Council To Let Associations Bid For RTB Receipts

Housing associations are invited to bid for the £16m pot – as long as it is spent on easing Hackney council’s 12,000-plus waiting list. Councils have just three years to use any profit made from Right to Buy sales, any longer and it is handed over to government – with interest. The money can only be used on housing, and can fund up to 30% of any new development, the rest of which has to be funded elsewhere. The council has so far managed to plough all £45m of its receipts back into its huge estate regeneration, building 3,000 homes, but is now running out of ways to spend it before the three-year cut off. Read more on 24housing.

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.

Council Calls On Ministers To Protect Renters

A London council is delivering a petition to government ministers in a bid to protect private renters. The petition, from Hackney Council is backed by hundreds of residents and calls for longer tenancies, a national register of rogue landlords and transparent letting fees. The authority’s ten-point plan, which calls on the government to reform outdated legislation regulating the sector, was handed to the new minister for housing and planning, Gavin Barwell MP. Research from Shelter shows more than a third of privately-let properties don’t meet the Decent Homes standard, while rents in the capital have risen by 19% since 2011 – causing one in three private renters in London to fall into debt just to meet monthly housing costs. Read more on 24dash.

Housing Management Set To Return to Council

Following consultation with residents on a joint recommendation, Hackney Council’s Cabinet has decided to return the management of its housing stock to the Council when its contract with Hackney Homes comes to an end on the 31st of March 2016. The Council recently consulted residents on a joint proposal by Hackney Homes and Hackney Council to return housing management to the Council. All of Hackney secure and introductory tenants and leaseholders were consulted over a three month period, by independent research agency Ipsos MORI. Of the 18% who responded, 56% showed support for the proposal. Read more on the Hackney Council website.