Council Leader Appointed To Top Job At HCA

Chairman of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Sir Edward Lister has announced Nick Walkley as the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the agency. The government recently published a wide-ranging review of the HCA to help improve its efficiency and provide greater focus to its housebuilding work. Nick joins the agency with years of experience of providing strong leadership and delivering housing and regeneration schemes. He has been Chief Executive of Haringey council for the past 4 years, having previously been Chief Executive of Barnet council. Read more on the HCA website.

New HMO Restrictions Introduced In Barnet

New planning controls restricting the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) have been introduced in the London Borough of Barnet. Last month Barnet Council implemented a borough wide HMO Article 4 Direction to restrict new house and flat shares and bedsits. This means planning permission will be required to convert a single family house (use class C3) to an HMO occupied by three or more people who are not all related and share facilities.Prior to this, landlords only needed planning permission to change a family property into a HMO if it was occupied by more than six people. Read more on the RLA website.

Domestic Violence Victims Told To Register As Homeless To Be Rehoused

Barnet Council has been accused of trying to penalise domestic violence victims by forcing them to declare themselves homeless before they can be rehoused. Under the new housing allocation scheme, which is currently under public consultation, victims of domestic violence would have to apply to the council as homeless in order to be rehoused in temporary accommodation. Council chiefs say this will help those fleeing violence to be rehoused immediately. However, housing experts and domestic violence charities have argued the system will unfairly penalise those trying to escape violence by removing their priority status on the housing waiting list and reduce the likelihood of them being placed back in council accommodation. Read more on the Barnet Today website.

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.