Voluntary Right To Buy Pilot Cash Was Redirected To ACM Fund

Ministers redirected cash set aside for the regional Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) pilot to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding from private sector blocks amid unexpectedly low demand. Launched in August 2018 for housing associations across the Midlands, the VRTB pilot was tied to £200m of funding predicted to pay for discounts on around 3,000 sales. But a recent Freedom of Information response from the MHCLG said: “The applications and sales progressed more slowly than expected, and the level of dropout was higher than was forecasted, which meant that there was spare budget in 2019/20. “Ministers decided to allocate some of that budget to urgent priorities, including the Private Sector ACM [Aluminium Composite Material] Cladding Remediation Fund.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/voluntary-right-to-buy-pilot-cash-was-redirected-to-acm-fund-68676?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Shift Homelessness Funding From Crisis Response To Prevention, Say ALMOs

Homelessness budgets should be shifted to focus on prevention measures rather than crisis response, the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) has said. In a new report by NFA, the body has said more funding should be put to the areas that ensure people do not end up on the streets in the first place. This includes removing benefit and Local Housing Allowance caps, providing targeted funding initiatives to employment initiatives and undertaking a significant escalation in the development of truly affordable social homes. Download the report from the NFA website.

http://www.almos.org.uk/document?id=8653

Councils Stretch Housing Budgets To Fund Fire Safety Work

The government has still given no financial help to local councils to carry out essential fire safety work, forcing councils to stretch already limited housing budgets to cover the cost. In a survey of 31 local councils whose tower blocks failed fire safety checks since the Grenfell Tower disaster, none said they had received financial assistance from central government to carry out work. That is despite top officials telling a committee of MPs that four councils would receive help “in the next few weeks” on 15 January, almost three months ago. Housing minister Dominic Raab said “there may be circumstances where government would consider the removal of financial restrictions to enable works to go ahead”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yVkef-UyxksJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-stretch-housing-budgets-as-government-continues-to-refuse-to-fund-fire-safety-work-55757+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

RTB Replacements Pledge Under Threat

The government is on course to break its pledge to replace council homes sold under the Right to Buy by more than 14,000 homes.  To meet the promise, made by David Cameron in 2011, councils must build almost 21,000 more replacement homes by March 2019. But with housing budgets under pressure, the number of replacements started by councils fell 27% to just 2,055 in the last financial year – less than a third of what is needed annually.  A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “If we are to stand any chance of solving our housing crisis, councils must be able to replace all sold homes.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Social Rented Housing - Parliamentary Written Answer

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG what representations he has received from social housing providers on the effect on their budgets of planned welfare reform changes and the risk of increased movements of tenants, non-payment of rent and number of voids.

Mr Prisk: Ministers and officials from the CLG are in regular contact with social housing providers across a range of issues.  We intend to use the evidence gathered from the demonstration projects to inform the design of universal credit, including the safeguards needed to protect the financial position of social landlords and prevent tenants from falling into significant debt.  In addition, the removal of the spare room subsidy will be monitored and evaluated over a two year period from April this year, with initial findings available in 2014 and a final report in late 2015. Among other questions, the evaluation will consider the impact of the measure on landlords' finances, by means of small scale primary research with a range of social landlords.