Government Will Fail To Reach New Homes Target Until 2028

The latest research by Birmingham and Newcastle-based property developer, StripeHomes, reveals that, at the current rate of progress, the UK government will not achieve its pledge of delivering 300,000 new homes a year until 2028. In 2017, the UK government pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year by ‘the mid-2020s’. We are now only a few years away from this deadline, and the data shows that the government has only just managed to break the 200,000 homes a year mark, let alone get close to 300,000. Read more on the Stripe Homes website.

https://www.stripehomes.co.uk/government-will-fail-to-reach-new-homes-target-until-2028/ 

Renters With Six Months’ Arrears To Get Just Four Weeks’ Notice Before Eviction

Tenants who have failed to pay their rent for six months can be evicted with just four weeks’ notice under new government legislation, in an apparent watering down of promises made by ministers. New regulations dictate that a six-month notice period will be necessary for all landlords seeking possession except where rent arrears are over six months or where tenants have committed anti-social behaviour. Landlords seeking to evict tenants for anti-social behaviour will also need to give four weeks’ notice, while the period for perpetrators of domestic abuse will be two weeks. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/renters-with-six-months-arrears-to-get-just-four-weeks-notice-before-eviction-67708 

Government To Miss 2020 Housing Target By Five Years, Says Watchdog

The Government is likely to miss its 2020 housing target by at least five years, a watchdog has said. A National Audit Office (NAO) report has found the sale of public land is not expected to have released enough space for even half the target number of homes. Instead of 160,000 homes, the Government expects to be able to have space for just 65,000 – 41% of the target – and does not expect to reach the 160,000 target until after 2025. Although the Government has so far failed to find enough land to build the promised homes, the report said, it will still meet a target to raise £5 billion through the sell-off of public land. Read more on the AOL website.

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2019/05/02/government-to-miss-2020-housing-target-by-five-years-says-watch/?guccounter=1

Sheffield Failure Proves Housing First Can’t Work Anywhere In The UK

A Housing First service in Sheffield has failed spectacularly as it could not find 10 suitable and affordable properties from either private or social landlords in a city of over half a million people and 240,000 households and properties. The Housing First model can’t even find housing in a low rent cost housing area such as Sheffield.  If a miserly 10 suitable properties cannot be found in Sheffield then what chance do the larger scale Housing First models to be operated in Liverpool and Manchester have and both of those cities have fewer housing properties than Sheffield? Read more on the Speye Joe blog.

https://speyejoe2.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/sheffield-failure-proves-housing-first-cant-work-anywhere-in-the-uk/

Rogue Landlords: 90% Of Local Authorities Fail To Issue Fines

Almost 90% of local authorities failed to use new powers to fine rogue landlords last year, in the latest finding to suggest tenants are being failed by a lax enforcement regime. It follows a Guardian and ITV News investigation in October, which revealed a string of weaknesses in the legislation governing the private rented market and which also raised questions about the rigour with which certain councils pursued any offenders. Only 11% of local authorities issued a civil penalty notice against a landlord or letting agent during 2017-18, according to data provided by 293 English councils responding to freedom of information requests made by the Residential Landlords Association. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/29/rogue-landlords-most-local-authorities-in-england-fail-to-issue-fines

Nottingham Is Latest Licensing Scheme To Be Failing

Selective and Additional Licensing has been a contentious issue ever since it was first introduced back in the UK in 2007 in Salford, but councils continue to roll out new licensing schemes on a frequent basis with no signs of abating. Nottingham is one of the latest schemes to be introduced. Figures released by Nottingham City Council reveal that only 13,450 applications have been received since the Selective Licensing scheme began on 1 August this year. It is estimated that around 32,000 properties in the city require a licence. There is now a backlog of applications, and there have been reports that thousands of applications are being turned down because of 'paperwork errors'. Read more on the ARLA website.

http://www.arla.co.uk/news/november-2018/nottingham-is-latest-licensing-scheme-to-be-failing/

53 Councils Have Not Prosecuted A Single Landlord In Three Years

More than one in seven councils in England and Wales have failed to prosecute a single bad landlord over the past three years, despite some having very high numbers of homes classed as “non-decent”, the Guardian has found. Freedom of information responses show that 53 of the 349 local authorities with responsibility for the private rented sector did not convict any landlords for breaching property standards in 2015, 2016 or 2017. Some of these councils have thousands of private homes in poor states of disrepair and hundreds of illegal bedsit-style homes, which typically have the worst overcrowding and living conditions. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/24/53-councils-have-not-prosecuted-a-single-landlord-in-three-years

ALMO Did Not Carry Out Inspections After 2014 Report Into Broadwater Farm Defects

Homes for Haringey did not carry out an intrusive inspection on a high-rise tower, despite a report in 2014 warning doing so could uncover safety issues. Residents will be evacuated from Tangmere House on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham due to longstanding issues with the safety of the block’s structure. But Inside Housing has obtained a document which shows a structural assessment of this block carried out in 2014 reported cracks in walls throughout the building. The report added: “Latent defects may exist in the structure which can only be discovered by a further more detailed investigation.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JSE3_zmShaEJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/almo-did-not-carry-out-inspections-after-2014-report-into-broadwater-farm-defects-57499+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Housing Money Wasted 'Propping Up Rents'

Taxpayers' money is being wasted on "propping up rents" in a "failing housing market", a report says. The National Housing Federation report highlights how money spent on housing benefit rose from £16.6bn in the mid-1990s to £25.1bn in 2015-16. It added that since 2011, no government money has been made available to build homes in England for low paid people to rent. The government said building more homes was its absolute priority. Read more on the NHF website.

Government Housing Schemes Have Little Impact On Social Mobility

Flagship government schemes to help more people get on the UK housing ladder have little impact on improving social mobility as better-off buyers are most likely to benefit from the support. A new report published by the Social Mobility Commission into the impact of low-cost home ownership schemes found that those benefitting from schemes - such as Help to Buy - earn more than one and a half times the national working age median income. Around 3 in 5 first-time buyers said that they would have bought anyway and that the scheme merely enabled them to buy a better property, or one in a better area, than they were originally looking for. Download the report from the Gov UK website.

Cladding Crisis Deepens As 181 Towers Fail Tests

The deepening national crisis has left the onus on councils and building owners to decide whether they should remove cladding rather than receiving any expert Government advice. Now the advisory body headed by Sir Ken Knight, the former government chief fire and rescue adviser, aims to set out clearer guidance for owners and the industry. The move comes as 181 tower blocks in 51 local authority areas are now known to have failed fire cladding safety tests. This new total represent a 100% of all panels tested as part of the national safety operation to identify buildings with cladding similar to Grenfell tower. Read more on Construction Enquirer.

HCA Chair: We Will Hammer Councils Which Fail To Deliver Targets

Local authorities which fail to deliver housing delivery targets set through standard measures will get “caned”, the Homes and Communities Agency chair has warned.  Sir Edward Lister suggested that the Local Plans shake-ups in the Housing White Paper were the “most important” factor in the government achieving its target of building a million homes by 2020. He said: “It is about Local Plans and about five-year housing supply being identified sensibly and properly. And there’s all sorts of stuff in the White Paper about that and having to have a five-year housing supply and a Local Plan and if you don’t you’re going to get caned.” Read more on Inside Housing.

What More Should Government Do To Promote The Building Of New Homes

 A contribution from the members of the Lyons Housing Commission November 2016  Faced with the consequences of decades of failure to build the homes the country needs, public concern about housing is now at the highest it has been for 40 years. In the two years since the Lyons Housing Commission published its review of housing supply, tackling the housing crisis has risen up the national political agenda and is firmly embedded as a top priority for government. Building on recommendations from our previous report this article sets out a number of proposals for the Government to consider as part of its White Paper. Download the report from the Housingnet website.

Green Deal Energy Loans Had 'Abysmal' Take-Up

The government's energy efficiency loan scheme had an "abysmal" take-up rate because it had not been tested with consumers, MPs have said. The "Green Deal" ended last year after providing just £50m in 14,000 loans to households to boost energy efficiency. That was far less than the £1.1bn predicted by the government, with each loan costing taxpayers £17,000. In a highly critical report, the Public Accounts Committee said projections for the scheme were "wildly optimistic". The MPs said the Department of Energy and Climate Change's figures gave a completely misleading picture of the scheme's prospects to Parliament. Read more on the BBC website.

Labour Attack On Cameron Over 'Soaring Levels Of Homelessness'

Soaring levels of homelessness since David Cameron took the keys to No 10 have left thousands more children facing Christmas in hostels and rough sleepers out on the streets, Labour has warned. The number of households classed as homeless has risen by more than a third in England since 2010 - and is on course to have nearly doubled by the next general election, according to analysis by the party. Labour accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a "crisis" in homelessness despite his claims in opposition that it was a "disgrace" that people were forced to sleep on the streets. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said there had been " five years of failure on homelessness under this Government". Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Healey Slams Conservative Failings On Housebuilding

Conservative ministers have built a track record of failure when it comes to housebuilding over the last five years, according to Labour’s shadow housing and planning minister John Healey MP.  “The number of homes built in the best year of the last government’s five years was still lower than the worst year of the previous 13 Labour years… 124,980 homes built in the depths of the recession in 2009, under Labour but five years later in 2014, the best year of the last Parliament with a much-trumpeted growing economy, only 117 720,” he said.  Healey was speaking at in the House of Commons during CLG departmental questions session. During the session, he also effectively suggested communities secretary Greg Clark had offered up his department as a ‘sacrificial lamb’ for agreeing with the Treasury to 8% cuts each year to his department’s budget ahead of the spending review later this month. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Labour Hit Back At Cameron’s “Record Of Failure” On Housing

Labour’s Shadow Housing minister John Healey has slammed the “five years of failure on housing” since Cameron took office. He said: “Over the last five years with David Cameron in charge the Conservatives have completely failed on housing. They claim to be the party of home ownership but it has fallen every year for the past five years and is now at its lowest level for a generation – for those under 35, it’s down by over a fifth. Their record of failure has also seen rapidly rising rents, more homelessness, higher housing benefits bill, and fewer homes built than at any time since the 1920s. After five years of failure on housing, the millions of people struggling to cope with their housing costs deserve a real plan for more affordable homes to rent and buy. And the country needs a new wide debate about how our deepening housing crisis can be tackled.” Read more on the Labour List website.

Right To Buy: A Third Of Councils Don't Replace Houses

One in three councils has not replaced a single house sold through the Right to Buy scheme, official data has found.  With separate analysis suggesting as many as 113,000 council homes will need to be sold off to fund the scheme, some fear it will leave many areas bereft of affordable housing. Analysis of provisional figures from the CLG showed that, of the 166 councils in England listed as having sold properties through Right to Buy since 2012, 33% had not replaced a single home. Just one council in 12 (8%) had managed to build enough to replace half their stock, and only two had succeeded in replacing more than 100% of those sold. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

Newbuy Housing Scheme Is A 95 Per Cent Failure

A coalition plan to get 100,000 people on to the property ladder by helping them buy new-build properties has actually helped just over 5,000 individuals, official figures have revealed. The Government's NewBuy scheme involves guaranteeing mortgages for first-time buyers who have a deposit as small as 5 per cent. When it was introduced, ministers pledged it would help 100,000 people to buy a home. But so far only 5,518 have benefited from the scheme, the Government's own figures have revealed. Read more on the Independent website.

‘Help To Buy’ Branded a Flop in London

A row has erupted after it emerged a flagship government scheme has so far failed to help anyone buy a home in 20 areas of London. Labour claimed the data, which revealed 12 further areas where fewer than five people have been helped, proves the Coalition’s Help to Buy equity loans are “a flop”. Ministers hit back and said that the policy, which helps purchase homes worth up to £600,000, has benefited almost 3,000 people across the capital as a whole. As recent data suggests the housing market boom in London is finally starting to slow, official figures show not a single person has benefited from a Help to Buy equity loan in 20 London parliamentary constituencies. Read more on the Evening Standard website.