Housing A Pawn In Tory Brexit Leadership Scrap

Former Housing Minister Dominic Raab has called for “radical” housing reforms in an attempt to help renters get on the housing ladder and increase the rate of home building. Attacking the Conservative failure to stand up to developers and ensure the construction of enough homes to tackle the housing shortage, Raab advocated a new Help to Buy scheme that would exempt landlords from capital gains tax when they sell their property to existing tenants. The leadership hopeful also identified the following solutions:

·         More government land to be released, with councils given more power to sell sites to smaller developers 

·         Fewer impositions on councils who fail to get enough homes built

·         Scrapping stamp duty on homes worth less than £500,000

Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/construction-industry/press-release/national-federation-builders/103251/housing-pawn

Social Housing Green Paper Expected By Recess

The Social Housing Green Paper is still expected to be published before parliament breaks up for summer recess next Tuesday, the government has confirmed. There had been speculation that the paper might be subject to further delays after a new housing minister was appointed recently. However, this week the government confirmed it still intended to publish before recess, which is scheduled for next Tuesday. Dominic Raab was promoted to Brexit secretary and replaced as housing minister by Kit Malthouse. Before leaving his post, Mr Raab said the green paper would include measures to “strengthen the role of the regulator, to give it more teeth” and “also to empower residents as consumers and give them the voice and ability to hold landlords to account”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/social-housing-green-paper-expected-by-next-tuesday-57225?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Kit Malthouse Appointed Minister Of State For Housing

Kit Malthouse MP has been appointed Minister of State for Housing, following the promotion of Dominic Raab MP to Secretary of State for Exiting the EU. Mr Malthouse was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance at the DWP. He is a chartered accountant and, before entering Parliament, was a member of the London Assembly, serving as Deputy Mayor for Policing and Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise. Prior to this, he was a councillor on Westminster Council and was also on the board of the authority’s arm’s-length management organisation (ALMO), Citywest Homes. Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/kit-malthouse-appointed-minister-state-housing

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish regulations on local Tenancy Strategies in relation to the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

Dominic Raab: [Holding answer 25 June 2018]: The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced changes to local authority tenancies by making it mandatory for most new council tenancies to be for a fixed term. Regulations and statutory guidance are necessary to implement the fixed term tenancy provisions in the Housing and Planning Act and the next steps will be set out in due course.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-06-20/155938

Raab: It’s Time To Break Big Business’s Grip On The Building Industry

The “vice-like grip” of huge companies on Britain’s building industry needs to be broken to increase the supply of affordable homes, the housing minister has said. Dominic Raab pledged action to boost competition in the construction industry because small building firms have been “eviscerated”, to tackle the practice of major developers refusing to built on plots until prices rise and to champion the development of factory-made houses. In an interview with i , he insisted the UK was beginning to see the “light at the end of the tunnel” in the housing crisis and vowed to tackle the “stigma” often faced by tenants in social housing. Read more on the I newspaper website.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/dominic-raab-house-building/

Raab Asked Not To ‘Hold Back’ On Green Homes

A group representing ambitious cities and local authorities has sent an open letter to Dominic Raab, demanding support for their efforts to cut carbon emissions from new homes through the planning system. The letter proposes new wording of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), as well as a new Ministerial Statement to provide clarity. A changing national policy context for housing in recent years has led to confusion and uncertainty about what can and cannot be done at the local level to raise the sustainability of new build homes – particularly on energy and carbon. The proposed measures would make clear that local authorities have the freedom to set higher sustainability standards in new homes. Read more on the UKGBC website.

https://www.ukgbc.org/news/local-government-leaders-to-ministry-of-housing-dont-hold-us-back-on-green-homes/

£250m Spent But No Starter Homes Yet Built Under Flagship Fund

The government has spent £250m to boost starter home construction without a single property being built so far, it has emerged. Dominic Raab, the housing minister, made the admission in response to a question from John Healey, the shadow housing secretary, who described the situation as “a betrayal of young Brits looking for help to buy a first home”. In March 2016 the government announced a £1.2bn fund to help deliver “200,000 quality starter homes by 2020 exclusively for first-time buyers at a 20% discount on market value”. The promise was originally made in the Conservatives’ 2015 election manifesto. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/02/250m-spent-but-no-starter-homes-built-under-flagship-fund

Councils Stretch Housing Budgets To Fund Fire Safety Work

The government has still given no financial help to local councils to carry out essential fire safety work, forcing councils to stretch already limited housing budgets to cover the cost. In a survey of 31 local councils whose tower blocks failed fire safety checks since the Grenfell Tower disaster, none said they had received financial assistance from central government to carry out work. That is despite top officials telling a committee of MPs that four councils would receive help “in the next few weeks” on 15 January, almost three months ago. Housing minister Dominic Raab said “there may be circumstances where government would consider the removal of financial restrictions to enable works to go ahead”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yVkef-UyxksJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-stretch-housing-budgets-as-government-continues-to-refuse-to-fund-fire-safety-work-55757+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Housing Minister Defends Claim Of Immigration Impact On House Prices

Dominic Raab, the housing minister who claimed in an interview that immigration had “put house prices up by something like 20%” over the past 25 years, has had to contextualise the figure. The UK Statistics Authority asked Raab, a leading Brexiter, to publish the evidence for his claim.  A document published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government shows that the finding was based on an out-of-date model that had never been intended for this kind of analysis. Raab defended his use of the model, which estimates the impact of population growth, inflation, interest rates, housing stock and wage growth on house prices. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/13/housing-minister-dominic-raab-defends-claim-of-immigration-pushing-up-house-prices

Raab Immigration Calculations Sourced From Quango Abolished In 2010

Dominic Raab’s claim that immigration has pushed up house prices by 20% in 25 years relied on a model produced by a quango abolished in 2010, the government has said. The MHCLG, however, has refused to publish this model or the statistics produced from it. A spokesperson for the MHCLG said: “Basically, the figure was produced using an analytical model originally produced by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU), which incorporates ONS [Office for National Statistics] housing supply statistics. “So it’s not something that can be found online – or in published stats. Our officials provided it to Mr Raab ahead of his interview.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:whMnFD4SHRoJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/raab-immigration-calculations-sourced-from-quango-abolished-in-2010-55685+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Raab: Councils Can’t ‘Abdicate Responsibility’ Over Affordable Homes

Housing minister Dominic Raab says the government can’t allow councils to “abdicate their responsibility” over affordable homes. But Raab offered councils little on lifting the debt cap telling the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, only that submissions to government will be considered. The issue, said Raab, said was of best leverage of a council’s position to get homes built. Government, he said, will prioritise priorities areas of “highest demand” with expensive prices. Challenged over the total amount invested on affordable housing being less than total increase on Help to Buy, Raab said: “We want to make for low and middle incomes that homes are being built.” Read more on 24housing.

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/raab-councils-cant-abdicate-responsibility-over-affordable-homes/

Housing Minister Open To Considering Changes To Borrowing Cap Policy

The housing minister has said he is open to considering changes to the government’s policy of lifting the borrowing cap only for certain councils. When asked by Liz Twist, a Labour MP on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, whether the government has considered raising the cap for all councils, Dominic Raab said he does not have a “closed view” on the policy. In the Autumn Budget last November the government announced £1bn of extra borrowing capacity for those councils where housing demand is highest. But critics have said £1bn is not enough to build the number of council homes required. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:atnapH4AulsJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-minister-open-to-considering-changes-to-borrowing-cap-policy-55226+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Raab Raises Stakes With Labour Over Home Ownership

Housing minister Dominic Raab says home ownership is “the British dream” and it’s a vision not shared in Labour’s appeal to a younger generation. Raab referenced the “Marxist decree” that all property is theft to take a swipe at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow housing minister John Healy. On housing, Raab said, the Tories had a chance to re-cast their social contract with younger voters. The sense of injustice felt by younger voters was most piercing for the Conservatives, Raab said, precisely because of the party’s success in instilling the aspiration of home-ownership in the next generation – only for them to find the housing ladder has been pulled up beyond their reach. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/02/01/housing-priority-conservatives-know-doomed-fail/

New HMO Licensing Rules Expected In October

The Government is planning to introduce new rules on licensing Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) this October, the Housing Minister, Dominic Raab, has confirmed. The Government set out its proposals to extend HMO licensing last year, involving mandatory licensing for properties, regardless of height, that are occupied by five or more people from two or more households. Currently, mandatory HMO licensing only applies to properties with three or more storeys that are occupied by five or more people from two or more households. The new rules still have to be approved by Parliament. However, in response to a written question by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, Raab set out a timetable for their introduction. Read more on the Landlord News website.

https://landlordnews.co.uk/new-hmo-licensing-rules-october/

Private Rented Housing: Licensing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to extend mandatory licencing schemes for landlords in the private rented sector.

Dominic Raab: [Holding answer 18 January 2018]: The Government proposes to extend the scope of mandatory houses in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing, so that a licence is required for HMOs with five or more occupiers. We published our response to our HMO reforms consultation in December 2017, and we plan to lay the necessary regulations before Parliament shortly with a view to bringing them into force (subject to approval) in October 2018.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-01-15/122708

Landlords – Parliamentary Written Answer

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen local authority powers to deal with rogue landlords.

Dominic Raab: We intend to introduce a system of banning the most serious and prolific offenders from renting properties as well as a database of rogue landlords and lettings agents convicted of certain offences in April 2018. These new powers will give local authorities the tools they need to crack down on the minority of landlords who disregard the law and take advantage of tenants in the private rented sector.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2017-12-20/120647

Government Commits To Publish Social Housing Green Paper By Spring

The green paper – announced by housing secretary Sajid Javid in September – is supposed to be the start of a “fundamental rethink of social housing in this country”. Former housing minister Alok Sharma had been travelling the country meeting tenants at ‘roadshows’ to gather evidence for the policy document. In the course of these meetings he had promised tenants he would publish the paper by spring this year. The HCLG confirmed that Mr Raab will attend that event in Basingstoke, and the government will honour Mr Sharma’s pledge on the timing. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-commits-to-publish-social-housing-green-paper-by-spring-54074?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Labour MP Suggests Doubling Tax For Top Value Homes

A senior Labour MP has suggested doubling council tax bills on the highest-value homes in England to ease the budget pressures facing local authorities. Chris Williamson, an ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said increases could be staggered from 20% for a Band D home up to 100% for the top Band, H. He said his idea was not Labour policy. But he said it had a lot of support among Labour activists. The proposal was attacked by the Conservatives' newly-appointed housing minister, Dominic Raab. Read more on the BBC website.

Cabinet Reshuffle: What Does It Mean For Housing?

Sajid Javid has kept his job and is now Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG). Housing already fell under the department’s remit, but reshuffle rumours predicted the position of housing minister would be promoted to a full cabinet post. CLG has seen its social care remit shifted to the Department of Health. David Gauke has been moved from the DWP to the Ministry of Justice with Esther McVey becoming Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Dominic Raab is the new housing minister, moving over from the Ministry of Justice where he had been a junior minister since 2015. Alok Sharma will now take up a minister for employment role in the DWP. Read more on the RLA website.