High Homeless Death Counts Linked To Councils Worst Affected By Cuts

Nine of the 10 councils with the highest numbers of homeless deaths in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017 have had cuts of more than three times the national average of £254 for every household. Labour has released analysis accounting for council funding cuts disproportionately hitting areas that have the highest numbers of homeless deaths among homeless people, according to a Labour party analysis. Shadow housing secretary John Healey said the stats showed the need for a future PM to acknowledge the present £30m effort to end rough sleeping as “pitiful” and back Labour’s plans to build thousands more homes. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/analysis-links-high-homeless-death-stats-to-councils-worst-hit-by-cuts/

Delivering Social Housing On A Budget

Between 2010 and 2015 local government faced upwards of £18bn in real terms cuts, losing on average 20% of its spending power. Meanwhile, social housing waiting lists are rising, local authorities are struggling to deliver their 5 year housing land supply and the Right to Buy uptake has overtaken the provision of new social housing. Faced with these problems, local authorities have increasingly turned to setting up arms-length commercial entities known as Housing Delivery Vehicles ("HDVs"). At their best, HDVs can allow public assets to be put to effective use to bring in revenue for struggling Councils and help to mitigate the housing crisis where there is a huge demand for affordable social housing that far outstrips supply. Read more on the Lexology website.

Council Cuts Will Lead To More People Sleeping Rough

Huge cuts to homelessness services will trigger a surge in the number of people forced to sleep on the streets and pile more pressure on hard-pressed NHS and social care services, charities have said. Several councils are preparing to axe housing support services, including hostel beds, refuges and sheltered housing, as they struggle to meet the demands of a fresh round of multimillion-pound budget cuts from April. In Sunderland, the housing support budget for homeless people in the city is being cut to zero. Read more on the Guardian website.

RTPI: Planning Reforms Are Hampering Housebuilding

More than half of planners surveyed by the Royal Town Planning Institute believe planning reforms have hindered the building of new homes. A report published today by the RTPI called Delivering the value of planning is heavily critical of what it calls the “almost continual changes in planning policy” over the last 30 years.  The report reveals 53% of 420 RTPI members to respond to an online survey think planning changes have hindered housing development, while 73% said they have “hindered their ability to deliver good places”. It said changes to policy, along with local government budget cuts, have limited the ability of planning authorities to ensure more and better development. Download the report from the RTPI website.

Universal Credit Postcode Lottery Will Make Some Families £3,000 Worse Off Than Others

Iain Duncan Smith has been accused of ushering in a new postcode lottery by pushing ahead with cuts to Universal Credit, which will see some benefit recipients up to £3,000 worse off next year than other claimants in exactly the same circumstances. George Osborne announced he had abandoned plans to impose £4.4bn of cuts to working tax credits from next April but these cuts will take effect for thousands of families on Universal Credit next year. This means that a single mother of two working full-time on the minimum wage and claiming Universal Credit will have a net income that is £2,981 lower next year than someone in the same circumstances who is claiming tax credits.  Read more on the Independent website.

Healey Slams Conservative Failings On Housebuilding

Conservative ministers have built a track record of failure when it comes to housebuilding over the last five years, according to Labour’s shadow housing and planning minister John Healey MP.  “The number of homes built in the best year of the last government’s five years was still lower than the worst year of the previous 13 Labour years… 124,980 homes built in the depths of the recession in 2009, under Labour but five years later in 2014, the best year of the last Parliament with a much-trumpeted growing economy, only 117 720,” he said.  Healey was speaking at in the House of Commons during CLG departmental questions session. During the session, he also effectively suggested communities secretary Greg Clark had offered up his department as a ‘sacrificial lamb’ for agreeing with the Treasury to 8% cuts each year to his department’s budget ahead of the spending review later this month. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

CLG Signs Up To 30% Cuts By 2020

The Treasury and three other departments – Communities and Local Government, Transport and Environment – have agreed to slash spending by 8% per year until the end of this Parliament, chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce. According to media reports, the four departments are the first to agree to the steep cuts ahead of the Spending Review on 25 November, where Osborne will outline £20bn of savings for this Parliament. The cutback – an overall average of nearly 30% of existing budgets over this Parliament – is in line with the chancellor’s modelled savings announced in July, where he asked departments to look into scenarios of 25% and 40% reductions. Read more on the Public Sector Executive website.

Landlords Consider Cuts Of Up To 25%

Some housing associations are eyeing cuts to operating costs of up to 25% a year to cope with government cuts. Several landlords this week revealed the extent of expenditure reduction they feel may be needed to ensure their business can deal with the four-year, 1% annual social housing rent cut and expected future reductions. Plus Dane has asked its leadership team to model cuts of up to 25% of the organisation’s annual operating costs in year one of the rent cut. Read more on Inside Housing.

Planning Cuts Are 'Holding Back' House Building

Cuts to planning departments are frustrating rather than boosting house building, a new report has said.  Interviews with developers and planning officers found that both parties were concerned by cuts to council’s planning departments.  The Smith Institute report, produced in association with Barratt Developments, found there was consensus that greater resources could enable council officers to pay full attention to the progress of a scheme through the planning process. There were also concerns raised over neighbourhood planning- which gives communities the power to issue plans dictating where homes should be built- could slow or threaten schemes. Download the report from the Smith Institute website.

Revealed: The Extent of Single Homeless Cuts

Freedom of Information Act requests shows how single homeless people have been disproportionately hit by council budget cuts. Councils across England have slashed funding for single homeless people support services by more than a quarter since the last election. Research using the Freedom of Information Act by Inside Housing found 77 local authorities cut a total of £34m from their housing-related support budgets for homeless individuals between 2010/11 and 2013/14 - a drop of 26 per cent. The findings will fuel fears that councils are slashing non-statutory services hard to shore up their budgets in the face of funding cuts. Read more on Inside Housing.

Temporary Housing Funding Cut

Cuts to the funding of council-owned temporary accommodation will cost local authorities across Britain tens of millions of pounds. Currently, if councils use their own housing stock as temporary housing, they pay for the accommodation themselves and claim the money back from the DWP through what is known as a rent ‘rebate’ system.  However, a circular recently released by the DWP outlined that under universal credit, the amount councils can claim will be restricted to the rate of local housing allowance plus £45 per week. Temporary accommodation owned by private providers and housing associations is already limited to similar restrictions. Councils have said this doesn’t take furnishing and maintenance costs into account. Download a copy of the circular from the GovUK website.

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State (1) what assessment he has made of the effect on house building of his plans to transfer £400 million of New Homes Bonus funding to local enterprise partnerships;

 (2) whether the £400 million which is being transferred from local authorities' New Homes Bonus funds into local enterprise partnerships budgets will be counted as local authority budget cuts.

Kris Hopkins: The proposal for local authorities to pool a proportion of their New Homes Bonus in 2015-16 was the subject of a technical consultation carried out between July and September this year. That consultation set out our expectation that authorities would receive the New Homes Bonus they had earned, and that pooling would be local. We are currently considering the responses to the consultation and will announce a way forward in due course. Government support and investment in housing is having an effect. Housing supply is now at its highest since 2008, with 334,000 new homes built over the last three years. In the most recent quarter, housing starts are up by 33% on last year.

Council to Bank Homes Bonus to Offset Cuts

Cherwell District Council is to set aside almost half the bonus cash it gets for building new homes to make up for future government budget cuts . At a meeting last week the council’s executive agreed how it would spend the £1,340,156 it has been allocated under the Government’s New Homes Bonus for this financial year. Councillors decided to reserve 50 per cent of the funds – equating to £619, 958 – to make up for current and future cuts in government grants. Read more on the Banbury Guardian website.

Councils Close To Going Bust

The most senior Conservative in local government has warned that the finances of some councils are close to breaking point as a result of the latest round of government-imposed spending cuts. Sir Merrick Cockell, chair of the Local Government Association, predicts that some councils will go bust after it emerged last month that the next round of budget cuts will amount to 15% for the financial year 2015-16. Previously, chancellor George Osborne had set out a 10% cut in the comprehensive spending review last June — an increase in the sought for spending reductions that Cockell told the Guardian was unsustainable. Read more on the Guardian website.

Councils' Raids on Tenant Rent Accounts

Councils are drawing millions of pounds from their tenants’ rent account to fund support services for the government’s controversial welfare cuts and prop up their falling budgets.  The social tenant rent raid is revealed by LGC research into 13 councils’ housing revenue account business plans for 2013-14.  These show authorities across England are switching the cost of buildings and services such as libraries, community centres and street lighting from their general funds to the HRA. Almost £5m of these so-called ‘savings’ have been made by just five councils found to be carrying out such transfers. In the most significant shift, Portsmouth City Council predicts it will save £2.1m from its general fund over the next three years by shifting costs linked to libraries, youth clubs, a community centre and car parks to the HRA.  Read more on the Local Government Chronicle website.

Council Confirms Record Supporting People Cut

Derby Council has agreed the biggest ever cut made by a local authority to a Supporting People budget.  It will reduce the planned budget of £9.3 million this financial year to £6.6 million, and then reduce the SP budget to £3.8 million in 2013/14 and to £1.8 million in 2014/15. This equates to an 81 per cent cut over three years. Read more on Inside Housing.

Council to Slash Homelessness Funding By 81%

A council will slash its funding its Supported People services by 81 percent over the next three years. Derby City Council's cabinet has approved proposals to cut housing-related support from £9.3 million this financial year to £3.8 million in 2013/14 and to £1.8 million in 2014/15. Charity Homeless Link has warned the council that its cuts could force local charities to close, leading to more rough sleeping, more work for police and NHS services and an increase to the chances of vulnerable people coming to harm.  Read more on 24dash.

Cuts Are Pushing Up Number of Rough Sleepers

The first signs of a homelessness crisis in England's towns and cities are emerging, with increases in rough sleeping, street drinking, crime and antisocial behaviour as a result of swingeing cuts to hostel and housing services, according to a new report.  Charities have warned that they are struggling to keep the lid on spiralling demand for shelter and support among homeless people, while grappling with average funding cuts of 15%, the loss of one in 10 staff, and the promise of more cuts to come in the coming months.  More projects are refusing to work with difficult clients because they cannot ensure the safety of staff. More than half of all homeless projects saw funding reduced during 2011-12, with 55% saying they faced further cuts. It is also becoming harder to move homeless people into work and long-term, stable accommodation because of funding reductions, housing shortages, benefit cuts and the deteriorating jobs market, says the report.  Of those projects which faced cuts, 52% said they had seen an increase in rough sleeping as a result, 48% reported more antisocial behaviour, and 41% a rise in street drinking. A third said they had witnessed an increase in crime.  Download a copy of the report from the Homeless Link website.

Shock as Homeless Man Dies On City Streets

A homelessness charity hit by crippling cuts has taken its plight to the House of Commons. It comes as details have emerged of the first death of a rough sleeper on Nottingham's streets for many years. Homelessness charity Framework – which has seen cuts of up to 44 per cent in some areas – had previously warned there could be deaths as a result. Yesterday they joined forces with MPs from all parties to lobby the Government at a reception held to celebrate the charity's 10th anniversary. Andrew Redfern, the charity's chief executive, said the funding cuts would "turn back the clock" for homeless support and added that there were already six times more people sleeping on the streets of Nottingham than there were this time last year. He said: "The results of such short-sightedness, combined with the prevailing economic climate have created a perfect storm. More people are becoming homeless at a time when our ability to help them is under increasing strain." Read more on the Evening Post website.

88% of Local Authorities Admit That Housing Support Cuts Will ‘Put Vulnerable People at Risk’

Almost 9 out of 10 (88 per cent) local authorities admit that cuts to housing support ‘will put vulnerable people at risk’ and more than 90 per cent say they ‘will create more costs elsewhere in the system’, according to a major new report published. These are the findings of ‘Promoting Independence: the future of housing related support’ - published by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and Circle Housing Group. The research, into cuts to Supporting People (SP) budgets, surveyed 139 local authorities in the UK. The report also found that while 93 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Supporting People services have been successful, 44 per cent reported that they were reducing the level of service they could offer in order to make savings. Download a copy of the report from the Circle website.