Locked Out: How Britain Keeps People Homeless

Families on housing benefit are priced out of almost all homes to rent in Britain, according to new research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. As part of an investigation into housing and new homelessness laws, the Bureau has found that councils have been increasingly encouraging those facing or experiencing homelessness to try renting privately, rather than wait for a council house.

However, only 1 in 20 of two-bed properties in the research were affordable. In some cities, the Bureau found almost no affordable two-bed flats to rent. Read more on the BIJ website.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-10-04/locked-out-how-britain-keeps-people-homeless

Grenfell Tower Timeline: The Key Events

An investigation reveals that Kensington and Chelsea council made £129 million from selling property in the years leading to the Grenfell fire tragedy. This money could have been spent on the tower’s renovation works, we established, but instead cuts were made to the budget, including saving £300,000 by using cheaper, more combustible cladding. The council also spent more than £60 million investing in new buildings in the years leading up to the fire on June 14, 2017, which killed 72 people. Survivors of the inferno have accused Kensington and Chelsea of “acting more like a property developer than a council” when it should have been focused on fire safety at Grenfell. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism details exactly when key decisions about the tower's renovation and how to finance it were made, alongside the council's property deals.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-05-29/grenfell-tower-timeline-the-key-events

Third Of Homeless People Die From Treatable Conditions

Nearly a third of homeless people die from treatable conditions, meaning hundreds of deaths could potentially have been prevented, a major new study shows. The research by University College London (UCL) also shows that homeless people are much more likely to die from certain conditions than even the poorest people who have a place to live. The findings come as the final count from the Dying Homeless project shows an average of 11 homeless people a week have died in the UK in the last 18 months. Of those people whose ages are known, more than a quarter were under 40 when then they died. Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-03-11/homelessness-kills

The Number Of Homeless Deaths Tops 500

The Bureau’s count of people who have died homeless in the UK since last winter has now passed 500 - days before the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is due to produce its first ever count of deaths. Our year-long investigation, currently stands at 554 deaths, though that is likely an underestimate. Those that died include an 81 year-old man who was sleeping on the streets, a mum of two that died in a night shelter and a 47 year-old man who died after being tipped into a bin lorry. The project prompted the ONS to start compiling its own figures on homeless deaths in England and Wales, which it will release on December 20. Scotland and Northern Ireland’s national records offices are now also considering similar counts. Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-17/the-number-of-homeless-deaths-tops-500-amid-empty-government-promises

Dying Homeless

At least 78 homeless people died last winter, an average of at least two a week. Those deaths include a quantum physicist, a former soldier and a grieving 31-year-old who had lost both his mother and brother. Some died in doorways, some in tents pitched in the snow, some died in shelters and others passed away in hospital after a life on the streets. Many were rough sleepers, others were statutory homeless and staying in temporary accommodation. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has surveyed dozens of homeless charities, trawled local press reports and pieced together figures to create a database of those deaths. Read more on the Homeless Link website.

https://www.homeless.org.uk/connect/blogs/2018/may/11/dying-homeless

Crisis Makes Sense When You Look At These Companies’ Obscene Profits

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has found that the four largest house building companies are doing so well, they’re planning an extra £6.6bn in shareholder payouts over the next five years. Between them, they made £2bn in pre-tax profits just last year. In addition, individual executive pay packages from salaries and share sales have gone into the multi-millions. Between 2011 and 2016, executives made the following amounts of money:

– Tony Pidgley from Berkeley – £94m

– Rob Perrins from Berkeley – £47m

– Jeff Fairburn from Persimmon – £8.5m

– Mike Killoran from Persimmon – £10m

– Peter Redfern from Taylor Wimpey – £24m

– James Jordan from Taylor Wimpey – £11m

– David Thomas from Barratt – £16m

– Steven Boyes from Barratt – £16m

The Berkeley and Persimmon executive pairs above also sit on shares worth £440m and £105m respectively. Read more on the Canary website.

Builders Make Billions As Housing Crisis Escalates

Britain’s biggest housebuilding firms and their executives have pocketed billions of pounds as the country’s housing crisis escalates and affordable homes targets are missed. The four most powerful companies – Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Berkeley Group – together made more than £2bn in pre-tax profits last year and are planning to give £6.6bn extra in dividends to shareholders by 2021. Meanwhile the number of affordable homes built fell to a 24-year low this year. Housebuilders argue that affordable housing targets are financially unviable. House prices have risen five times more than average wages in the last five years.  Our calculations also show that just eight directors working for major housebuilders together earned £230m in the last five years. Read more on the BIJ website.

Ministers Urged To Examine New Buy-To-Let Boom In UK Care Homes

Private investors are being enticed to purchase rooms in UK care homes on a buy-to-let basis with the promise of large profits and rental income. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found hundreds of rooms being offered for sale for as much as £85,000 each. They offer “guaranteed” rental income of around 10% annually and a total return on investment of up to 188% over 10 years. Such buy-to-let room schemes are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, while the Care Quality Commission, which oversees standards in care homes, says it does not have responsibility for providers’ financial sustainability. Servicing such high fixed returns could squeeze funds available for providing the actual care. Residents could also have to move if the care homes failed to pay their debts to investors and were forced to close. Read more on the BIJ website.

Housing Developers Must Disclose Secret Viability Assessments

Confidential financial reports submitted to local authorities by developers when they want to reduce their affordable housing obligations should be made public, argue two London Labour mayoralty candidates. The comments were made by senior Labour MPs Sadiq Khan and David Lammy during a parliamentary debate on Housing Supply in London. The current system allows developers to keep their justifications for reducing affordable homes secret. With affordable housing completions at a seven year low, the system known as financial viability, was also the subject of a packed debate held at the Palace of Westminster last week. Housebuilders use financial viability assessments to prove a local authority’s affordable housing target makes their schemes uneconomic and so cut the number of units built. Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

Half of Legal Aid Housing Advice Unused Despite Rising Evictions

Just half of face-to-face housing advice available on legal aid was used last year despite soaring repossessions. Data show that the government paid for face-to-face legal help in 34,817 cases. This was just 55% of what the government had provided for.  In some areas as little as 11% of the available help was used. This is despite a five year-high in landlord repossessions. The government has responded by cutting legal aid advice for the current year by almost a fifth, citing “a decrease in client demand”.  But the investigation suggests that there are several reasons why people are not taking up the advice available: they are confused over what advice is still funded, there is a smaller pool of organisations providing such advice and an increasing number of areas with few or no legal aid lawyers.  Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

Royal Estates Fail To Meet Targets for Affordable Homes

Two of Britain's largest landowning bodies, which generate millions of pounds a year for the Queen and Prince Charles, are regularly failing to meet affordable housing targets when building new homes on their land. Planning documents reveal that both the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Cornwall are persuading councils to allow them to cut their affordable housing quotas on the grounds that meeting them would be too expensive. An investigation examined the two landowners' plans to build 4,299 homes in 31 schemes. 14 developments failed to meet local targets, resulting in at least 213 fewer affordable homes being built. 10 of the 19 largest Crown Estate developments have not or will not meet affordable housing targets. In its most recent financial results, the Crown Estate said it had "outperformed the market" and achieved a £252.6m surplus, 15% of which goes to the Queen. The rest goes to the Treasury. Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

Thousands of Affordable Homes Axed

Housebuilders and councils in Britain's biggest cities are failing to comply with affordable housing targets, and even ripping up legal commitments to build cheaper homes. A three-month study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for Society Guardian has established that 60% of the biggest housing developments currently in the planning system are falling short of local affordable housing targets, preventing thousands of cheaper homes being built. The investigation reveals huge cuts to the proportion of affordable housing in one of the largest housing projects and how none of Birmingham's biggest housing developments meet its 35% affordable housing target. Read more on the Guardian website.

Westminster Buys Houses outside London for Homeless

What has been described as the ‘chaos’ besetting Westminster council’s homeless strategy has been laid bare as councillors in the central London borough agreed to buy or lease 600 extra properties, most of which will be outside its borders.  The ‘emergency measures’ have been taken in an attempt to cope with an 86% increase over the past two years in families classed as homeless.  The revelation comes just two weeks after the Bureau revealed Westminster spends more on short-term accommodation than any other council. It has projected that it will spend £41.8m on temporary accommodation – a 63.5% increase this financial year. The figure, said the council, is more than it is saving on welfare reforms. Read more on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

Sharp Rise in B&B Spending As Homelessness Crisis Intensifies

Local authorities in 12 of the UK’s largest cities spent over £91m last year placing their homeless, many of whom are families, in bed and breakfast (B&Bs) accommodation – a 58% rise in four years - figures obtained by the Bureau show.  In London, local authorities last financial year spent £80.5m on B&Bs - 29% up on 2012.  Government data suggest there were 4,000 households pushed into emergency B&Bs and hotels at the end of last year – an increase of over a quarter compared to the equivalent period the previous year. Of these, 1,690 households had children.  Read more on The Bureau Investigates website.