Ministers Consider New Supported Housing Duties

The government is considering imposing new legal duties on councils to provide supported housing, in a bid to safeguard a proposed housing benefit top-up fund. Ministers are considering requiring councils to provide “certain types of housing” in response to fears that local authorities would spend the extra cash earmarked to meet higher costs of supported housing elsewhere.  Ministers are intending to cap housing benefit for supported housing tenants in line with LHA levels from 2019/20. The government plans to devolve extra funding locally to help tenants cover the more expensive rents in supported housing. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Failing Landlords On Right To Rent

More than 90% of landlords have received no information from the Government on their new legal duty to check the immigration status of their tenants. This is despite a law coming into force demanding landlords undertake checks on their tenants to ensure they have the right to live in the country. According to a survey of over 1,500 landlords the lack of information from the Government is leading to confusion about how landlords are expected to carry out the checks. The survey found that that 72% of landlords do not understand their obligations under the policy, designed to make the country a more hostile environment for illegal immigrants. Read more on the Residential Landlords Association website.

Government Publishes Landmark Housing And Planning Bill

The Government has published its landmark Housing and Planning Bill. Among the provisions in this wide-ranging bill is the statutory framework for the Government’s ‘Starter Homes’ scheme which includes a new legal duty to be placed on councils to guarantee the provision of 200,000 starter homes on all reasonably sized new development sites. These will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20 per cent discount on market price. Another key measure provides ministers with powers to intervene to ensure that all councils have local plans in place by 2017. In addition, the legislation introduces the requirement for local authorities to keep registers of brownfield land, an extension of the right-to-buy discount to some housing association tenants and a duty on local authorities to sell their most expensive vacant homes. Read more on the Planning Portal.