One In Three Landlords Expects To Need At Least Two Years To Comply With Building Safety Bill

 A third of housing bosses expect their organisations will need more than two years to get up to speed with the Building Safety Bill’s requirements, while costs remain a major concern. A poll of social and private landlords representing a total of 1,048 high-rise buildings found that 33% thought it would take them more than 25 months to demonstrate compliance with all parts of the Bill. Respondents highlighted several issues with complying with the legislation, including its complexity, the absence of clarity, competing organisational priorities and the volume of high-rise buildings some would need to submit to the new regulator. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/one-in-three-landlords-expects-to-need-at-least-two-years-to-comply-with-building-safety-bill-survey-finds-67884?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Grenfell Architect ‘Didn’t See Work Signed Off As Compliant’

The Grenfell inquiry has heard how the ‘day to day’ architect on the tower’s refurbishment did not recall seeing certification that the work had been signed off as compliant. “While I do not recall seeing the certificate, I understand that the tower was certified as practically complete, which would require Building Control to have signed the tower off as compliant with Building Regulations,” said Neil Crawford of project architects Studio E. Crawford outlined to the inquiry he relied on the “experience and competency” of all of the specialist design subcontractors to produce designs that complied with related requirements. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/grenfell-architect-didnt-see-work-signed-off-as-compliant/

Supported Housing Provider Facing Regulator Probe

A supported housing provider, whose chief executive left the organisation last month, is facing scrutiny by the regulator over an undisclosed issue which could affect its compliance rating. Prospect Housing Limited, which manages 1,860 supported housing units across the West Midlands, was added to the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) ‘gradings under review’ list last week. The regulator said it is “investigating a matter which may may impact Prospect Housing Limited’s compliance with both the governance and financial viability elements” of its standards. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/supported-housing-provider-facing-regulator-probe-amid-chief-executives-exit-64297?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Campaigners Catch Council Out Over Social Housing Commitments

A London borough council failed “for years” to monitor whether developers were providing promised social housing. The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found that when imposing conditions for providing social housing through Section 106 Agreements, Southwark Council failed to implement a structured procedure for supervising compliance. To the LGO the council failed to:

·         Properly check compliance with housing provision conditions under section 106 Agreements.

·         Explain how it checks compliance.

·         Explain why it had not undertaken a borough wide audit to check compliance with Section 106 Agreements long after completion of developments.

Read more on 24housing.

Higher Rents And Continued Lack Of Supply Set To Dominate 2016

Residential rents are set to go up in 2016 and in the home buying market there is likely to be a growing struggle for those seeking to get on the housing market, according to a joint report from agents. According to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) there are various pieces of legislation coming into play in 2016 which will result in increased compliance costs for landlords, and as a result push up rents for tenants. ‘We urge the Government to re-think its proposals around reducing Mortgage Interest Relief, scrapping the Wear and Tear Allowance and hiking up Stamp Duty by 3% on buy to let properties,’ said David Cox, ARLA managing director. Read more on the Property Wire website.