'Nuisance' Council Tenants 'Should Live In Tents' Says Ashfield Tory Candidate

"Nuisance" council tenants should be forced to live in tents and pick vegetables, a Conservative parliamentary candidate has said. Lee Anderson, who is contesting the marginal Nottinghamshire seat of Ashfield, posted the comments on a video on his Facebook page. The Labour Party said the idea amounted to "forced labour camps" and went "beyond the pale". Mr Anderson declined to comment when approached by the BBC. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50474572

Council Housing Residents Blocked From Accessing Communal Play Area And Gardens

A group of residents living on an estate have expressed outrage at being padlocked out from a communal garden and playground while private owners continue to have access. The Pembury Estate in Hackney, London used to be council-controlled housing, but management was handed over to the Peabody housing association 20 years ago. As part of the deal, Peabody was given permission to build a new block of privately rented flats with a fenced off garden and playground attached to the back. There is an external gate making it accessible to other residents of the estate, but Peabody has kept the gate padlocked for months. Read more on the Left Foot Forward website.

https://leftfootforward.org/2019/08/council-housing-residents-blocked-from-accessing-communal-play-area-and-gardens/

Council Tenants On Universal Credit 16 Times More Likely To Abandon Tenancies

Council tenants on Universal Credit are 16 times more likely to abandon their tenancies and three times more likely to be evicted than those receiving housing benefit, a new report has indicated. A survey of local authority landlords by the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) also revealed that the new welfare system is costing councils hundreds of thousands of pounds in extra housing management spending. It showed that two-thirds (67%) of council tenants receiving Universal Credit are currently in rent arrears, owing an average of £564 – equivalent to seven weeks’ rent. In comparison, 21% of households on housing benefit are in arrears, owing £221. Download the report from the ARCH website.

http://www.arch-housing.org.uk/media/130243/arch_nfa_universal_credit_survey_2019_v4_web.pdf

Top Architect Blasts 'Free-Riding' Tenants Living In Council Houses In Central London

A top London architect has called for “free-riding” council tenants to be moved out of central London and for affordable housing to be abolished. In a hugely controversial speech Patrik Schumacher, director and principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, also praised London’s foreign second home owners “even if they’re here only for a few weeks” and suggested that “80 per cent of Hyde Park” should be built over.  In his incendiary address to the World Architecture Festival in Berlin he said London’s housing crisis was the result of “intellectually bankrupt” planning departments and said only the free market can provide “housing for everyone.” He said that social housing tenants in gentrifying inner city areas should not expect to be able to carry on living in central London when their council estates are demolished and should be replaced by more “productive” residents - such as his own staff. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Government Must Delay ‘Shambles’ Pay To Stay

Thousands of Council tenants could face just weeks’ notice of rent hikes of more than 300% unless the Government delays Pay to Stay, Hackney Council has warned. Families with a household income of more than £40,000 (£30,000 outside London) will have to pay extra rent under the new rules. These rent increases are due to be introduced in April, but the Government has still not set out how the system will work or how rent will be collected – leaving the Council just a few months to write to around 20,000 people living in Council housing to ask what their income is, calculate increases and give affected residents notice. Read more on the Hackney Council website.

Councils Sound Warning Over Pay To Stay Timetable

The government is facing pressure from councils over the “horrendously short” timescale required to implement its controversial Pay to Stay policy by April next year.  At a recent meeting with civil servants local authority officers said they will struggle to introduce systems to carry out the policy in time.  It is understood that under a draft timetable, councils will be expected to gather information from tenants on their earnings from September and October. By Christmas, councils will have to start preparing people with notices to raise their rents in April 2017. If tenants do not disclose their wages, then it will be assumed that they earn more than the £31,000/£41,000 threshold. Read more on Inside Housing.

Charity Condemns Councils’ £30m In ‘Sweeteners’ To Private Landlords

An anti-poverty charity has attacked the millions of pounds in sweeteners paid by cash-strapped London boroughs to private landlords to persuade them to rent to council tenants. It has been revealed that officials paid nearly £30 million to landlords since 2012. The “one-off financial incentives” were revealed in Freedom of Information responses from 33 London local authorities to the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. The charity said it showed boroughs were deploying “ever more desperate means to entice private landlords” as authorities compete with each other to secure accommodation. Landlords want the extra money over fears that some council tenants were more likely to default on their rent. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Council Agrees Innovative Tenant Shared Ownership Scheme

An east London council has moved a step closer to being the first in the country to offer its council tenants the opportunity to take up shared ownership of their council property. Members of Barking and Dagenham Cabinet agreed the tenant shared ownership scheme, called ‘Right to invest’, pending the outcome of a six week consultation period, which starts on Monday 14 March. This scheme will provide an affordable home ownership option for council tenants on lower incomes to meet their aspirations to become home. The scheme will be available to all tenants who meet the Right to Buy criteria, however, unlike Right to Buy, it will have a share ceiling of 70% meaning the property always remains a housing option for those on lower incomes and is protected from sub-letting. Read more on the Barking & Dagenham website.

Council Housing: Security of Tenure – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods:   To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether it is his policy that his Department's changes to security of tenure for council tenants will apply to (a) the tenancies of existing tenants and (b) existing tenants when they transfer to a new local authority property; and when he plans that those changes will come into effect.

Brandon Lewis: The changes will not apply to existing lifetime tenants who remain in their own home. If tenants are required to move home by their landlord, for example to allow demolition and regeneration work to take place, they will be granted a tenancy with no less security in their new home. Where existing lifetime tenants seek to transfer, local authorities will retain a discretion to offer the tenant a further lifetime tenancy in their new home. We will set out the circumstances in which local authorities may exercise this discretion in regulations. We expect these will include where tenants downsize into a smaller home or move for work. We expect that the provisions will come into force early next year, subject to passage of the Bill and implementation of the regulations.

Rise In Social Housing Tenants Planning To Buy Home

More than half of local authority tenants who would like to get onto the property ladder intend to buy their current home. The English Housing Survey also shows that the number of people owning their own home in the past year has remained static for the first time since 2003; with the Government claiming is a result of their home ownership initiatives. The number of social housing tenants who expect to buy their current home has risen from 35% in 2010-11 to 42% in 2014-15. The survey also showed that the number of properties failing to meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard has also fallen by 3.1 million compared to 2006. Read more on the Local Gov website.

Council Tenants' Rents 'Rise Four Times Quicker Than Average Wages'

Council house tenants have seen their rents rise four times quicker than average wages in the past five years, outstripping even the private sector and putting greater pressure on the country’s welfare bill. The average weekly rent for a council house in England rose by 27 per cent between 2010-11 and 2014-15, up from £67.83 to £85.89 per week – an increase of £939 in annual rent – data from the CLG shows. This was roughly four times faster than wage growth, with average weekly earnings in Great Britain rising barely 6 per cent over the same timeframe. It has also been more than 50 per cent faster than the rise in council rents during the previous five-year period. Read more on the Independent website.

Cities Unite Against Attack On Council Tenants’ Lifetime Leases

Leaders of major English cities are demanding David Cameron ends his cruel attack on council tenants. Local authority chiefs from Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle have joined forces to issue direct calls for the PM not to axe lifetime tenancies. The Tory scheme, unveiled last month, would end the long-cherished right to a home for life for all new council tenants. MPs will vote on the measure next week as the Mirror continues our campaign for it to be ditched immediately. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Duncan Smith's Great Council House Giveaway

Millions of council tenants could become the owner of most of their home for free, under a plan being pushed by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Tenants living in local authority housing for three years would be handed 70 per cent of its equity then rent the rest of the home, in a scheme to slash the housing benefit bill. Mr Duncan Smith wants to reduce welfare spending, and this Right to Shared Ownership idea is being considered. The stake would be equivalent to discounts under the Right to Buy scheme – up to 70 per cent of the value, or a maximum of £103,900 in London and £77,900 outside the capital. He believes it could unleash a new generation of part-home owners as well as slash the £25billion a year housing benefit bill. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Tenants' Fury at Being Treated Like 'Beer-Swilling Chavs'

A council has come under fire after sending tenants an 'insulting' newsletter telling them to set aside money for court fines, cigarettes, Sky TV and lottery tickets. Crawley Borough Council sent the advice in a leaflet to thousands of council housing tenants - who reacted with fury at being treated like 'beer-swilling chavs'.  The newsletter, which includes a reminder to residents that they have to pay their rent and council tax, was slammed by locals in the Sussex town as 'an insult' offering patronising advice. In a list of costs which could be incurred by tenants, the council also mentions cigarettes, tobacco, alcohol, haircuts and child maintenance payments.  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Tenants' Revolt Derails £279 Rent Hike

Tenants revolted against council housing chiefs to derail a massive rent hike amid warnings the downturn had given hard-up families a “hammering”. Cambridge’s housing management board was presented with a proposal for an average rent increase of £279 annually, equivalent to 5.76 per cent, but three tenant representatives backed Labour’s amendment for a smaller rise averaging £237. This saw the opposition option approved by seven votes to five. Read more on the Cambridge News website.

Council Tenants Hit By Bedroom Tax as Arrears Rise

New research by three housing bodies representing over 1.3m council households has revealed rising numbers of tenants in arrears and a significant rise in the level of rent owed, since the introduction of the bedroom tax. The findings are the result of a joint research project from the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA), the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the Councils with ALMOs Group (CWAG), into the impact of welfare reforms on council tenants.  In the three month period March to June 2013, the number of council households in arrears rose by 21 per cent. Based on the trends identified by the survey this indicates that nationally local authority rent arrears rose by £17.5 million in the first 3 months after the implementation of the government’s welfare reform agenda in social housing.  Download a copy of the report from the ARCH website.

Who Really Gets Government Subsidised Housing?

Here's a question with a slightly surprising answer. In the past decade 620,000 tenants have stopped receiving government subsidy, while another 841,000 and their landlords began to receive support: who are they? The first group is the one third of council tenants who do not qualify for housing benefit: in 2002, their rents were still subsidised by £300m, but by 2012 this subsidy had gone. The second group is the number of private tenants who now receive housing benefit, who have risen by 135% over the same period.  Read more on the Guardian website.

CLG Marketing Drive Slated

The government has spent almost a million pounds on a marketing campaign promoting its reinvigorated right to buy policy.  A freedom of information request sent to the CLG revealed it had spent an estimated £466,222 by November 2012 on sending letters to council tenants in 62 English councils. This follows £460,332 spent on a print advertising campaign last year, bringing the CLG’s overall spend on promotional material for the scheme to £926,554.  Government figures show that, despite huge interest, less than 1,500 local authority right to buy sales were completed in the first six months after the policy was introduced in April last year. There were 2,610 sales in the whole of 2011/12. Read more on Inside Housing.

Councils Not Recording Tenants' Nationalities

Over half of the new council housing lets in London do not record the nationality of the tenant, new research has revealed. The campaign group Migrationwatch UK found that one fifth of all social housing in London is occupied by foreign nationals, and that one third of the capital's new council lets are not even recorded in the Continuous Recording of Sales and Lettings (CORE) data.  Migrationwatch says that local authorities are failing in their legal duty to provide information on the nationality of the tenant, and that four London councils - owners of a quarter of the capital's council-owned stock - provided no information at all to central government.

No Boost for Right to Buy Sales

The government’s much-vaunted push on right to buy sales has failed to significantly increase the number of homes sold, according to new figures released by the CLG. Nearly 1,500 local authority homes were sold in the six months since the coalition increased the discounts available to council tenants who wanted to buy their homes in April.  At the current rate, that would mean there will be around 3,000 sales in 2012/13. Other CLG figures, also released today, show that there were 3,720 right to buy sales in 2011/12, of which 2,610 were sold by local authorities. This year’s figures do not include sales by registered providers under the preserved right to buy. But, at the current rate, local authority sales would be just 14 per cent up on 2011/12 despite discounts more than tripling in some areas and the government spending £660,000 on a campaign to promote the policy. Download a copy of the report from the CLG website.