities pro rata to their 2014 to 2015 start-up funding allocation. The amounts involved for each relevant local authority are consistent with the information on the Local Government Finance Settlement 2014 to 2015. Find the allocation for each local authority on the Gov UK website.