Council Gives Advance Rent To Landlords Backing Homelessness Scheme

Private landlords are to be given a month’s rent upfront and 12 months’ membership of a trade body if they sign up to a local council’s new scheme to combat homelessness. The scheme, run by Stroud council, is similar in principle to others that exist - the landlord agrees that the council lets their property to a homeless or vulnerable tenant in return for a guaranteed rent, and the pledge that the property will be returned to the landlord in the same condition at the end of the tenancy. Read more on the Letting Agent Today website.

https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2019/9/council-gives-advance-rent-to-landlords-backing-homelessness-scheme

Councils Should Be ‘Rewarded Not Punished’ For Delivering More Homes

District councils should be rewarded and not punished for delivering more homes whilst facing the biggest cut in their spending power than any other type of council, DCN has urged. In its response to the 2019/20 Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation, district council leaders argue that the New Homes Bonus (NHB) baseline should be scrapped. DCN, which represents 200 district councils across England, is also calling for decisions on council tax to be set locally – not by nationally set referendum principles – and for greater flexibility on local revenue-raising powers. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/district-councils-should-be-rewarded-not-punished-for-delivering-more-homes/

Southern Councils Selling Off Homes Through Right To Buy

Social housing in the south of England is being sold off four times as fast as it is being replaced, a BBC investigation has found. Southampton City Council is losing homes at the fastest rate, despite generating £24m through the Right to Buy Scheme since 2015. Homes in Reading are being sold twice as quickly as they are built, with the council making £7m. Leaders said the government was making it difficult to reinvest in new homes. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-45042408

Restore Lifetime Tenancies To Vulnerable Tenants, Say Peers

Ministers are being urged to give councils and housing associations back the right to offer lifetime tenancies to those they consider vulnerable. Peers are debating the issue of lifetime tenancies for those in social housing, which started to be phased out by David Cameron's Tory government. They will consider proposals to restore lifetime housing rights to those who have suffered domestic abuse. Council bosses want this to go further and cover other vulnerable tenants. These may be people with mental illness or disabilities. Read more on the BBC website.

Public Believes Housing Inspections Should Be In Hands Of Council

The majority of the public believes housing safety inspections should be in the hands of local councils, survey reveals. A survey for the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) found 59% of the public support council Building Inspections, and just 23.4% support private inspectors. The poll, which was carried out by market research agency Survation for APSE, was a ‘wake up call to Government’, APSE chief executive Paul O’Brien, told a housing fringe at the Labour Party conference. ‘The public clearly support a role for local councils in keeping residents safe,’ he said. Read more on the Local Gov website.

Majority Of Social Landlords Say Welfare Policy Harms Homelessness Work

The vast majority of councils and housing associations believe government welfare policy is hitting their efforts to tackle homelessness, according to new research. That research, by the CIH and the University of Sheffield, reveals 84% of the 106 councils and 70% of the 50 housing associations – which run 39% of the total housing association stock in England) surveyed – believe welfare policies like the lower benefit cap are impacting negatively on work to tackle homelessness. Nearly half of the housing associations surveyed during the research, conducted as part of the Crook Public Service Fellowship, said households being unable to pay their rent due to limited welfare assistance was one of the main reasons they had to refuse a nomination. Download the report from the CIH website.

Consultation On Rent Policy Due “Very, Very Soon”

Secretary of State Sajid Javid is reported as saying that housing associations and councils can expect consultations the government's rent policy post 2020 "very, very soon". The government's previous 10 year social rent policy introduced in May 2014 was scrapped by George Osborne in the Summer Budget of 2015 and there has been a huge reduction in rental income as a result of the 4 years of mandatory year on year 1% rent reductions up to 2020 imposed by the Welfare Reform & Work Act 2016 with ongoing uncertainty about future rent policy. However the government's Housing White Paper promised to set out a rent policy for housing associations and local authorities for the period beyond 2020. Read more on the ARCH website.

Two-Thirds Of Councils Could Face Centrally Set Housing Targets

Failing to set up Local Plans could expose almost two-thirds of English councils to new government measures encouraging housing delivery. The report by planning and development consultancy Lichfields, entitled Planned and Deliver, found that only 36% of local authorities have completed Local Plans, while 43% have not yet published a draft. The government’s proposal is that if a council does not have a Local Plan in place by November, its targets for housing delivery will be set according to central estimates for household formation. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Backs Homelessness Bill With £48 Million For Councils

Councils are to receive a further £48 million funding to help them deliver new and expanded services to prevent and reduce homelessness. This new funding will be available to councils in England to meet the costs of the Homelessness Reduction Private Members’ Bill, which if passed by Parliament, will mean anyone at risk of losing their home will get the help they need more quickly. Under the Bill, local authorities will be required to help all eligible people – whether they are single or a family - for 56 days before they are threatened with homelessness. Those who are already homeless will get support for a further 56 days to help them secure accommodation. Read more on the CLG website.

Government Urged To Delay Pay To Stay

Councils and arm’s length management organisations are calling on ministers to delay the introduction of Pay to Stay to avoid a ‘tight’ timetable, after the government failed to publish regulations before the parliamentary recess. Local authorities were expecting draft regulations on Pay to Stay to be published before the end of the parliamentary term last Thursday. However, the regulations, which need to go before both houses of parliament, are not now expected until September at the earliest when parliament returns. This has caused concern that without draft regulations to work with over the summer, local authority landlords may struggle to implement Pay to Stay- under which higher-earning tenants pay up to market rent - from next April as intended. Read more on Inside Housing.

Councils Tell Tenants To Wait For Bailiffs Before Moving Out

An alarming number of private tenants are being told by their local council to ignore eviction notices served by their landlords – and to wait for bailiffs to turn up before moving out – in order to qualify for rehousing support, according to new findings. Half (49 per cent) of tenants who’ve been served with a section 21 notice by their private landlord say they have been told to ignore it by their local council or an advice agency such as Shelter or the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB). The figures shine a light on the scale of the issue and has been exacerbated by the increasing use of private landlords by local authorities to discharge their housing duties. Read more on the NLA website.

Council Sets Up As Private Landlord

A London council has come up with a radical solution to the capital’s housing shortage by purchasing a block of flats which it will rent out to private tenants at below market rate. In what is believed to be the first initiative of its type in the country, Barking and Dagenham has bought 100% of a private development from construction company Bouygues and will release 144 new homes on to the market for private renters in October. The development also includes social housing but as part of a regeneration scheme, local councillors decided it should also try to tackle the wider housing shortage. Anyone who earns less than £66,000 per year is eligible for a one or two bedroom property while the cap for a three- or four-bedroom property has been set at £80,000. Read more on the Guardian website.

Tory Council Rebels over Government's Affordable Homes Concession

A government decision to let housing developers scrap affordable homes to maintain profits is "storing up trouble for the future" and fuelling nimbyism, a leading Tory council has warned. The leadership of Milton Keynes has complained that the decision to water down the requirement for developers to include affordable homes in their plans was a reaction to "squeals" from the construction industry claiming the policy has "swung the balance much too far in favour of the developers". If the policy persists, the town will build 500 fewer affordable homes over the next five years, according to its figures. Read more on the Guardian website.

Tory Council Has Created Housing Crisis

A Tory council's "coordinated policies to cut affordable homes" has created a housing crisis, a new study has claimed. The report says that by selling council homes on the open market, emptying and demolishing blocks of affordable housing, and allowing developers to make excess profits by including no low-cost homes in major schemes, Hammersmith and Fulham Council has fuelled a housing shortage in the borough. The report, prepared for Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter by housing expert Martin Peach, also accuses the local authority of manipulating statistics to hide housing need and classing households on incomes of £80,000 as a priority for rehousing. Read more on 24dash.