Labour Plans To Make Landowners Sell To State For Fraction Of Value

Labour is considering forcing landowners to give up sites for a fraction of their current price in an effort to slash the cost of council house building. The proposal has been drawn up by John Healey, the shadow housing secretary, and would see a Jeremy Corbyn-led government change the law so landowners would have to sell sites to the state at knockdown prices. Landowners currently sell at a price that factors in the dramatic increase in value when planning consent is granted. It means a hectare of agricultural land worth around £20,000 can sell for closer to £2m if it is zoned for housing. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/01/labour-plans-landowners-sell-state-fraction-value

Can Labour Deliver 100,000 Social Homes Annually Within Five Years?

This was the headline promise from the leaked version of Labour’s manifesto. How feasible is it? Labour seems to have stepped back from a much more ambitious target of delivering 500,000 affordable homes over a five-year parliament. The new pledge is still ambitious but appears much more realistic. It says ‘By the end of the next Parliament we will be building at least 100,000 council and housing association homes a year for rent or sale’. Let’s have a closer look at what it would require. Labour’s peak output was 61,090 in 2010/11, and the coalition managed 66,700 in 2014/15. Output fell sharply in the following year, to only 32,630, because the end of the previous financial year had been the cut-off date for the previous Affordable Homes Programme. Read more on the Red Brick blog.

Smoking Should Be Banned In Council Housing

Smoking should be banned in all new council houses to protect children from harmful second-hand smoke, a public health chief has said. Anti-smoking campaigners consider smoke-free housing to be the next major frontier in reducing the harmful effects of passive smoking. “Housing associations and councils are looking at smoke-free housing buildings. Where children are involved I think there is a real case for it,” said Dr John Middleton, president of the Faculty of Public Health. Dr Middleton said he believed housing association residents should sign contracts which would make non-smoking a condition of their tenancy. Read more on the Independent website.

Javid Drops Council House Building Hint For White Paper

Sajid Javid dropped a huge hint that councils would get the chance to build again in the Housing White Paper. The document, which has been delayed numerous times, is going to be “a whole new mindset” according to Javid. Speaking at a Local Government Association event, he said: “It wouldn’t be right for me to reveal everything that’s in the white paper before it’s published.  The white paper will set out serious, lasting, long-term reforms that will boost housing supply immediately and for many years to come. A whole new attitude to house building at all levels – in central government, in the building industry and, yes, in local government too.” Read more on the 24housing website.

10-Year Wait For A Council House

At least 104,000 people in Britain have been on waiting lists for council-owned or ALMO homes, and at least 35,000 have been on the same waiting lists for 10 years. The research was compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 158 councils. It comes after one of Britain’s richest boroughs – where some face waiting 25 years for a four-bed social home – announced new plans to move homeless families out of the capital. Westminster City Council, which has had 779 people on waiting lists for a decade, admitted it must make ‘difficult choices’ to cut spiralling spending on temporary accommodation. Read more on 24housing.

Universal Credit Tenants In Arrears Increases To 86%

The percentage of council tenants on Universal Credit in rent arrears has increased to a “critically high” 86% over the last year, sparking “extreme concern” among councils. The National Federation of Arms’-Length Management Organisations (NFA) and the Association for Retained Council Housing (ARCH), which together represent more than one million council homes in England, carried out annual research into Universal Credit claimants and found the percentage of council home tenants in receipt of Universal Credit who are in rent arrears has increased by seven percentage points – from 79% in March last year to 86%. This compares to 39% of tenants in arrears who do not receive Universal Credit. Download a copy of the research from the Housingnet website.

Govt Offers “Timid” Response To Lords Committee’s Housing Report

A House of Lords committee has branded the Government’s response to a housing report “inadequate” and even “timid”. In July, the Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee (EAC) published its report ‘Building More Homes’, which criticised the Government’s target of one million new homes by 2020 as inadequate. Furthermore, it said that the level of house building required to meet the housing crisis could not be met by the private sector alone. The committee called on the Government to free local authorities to build more homes for rent and to move away from its focus on subsidising home ownership and do more to support people to rent affordably. Now the response to that report has itself been described as "inadequate to deal with the scale of the crises in the housing market" by Lord Hollick, the EAC’s chair. Read more on Housing Excellence.

Right To Buy Sales Outpace Development

Councils in England sold almost six times more homes than they built in first nine months of this year, official data show. The new figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal 9,500 local authority homes were sold under the Right to Buy from January to September. Just 1,670 new council homes were completed in the same period. From July to September, councils sold an estimated 2,856 local authority homes, a fall of 15% on the previous quarter and down 3% on the same quarter in 2015. Download the figures from the GovUK website.

Right-To-Buy Sales In Q4 2015/16 Down

More than 3,200 council homes were sold off under Right-to-Buy in the fourth quarter of the 2015/16 financial year, according to the latest Government figures. In the three months of January to March 2016, local authorities sold an estimate 3,276 properties. This was down 1% from the 3,321 sold in the same quarter of 2014/15.Local authorities in London, meanwhile, sold 866 homes under Right-to-Buy in the fourth quarter of 2015/16. This was a decrease of 23% from the 1,127 sold in the fourth quarter of 2014/15.In terms of shares of sales, local authorities in London accounted for 26% of sales in 2015/16 Q4. This is eight percentage points lower than the 34% recorded in the same quarter of 2014/15. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Labour Attacks 'Skyrocketing' Rent Rises

Councils would be given the power to limit "skyrocketing" rent increases, John McDonnell has said, as he set out Labour's approach on the economy. The shadow chancellor pledged to help people "at the mercy of an unforgiving, unrestrained housing market". And he said a future Labour government would build 100,000 council homes a year and boost home ownership. Ministers said the "proposals for excessive state regulation" would "destroy investment in new housing". At a conference on the economy hosted by Labour in London, party leader Jeremy Corbyn said government intervention was needed to solve the housing crisis. Read more on the BBC website.

Revealed: How Many Council Homes Are Left In England After 20 Year Sell-Off

The number of council owned social homes has fallen to less than half what it was two decades ago. Figures from the CLG have revealed the number of local authority owned social houses in England as of April 2015. Across the whole of England 1,643,000 dwellings were local authority owned which is a drop of 1.5% compared to the same month in 2014. Compared to 1994, however, the number has fallen by 55% from 3.67 million. Private Registered Providers now own 2.45 million dwellings across the country, up from 985,000 in 1997. Around 17.6% of all houses in England are owned by either public bodies or Private Registered Providers which is a slight decrease compared to the 17.9% recorded in 2012. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Housing Bill Would Spell Loss Of 80,000 Council Houses

Town hall leaders have criticised the government’s drive to boost homeownership, warning that it would lead to the loss of 80,000 council houses in the next four years and add more than £200m a year to the housing benefit bill. Lord Porter, the leader of Conservative councillors across the country, said the planned sell-off of council houses would drive people into the more expensive private rented sector and reduce their chances of saving enough to put down a deposit on their own home. The Local Government Association (LGA), which Porter also chairs, forecast that on top of the 66,000 council houses expected to be sold to tenants by 2020, town halls would also be forced to sell at least 22,000 of their highest value council homes to fund the sale of housing association homes to tenants. Read more on the Guardian website.

Call On Lords To Stop 'Reverse Of Council Housebuilding'

The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) and Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) have combined forces to call upon Peers to support amendments to the Bill that will ensure that the recent renaissance in council house building is not reversed.  Since government introduced its new regime of self-financing for council housing in 2012 there has been a surge in local authority house building with over 6,000 new council homes having been built in England. Council house-building is now at a 23 year high.  Yet, despite the welcome contribution this has made towards the Governments own targets on housebuilding, the Housing and Planning Bill (in its current form) threatens to not only halt but reverse, this progress. Download the document from the NFA website.

The Tories Are Building A Housing Crisis - John Prescott

When Labour left power in 1979, 42 per cent of Britons lived in council homes. Now it’s under eight per cent. So we subsidised a small minority of people to buy their own homes instead of helping others get a roof over their head. And here’s the kick. More than 30 per cent of those ex-council houses have been sold to private landlords who now charge a fortune renting them back to the poor. So we end up paying over the odds in housing benefit when it would have been better to fund housing associations and councils to build more social housing. These discounts and subsidies wasted more than £40billion of taxpayers’ money. They have created record levels of homelessness and B&B households. Read more on the Sunday Mirror website.

Corbyn To Tackle Housing Crisis With Rent Caps, Council Homes and End To 'Social Cleansing'

Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to tackle Britain’s housing crisis with new moves to cap private rent levels, build more council housing and to end ‘social cleansing’ caused by Tory benefit caps and housing sell-offs. The Labour leader accused the Government of ‘social cleansing’ his constituency and other areas of the capital, claiming its benefit curbs and plans to force housing associations to sell off stock were forcing the poorest away from the communities they grew up in. Corbyn also said that his new plans would help persuade Tory voters that they had a ‘self interest’ in voting to end a system where many young people had to live at home into the 30s. He also hit out at rising house prices, warning they were not ‘a good thing’ and declaring that it was ‘nonsense’ to pretend that homes values were linked to sustainable economic growth.  Read more on the Huffington Post website.

London Council Plans to Build Houses for Its Tenants outside Capital

A London borough is planning to build hundreds of council houses outside the capital for the first time to meet a critical housing shortage. Westminster council said it could no longer build enough affordable homes in the city to keep up with demands so it had decided to look at buying land in the commuter belt. The scheme, now out for consultation, has to overcome planning and logistical obstacles and may be opposed by councils where the homes would be built. Read more on The Times website.

Council Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Matthew Offord:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many council homes have been constructed since 2010.

Brandon Lewis: The number of local authority new homes built in England since April 2010 is 6,340.

Government to Set up Body to Support Council House Building

The government will be working with Keith House and Natalie Elphicke to implement a Housing Finance Institute, as recommended by their review of the role of local authorities in housing supply, in conjunction with the Local Government Association and business. Funded privately, this new body will address the skills and knowledge gap in delivering local authority housing identified as one of the key recommendations of their recent report into local authority housing. This will enable the provision of dedicated support in areas such as setting up and managing public private sector joint ventures or developing capacity and skills in areas such as land assembly or developing investment vehicles. Read more on the CLG website.

Get a Free Council House for Coming off Benefits

Millions of houses would be “given away” to low-paid workers under Tory plans to reward people who come off benefits. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, is pushing for a pledge to “gift” tenants their council home after a year in work to be included in the Tory manifesto. Such tenants would cease to be eligible for housing benefit and would have to pay 35 per cent of the sale proceeds in tax if they sold their property within three years, according to one model under discussion. Read more on the New Statesman website.

A Council Housing Renaissance to Help Solve Britain’s Housing Needs

Councils should be given the freedom to build more homes to help kick start a council housing renaissance. That's the message from the National Federation of ALMOs and the Association of Retained Council Housing today, who together manage four fifths of the council homes in England. Ahead of May's General Election they have for the first time united the council housing sector to produce a manifesto that sets out a series of practical policies which would see councils and ALMOs play a key role in meeting the country's housing needs. Read more on the ARCH website.