Placeshapers Pitches Cabinet Role For Housing In Next Government

Placeshapers has pitched itself into election campaign calling for consistency in housing policy, funding and ministerial roles – with housing having a cabinet place in its own right. “Ideally we would want to see a cross party, evidence based approach to a national housing strategy as the benefits of investment are seen in longer timescales than the Westminster political cycle.” said Placeshapers chair Sinead Butters. Releasing a manifesto of its own, Placeshapers – representing over 100 organisations managing almost a million homes – says the next government needs to invest to tackle the housing crisis, the climate crisis and social breakdown. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/placeshapers-pitches-cabinet-role-for-housing-in-next-government/

Ministers Shelve Plans To Bulldoze Green Belt

At least half the Cabinet are already facing controversy over plans to allow green fields to be bulldozed for housing. Those affected include Theresa May, Chancellor Philip Hammond, and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, who has vowed publicly to ‘fight to protect the Green Belt from inappropriate development’. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid was reported last year to be considering easing the rules that allow councils to build on Green Belt land provided they designate equivalent areas of land for protection. But Tory sources insist his remarks were over-interpreted and believe the idea will be quietly shelved when a White Paper on housing is published later this month. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Lies, Damn Lies and Failing DWP Bedroom Tax Reports

On the same day as the cabinet reshuffle the DWP released a 163-page interim report into the bedroom tax.  Unfortunately this deliberate burial of a report is the best that can be said for it as it really is that bad. It only records the first 5 months of the bedroom tax from April 2013 to August 2013 and so this report is already ELEVEN MONTHS OUT OF DATE. Let’s begin with the Executive Summary which starts on page 13.

This Interim Report presents early findings from the evaluation of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS). A final report will be published in 2015.

We have already been told by Steve Webb, then a minister at DWP, that the final report will be published in Summer 2015, that is AFTER the next general election.  Hence this sham of a report is to be the ONLY coalition report on the bedroom tax in this parliament which you would not know from reading this cleverly worded sentence. Read more on the Speye blog.