Grenfell Bereaved And Survivors Bring Multimillion Pound Case To High Court

More than 800 bereaved and survivors from Grenfell Tower and 102 firefighters are seeking up to tens of millions of pounds in compensation from organisations involved in the disastrous refurbishment in a case that reaches the high court on Wednesday. The victims of the fire on 14 June 2017 and emergency responders have filed civil claims against defendants including Arconic, the US metals giant that made the combustible cladding, Rydon, the main contractor, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, landlord of the 24-storey west London council block. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/06/case-for-grenfell-bereaved-survivors-and-rescuers-heads-to-the-high-court 

Council Demands HS2 Funds Rehousing Of Hundreds Of Tenants

A London council has demanded that the company building High Speed 2 (HS2) funds the rehousing of hundreds of its tenants, whose homes it claims will be made “virtually uninhabitable” by rail works. Camden Council has threatened to report HS2 Limited to parliament over breaching assurances on noise levels made while legislation setting the framework for the project was being passed if it does not agree to a compensation deal and has notified the Department for Transport. The local authority warned it “will be forced to take matters into its own hands” if a solution for residents is not found. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/council-demands-hs2-to-fund-rehousing-of-hundreds-of-tenants-68304#:~:text=A%20London%20council%20has%20demanded,virtually%20uninhabitable%E2%80%9D%20by%20rail%20works.&text=It%20said%20the%20firm%20has,mitigation%20measures%20promised%20in%202015

Housing Minister Under Attack After Blaming Leasehold Buyers For Their Own Plight

Housing minister Heather Wheeler is under fire after apparently blaming home buyers for lumbering themselves with their own leasehold ‘nightmares’. Wheeler apparently refused to accept that thousands of leasehold owners are trapped in homes they cannot sell because of escalating costs. Wheeler is in trouble after telling MPs that buyers were too “excited” and too “caught up in the moment” to read the small print before they bought leasehold homes. Dismissing claims of mis-selling, she said new legislation would trigger a “horrendously expensive” wave of compensation claims. Instead, she called on developers to voluntarily give buyers better terms. Read more on the Property Industry Eye website.

https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/housing-minister-under-attack-after-blaming-leasehold-buyers-for-their-own-plight/

New Homes 'Crumbling Due To Weak Mortar'

Hundreds of new properties have been built using weak mortar that does not meet recommended industry standards. There are reports of homes with the fault on at least 13 estates in the UK. The full extent of the industry-wide problem is hard to measure as some homeowners have been asked to sign gagging orders to claim compensation. The industry says mortar performance is a complex issue and can be affected by a number of factors. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46454844

Housebuilders Must Halt Leasehold Sale Of New Houses

Major housebuilders may be forced to spend millions compensating home buyers locked into unfair leasehold contracts, following a warning by housing minister Gavin Barwell. Barwell has ordered developers to halt future sales of leasehold houses or face government action next year. He also told developers to come up with solutions for householders already stuck in homes where soaring ground rents have made their property virtually unsaleable. Developers have been selling houses as leasehold, with clauses which allow the ground rent to double every 10 years. The freeholds are then sold on to private companies which extract the ground rent, charge high fees if a homeowner wishes to make alterations, and refuse to sell the freehold except for a huge premium. Read more on the Guardian website.

Thousands Of Mortgage Arrears Customers To Get Redress

Hundreds of thousands of consumers in arrears on mortgage payments may be eligible for compensation, after a ruling by the regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ordered lenders to work out who is affected, and how much they are owed. The problem has arisen where mortgage arrears have been automatically included in regular monthly payments. That has left some customers paying higher mortgage payments than they should have been. As many as 750,000 consumers may have been affected overall, but not everyone will be entitled to compensation. Read more on the BBC website.

Concern Over Plans To Withhold Right To Buy Payments

Ministers are set to insist on withholding 30% of compensation payment for Right to Buy discounts until replacement homes are started. Associations, in negotiations with ministers on the details of the voluntary scheme, have been pushing against plans for the government to pay 70% of the compensation on sale and the remainder when a replacement home is started. However ministers will not budge on this point as they want a lever to ensure replacement homes are built. Although the NHF insists the deal with government is for full compensation even if homes are not replaced, the emerging split compensation plan is causing concern that associations might not in some instances be able to receive the full open market value of the homes they sell under the scheme. Read more on Inside Housing.

NHF Propose Pay To Stay Data Solution

The National Housing Federation has set out how they feel associations can best collect data for Pay to Stay.  Although for housing associations the policy is voluntary to implement, 24housing understands some housing associations are looking to compensate for some of income they are losing from the rent reduction. The Federation hopes the data solution will be able to give members enough evidence to decide whether they would like to implement the policy or not. Read more on the NHF website.

Impacts Of Right To Buy On Housing Association Tenants

In July 2015, the Government confirmed the introduction of RTB level discounts for housing association tenants. The funding to compensate them should be made available by the forced sale of higher value local authority properties when they become vacant. Government intends that sold off stock will be replaced on a one-for-one basis. Importantly though, the replacement stock will not necessarily be of the same tenure as the housing it replaces.  A JRF report investigated the impacts of these policies under three scenarios:

1: Replacements built within three years and let at the same rents as the stock it replaced

2: Replacements built within three years and is let at Affordable Rents.

3: Replacements built for sale as shared ownership.

Although 1.3 million housing association tenants are gaining the RTB, JRF estimates that only around 180,000 of these appear to be able to afford to exercise this. Read more on the Sustainable Homes website.

7,000 Council Homes A Year Could Be Lost If Right To Buy Funding Gap Isn't Closed

Analysis from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) shows that local authorities could be left with no money to replace the homes they are forced to sell to fund the policy.The research indicates that:

• Between 2,100 and 6,800 ‘high-value’ council homes are likely to become empty and be sold each year – compared to the government’s estimate of 15,000

• Those sales would generate between £1.2 billion and £2.2 billion a year – compared to the government’s estimate of £4.5 billion

• Around 1.45 million housing association tenants would be eligible for right to buy during the first five years of the policy, with around 10 per cent (145,000) likely to take advantage

• £1.2 billion would be around half the amount needed to compensate housing associations for homes sold under the scheme – housing associations would need almost all of the higher £2.2 billion estimate, leaving virtually nothing for councils to replace the homes they have sold or for the brownfield regeneration fund.

Read more on the Housingnet website.

Government Accused Of Doing Backroom Deal Over Right To Buy

The government has done a backroom deal with housing associations in order to avoid proper public scrutiny of its plans to extend the right to buy policy, the shadow housing minister has told parliament. John Healey put forward an urgent question about a deal struck between housing associations and the government concerning Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy scheme to housing association tenants. Housing associations voted in favour of striking a voluntary deal with the government to allow their tenants to buy housing association homes at a discount, in return for compensation. The deal means the government’s proposals will not need to be passed into law and debated in parliament. Healey said: “This is a backroom deal to sidestep legislation and the proper public scrutiny in parliament. We have said from the start this is unworkable and wrong. And so it is proving.” Read more on the Guardian website.

Eight Days For Sector To Decide Its Future Under Orr And Clark’s Right-To-Buy Deal

Housing associations have been given an eight-day ultimatum to decide the future of the sector – and of its tenants –after David Orr and communities secretary Greg Clark revealed they’d brokered a deal on Right-to-Buy . The proposed deal  effectively offers housing associations a way to swallow the bitter pill of RTB on their own terms – and indeed to potentially benefit from it commercially – but where it leaves the sector's poorest tenants over the long term is as yet open to question. This is a quid pro quo deal; in return for accepting RTB, it claims to offer housing associations full compensation for properties sold, claims to guarantees the sector's continued independence, and deregulate its operating framework to give it more flexibility in the types of homes its builds. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Right-To-Buy Extension Will Run At a Loss in Most of the Country

The extension of right to buy to include housing association tenants is proving to be deceptively complicated. Housing association tenants will have the right to buy their rented properties from housing associations with a significant government discount, however, unlike the original right-to-buy policy, the housing associations who own the homes will have to be compensated for those that are sold.  The right to buy will supposedly be financed by councils selling their most expensive council homes when they become vacant. The money raised will be used to replace the homes sold and to compensate housing associations for the properties they lose. Research by Savills shows that ministers have seriously overestimated the amount that would be raised through sales of council houses.  Read more on the Guardian website.

Ministers Meet Sector in Right to Buy Negotiations

Ministers have opened high-level talks with the sector on the Right to Buy extension, as housing associations made the receipt of full compensation for homes sold a ‘red line’. Chief executives from across the country were invited to a private meeting to discuss the policy with communities secretary Greg Clark and housing minister Brandon Lewis. The ministers were urged to make the policy voluntary and warned they would face a severe backlash from the sector unless full compensation is offered. Sources close to the meeting said the ministers had given the impression that key details, including the level of compensation housing associations will receive, were still ‘up in the air’. Read more on Inside Housing.