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

Chief Inspector Of Borders & Immigration Slams Right To Rent

A scathing report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has found that:

“the Right to Rent (RtR) scheme had yet to demonstrate its worth as a tool to encourage immigration compliance, with the Home Office failing to coordinate, maximise or even measure effectively its use, while at the same time doing little to address the concerns of stakeholders”. The report highlights concerns and criticisms raised by the NLA and stakeholder groups publically and through the Landlords Consultative Panel chaired by the Immigration Minister. Read more on the NLA website.

https://www.landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/chief-inspector-borders-immigration-slams-right-rent

Landlords Back Bid To Overturn Right To Rent

The country’s leading landlord organisation is supporting efforts to overturn a flagship immigration policy, saying its members won’t be “scapegoats for the failures of the border agencies.” Under the Right to Rent Scheme landlords are responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants with the prospect of prosecution if they know or have “reasonable cause to believe” that the property they are letting is occupied by someone who does not have the right to rent in the UK. Now, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) is supporting a Judicial Review of the policy being sought today by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) which argues that the policy discriminates against foreign nationals. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/rla-backs-legal-bid-overturn-right-right/

Charities Referring Rough Sleepers To Immigration Enforcement Teams

Leading homelessness charities whose remit is to protect vulnerable rough sleepers have been passing information about some of them to the Home Office, leading to their removal from the UK. A report from Corporate Watch, The Round Up, reveals concerns about homelessness charities’ links to immigration enforcement and comes at a time of increasing disquiet about the involvement of landlords, schools and the NHS with immigration enforcement.  Civil liberties campaigners have accused the government of having a toxic “border on every street” policy. Read more on the Guardian website.

Level Of Concern About Housing Is Highest In 40 Years

Concern about housing in Britain is at its highest level for 41 years, according to an Ipsos Mori poll. The data shows 5% more people are worried about the issue than in September. It has risen up two places on Ipsos Mori’s list of concerns in Britain today, behind immigration, the NHS and the economy, but just above unemployment and poverty/inequality. Twenty per cent of people interviewed were worried about housing, compared to 52% for immigration, 37% for the NHS and 26% for the economy. The political research company points out the concern over housing is “most stark when the results are looked at geographically”. Eight per cent of people surveyed in the north of England saw housing as an issue but 43% in London. Read more on the Ipsos Mori website.

Arrears Cause Most Stress to UK Residential Landlords

The majority of landlords in the UK find managing their properties stressful with arrears causing the most worry, new research has found.  They are having to deal with complex issues such as new regulations, rent arrears, and tax as well as the everyday issues of repairs, insurance and void periods. The research reveals that rent arrears causes the most stress, cited by 87% of respondents while 80% said dealing with tenant complaints was the main stress, followed by 43 for repairs to properties, 40% the new immigration laws and 28% securing finance to expand their buy to let portfolios. A quarter of landlords cited tax and inland revenue as a major reason for getting worried and anxious, while a third said it is void periods.  Read more on the Property Wire website.

Government to Fast-Track Landlord Migrant Checks

The government is accelerating plans to force landlords to check their tenants are in the UK legally, David Cameron has announced.  In a speech, setting out a series of measures designed to crack down on illegal immigration, the prime minister said he would go further than a West Midlands pilot, which is currently testing proposals to make landlords check their tenants are not illegal migrants. Mr Cameron said he would expand the initiative nationwide, saying that the Liberal Democrats had previously limited the government to piloting the scheme. Read more on the Gov.Uk website.

Iain Duncan Smith to Signal Further Welfare Crackdown

Iain Duncan Smith is to signal a further crackdown on welfare in a speech suggesting that changes to the benefit system have lowered unemployment. The work and pensions secretary is set to tell an audience in London that ‘the number of households where nobody had ever worked doubled’ under Labour and that welfare reform is ‘changing our country for the better’. ‘Fixing society at the same time as the economy, matching a firm economic settlement to a firm social settlement; and in so doing putting this country on a path to a more productive, more dynamic, and ultimately a more contented, future,’ he will say. Mr Duncan Smith will claim that immigration to the United Kingdom has been a ‘supply and demand issue’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Landlords Attack Government’s Immigration Proposals

Under proposals announced in the Queen’s Speech the Government is expecting private sector landlords to check that all their tenants are legally allowed in the country with likely fines for landlords found to be housing those not allowed to remain in the United Kingdom.  The Residential Landlords’ Association is warning that whilst immigration rules need to be enforced effectively, the reality is that tenants living in the UK legally will see rents rise as letting agents ramp up fees to cover the costs of further checks on tenants and to cover the greater risks new laws will bring. Such costs will inevitably be borne by tenants paying rents.  A spokesman for the RLA commented, “For a Government committed to reducing the burden of regulation it is ironic that they are now seeking to impose a significant regulatory burden on landlords making them scapegoats for the UK Border Agency’s failings.”  Read more on the RLA website.

Mark Prisk Writes about His New Job as Housing Minister

Writing in his local newspaper, Mark Prisk sets out his thoughts on his new job.

*Too Few Homes - The population is rising.  It is true that migration contributes around 40 per cent of this population growth. That’s one of the reasons why this Government is committed to cutting the numbers of migrants from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands per year.  However the main reason for the growth is that we are, thankfully, living longer.  If the housing market were functioning properly then you would expect it to respond to this rising demand and deliver the homes needed. But the truth is the housing market is highly volatile, while often failing to deliver the homes where people need them. This has driven prices up and priced many first-time buyers out of the market.

*Kick-Starting the Market - To kick-start the market, we have helped create a new and innovative scheme. Called NewBuy, it enables homebuyers to secure mortgages with at least 5 per cent deposit on new-build houses and flats.  Alongside this we are helping young first-time buyers by providing a further £280m for the FirstBuy equity loan scheme.  There are also many publicly-owned sites which have yet to be unlocked for new housing and development. Some 40 per cent of previously used land, suitable for development, is in Government hands with local or national government. 

*Helping Tenants - The next challenge is how we can reform social housing to help those on lower incomes.  I am determined that we increase the total investment in this sector, by levering in much more private investment, and by giving social landlords much greater freedom over the type of tenancies they can offer.  The current rigid rules often mean that the social housing stock we have is underused, because of old rules that don’t work today.

*Tackling Neighbours from Hell - We need to make it simpler and easier to tackle this behaviour.  That means ensuring social landlords can act decisively and that those who break the rules know that they will be evicted if they don’t mend their ways. 

*Helping the Homeless - It’s true that the level of homelessness is still roughly half what it was just a few years ago. Yet it’s still wrong that tens of thousands of people will tonight be without a home, often through no fault of their own. My predecessor has already acted to cut the number of households in temporary accommodation.  Homeless people often have many other problems in their lives, involving family breakdown, drugs and so on which need to be addressed in the round. The Home Secretary is taking the lead on this and I want to be an active part of that approach, so we can deal with the causes of homelessness.

Read more on the Hertfordshire Mercury website.

UK Migration: The Leadership Role of Housing Providers

What can housing providers do to successfully handle the consequences of national policies and trends relating to UK immigration? Migration policy often focuses on the number of new migrants entering the UK, but little is done to support neighbourhoods where migrants already live. Central government is withdrawing from these issues at a local level, placing more importance than ever before on regional and local leadership. This report:
*investigates the role of housing associations;
*studies the ways in which housing providers have already taken steps towards better neighbourhood cohesion and integration;
*explores perceived or actual competition between migrants and host communities for housing; and
*encourages housing providers who are well-placed to act on these issues to support communities in the process of change caused by the effects of recent migration, which are here to stay.
Download the summary of this report from the JRF website.