MP Launches Bill To Bring In Tougher Regulation For Supported Housing

 A Bristol MP has launched a new bill aimed at bringing legislation that would improve the regulation of supported housing across the country. Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, launched a 10-minute rule motion in parliament, which is aimed at tackling poor standards and lack of oversight in the sector. The bill will be geared to tackling the lack of regulation in the exempt accommodation sector, as well as giving local authorities more powers to inspect and take action when the care and support being provided is substandard. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/mp-launches-bill-to-bring-in-tougher-regulation-for-supported-housing-68605?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

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 Accused Of ‘Sneaking Out’ Rules For Evictions After Ban Is Lifted

The government has been accused of “sneaking out” new legislation outlining how landlords can evict tenants after the current ban is lifted, with campaign groups warning that most renters will not be protected from losing their homes. On Friday evening, the government published an amendment to its rules on evictions during the coronavirus crisis, detailing how possessions will resume after the government lifts the moratorium on 23 August. Campaign group Generation Rent has criticised the plans, claiming that they will not give judges enough power to protect renters and prevent mass evictions. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-accused-of-sneaking-out-rules-for-evictions-after-ban-is-lifted-67221?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Funding Boosts To Help Councils Tackle Lettings Legislation Enforcement

Several funding boosts in recent years should mean local authorities are better equipped to tackle the enforcement of lettings legislation in 2020. Using the additional funds to train more enforcement officers could lead to more penalties being issued, including banning orders for the worst offenders - which have been used sparingly since their introduction. Earlier this month, it was announced that 100 local councils will receive an additional £4 million in funding to combat rogue landlords and letting agencies.  Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/funding-boosts-to-help-councils-tackle-lettings-legislation-enforcement.html

Landlords ‘Struggling’ To Keep Up With Reforms

New research shows many landlords are struggling to keep up with new legislative and regulatory reforms introduced over the past year. An independent survey of 400 landlords found 30% do not understand the changes to House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licencing and 28% were unaware of the abolition of Section 21. 27% said they do not understand the tenant fees ban (June 2019) or how it may affect them. A quarter (25%) said they were not up to date with the latest changes to reduce tax relief on Buy To Let mortgage repayments. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/survey-shows-landlords-struggling-to-keep-up-with-reforms/

Government Opens Up New Scheme To ‘Protect Renters And Landlords’

Housing Minister Heather Wheeler MP has brought forward new legislation to strengthen protections for money held by property agents. Under the new regulations taking effect from 1 April, all property agents in the private rented sector will be required to join a government-approved scheme to protect their clients’ money while it is in their possession – with fines of up to £30,000 if they fail to do so. In 2017, an estimated £2.7 bn in client funds – such as tenants’ deposits and landlords’ rental payments – was being held by letting agents. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-opens-up-new-scheme-to-protect-renters-and-landlords/

Social Housing Regulator ‘Constrained’ By Government Before Grenfell

The social housing regulator was “constrained” in its ability to investigate residents’ fire safety concerns by the direction of travel imposed by government, its former chair has said. Julian Ashby, who stepped down as chair of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) this year, said “with hindsight” the regulator could have been “more aggressive” over health and safety. But he said its actions were “constrained” by legislation which limited its power to intervene in consumer affairs, after the government scrapped its predecessor, the Tenant Services Authority (TSA), amid the ‘bonfire of the quangos’ in 2010. The HCA was only allowed to intervene in ‘consumer’ or tenant affairs when it was satisfied that the concerns passed the ‘serious detriment test’ of potential harm to residents. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Z4fwfZltkREJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-housing-regulator-constrained-by-government-before-grenfell-says-former-chair-56768+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Almost Half Of Landlords To Quit By 2020 Says AXA

Tax relief for landlords began to be phased out from 6 April 2017. AXA’s latest study of UK landlords reveals that far more believe they will be affected than Government estimates suggest, and almost half plan to quit the rental market by 2020, fearing they are being unfairly targeted. AXA’s research shows that more than 40 per cent of landlords believe they will be worse off as a result of the changes. This is despite the UK Government’s assurances that 82 per cent will not have any additional tax to pay. AXA found evidence that this change coming on top of a raft of legislation aimed at landlords in recent years means that almost half of private landlords will withdraw from the market by 2020. Read more on the ARLA website.

Tenants’ Finances Close To Breaking

The co-founder of a property listings website claims the UK’s private rented sector is a “ticking time bomb”, with tenants’ ability to absorb rent increases at breaking point. Consistent rent rises in the UK housing market have put immense financial pressure on tenants, with renters in popular areas such as London now shelling out over two thirds of their average income on rent.However, despite tenants’ budgets already being stretched to the limit, they now face even further price rises as droves of Buy To Let landlords pass on the costs of tax changes and new Government legislation in the form of rent rises. But research carried out for TheHouseShop.com claims that almost half (42%) of private renters would not be able to afford an increase of up to 5% in their monthly rent costs. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support he has provided to local authorities and the construction industry to encourage the promotion of self-build schemes for constructing new homes.

Gavin Barwell:We have a strong commitment to supporting and encouraging the growth of self- and custom build homes. The Government has implemented new legislation requiring most local planning authorities to hold and have regard to registers for those seeking to build their own home in a local authority area. Subject to Parliamentary processes, in the Autumn we will also introduce secondary legislation flowing from the Housing and Planning Act 2016 which will require local planning authorities to find and give permission to suitable land reflecting the demand demonstrated by the registers. We have made available £32 million in new burdens funding over the Spending Review period in order to support local planning authorities in meeting these new requirements. In the 2015 Spending Review, the Government also announced a £3 billion loan fund of which £1 billion is specifically earmarked for short term loans to support small and medium builders and custom build projects and is designed to provide further support for the legislation that we have introduced.

Starter Home Delivery Doubt

Developers have cast doubt on ministerial hopes of seeing 200,000 ‘starter homes’ available in England by the end of the decade as the legislation underpinning the initiative made it onto the statute book. The British Property Federation welcomed this but pointed out that the secondary legislation for the starter homes regime had yet to be finalised and published. “The longer the government takes to iron out the details of this policy, the more that target slips into the distance. Spades are not likely to be in the ground until 2017 at the earliest, and time is certainly running out” commented Melanie Leech, BPF chief executive. Read more on the Planning Portal website.

MPs Back Change In Law So All Homeless People Can Get Help

MPs from across the political spectrum are to pledge their support for a new law aimed at making sure all homeless people can get the help they need.  The proposed law to prevent and tackle homelessness early draws on the recommendations of a panel of leading experts and has already received the backing of MPs, councils and the homelessness sector. If passed, such a law would help to end the longstanding injustice which means single homeless people can be turned away when they ask their council for help.  Read more on 24dash.

Call For MPs To Back New Homelessness Law

Homelessness charity Crisis is urging MPs of all parties to back a new law intended to make sure all homeless people can get the help they need. The proposed law to prevent and tackle homelessness early draws on the recommendations of a panel of leading experts and has already received the backing of MPs, councils and the homelessness sector. If passed, such a law would help to end the “longstanding injustice” which means single homeless people can be turned away when they ask their council for help, Crisis said. Academics have estimated that such a law is likely to require an additional £43.9 million for preventing and tackling homelessness early, although this would be offset by a £46.8 million reduction in spending on people who are already homeless. Read more on Housing Excellence.

Next Battle Is Housing Regulations

Campaigners must continue their battle by tackling new regulations, a Labour peer has urged. Ahead of a crucial stage of the Housing and Planning Bill, a backbench Labour member of the House of Lords said shaping the regulations on critical issues such as Right to Buy will be the final stage of the battle for social housing. The regulations are being drafted separately from the controversial legislation by a team of CLG civil servants and will not come under parliamentary scrutiny. Baroness Ruth Lister gave a briefing to housing campaigners and called on them to continue their campaign after the legislation is passed to focus on the rules that will affect local authorities and housing associations. Read more on 24dash.

Homelessness Duty 'Would Cost Councils £44m'

Introducing a new homelessness prevention duty would initially cost English councils £44m a year in total, a report has found. A panel of housing experts, organised by Crisis, officially published its recommendations calling on ministers to introduce new duties on councils to prevent people becoming homeless. The provisional research findings, undertaken by academics and published by Crisis, found that local authorities would spend in total £43.9m a year on homelessness prevention under the new scheme. However, it found that these extra costs would eventually be offset by £46.8m a year due to fewer full homelessness duty cases, because people would get help quicker. The CLG has not confirmed whether or not it would match new legislation with extra money for councils. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Bill: The Controversial Legislation Explained

The Housing and Planning Bill is approaching its final stage in parliament before passing into law. But the wide-ranging legislation, touted as the most significant reform to the housing system for a generation, is hugely controversial. The government says its bill is a necessary shake-up of housing, which will cut spending and boost house-building and home ownership. Here are explanations of the most controversial elements of the Housing Bill.

·         Pay to stay

·         Right to rent

·         Starter homes

·         Ending lifetime tenancies

·         Right to buy and housing associations

·         Selling valuable council houses

To find out more about the above, read more on the International Business Times website.

Treasury “Quirk” May Mean Housing Associations Topping-Up Staff’s State Pension

Housing associations could find themselves paying out extra to cover pensions costs thanks to a “quirk of legislation” that allows the Treasury to pass on the cost of state pensions reforms. The issue is of primary concern to local authorities, which would see £1bn added to their pension bill, but it could also impact housing associations and other organisations that make use of public sector pension schemes.  The Government has traditionally provided a top-up to the state pension to inflation-proof it against rising prices. But as part of the reforms to create a single tier state pension, the DWP will stop providing the top-up for some of the pension of those who reach state pension age after 5 April 2016. Most private sector employees will definitely be at the top-ups end but there is continuing uncertainty over the position of public sector employees and others who participate in public sector pension schemes. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Almost Half Of Landlords To Raise Rent In 2016

With an uncertain year ahead for buy-to-let landlords, almost half (45%) are planning to raise their rents in 2016, and almost one in five (18%) are planning inflation-busting increases of more than 3%, according to a survey carried out by SpareRoom.co.uk. The most common reason landlords cite (38%) for raising rents is the additional costs incurred by new government legislation, meaning future cuts to mortgage interest and wear and tear tax relief, stamp duty changes and costs of the 2016 Right to Rent roll out will be felt by tenants as well as landlords. Other reasons for rent increases include rents rising locally (23%), expensive property repairs and maintenance (6%) and higher mortgage repayments (4%). Read more on 24dash.

Higher Rents And Continued Lack Of Supply Set To Dominate 2016

Residential rents are set to go up in 2016 and in the home buying market there is likely to be a growing struggle for those seeking to get on the housing market, according to a joint report from agents. According to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) there are various pieces of legislation coming into play in 2016 which will result in increased compliance costs for landlords, and as a result push up rents for tenants. ‘We urge the Government to re-think its proposals around reducing Mortgage Interest Relief, scrapping the Wear and Tear Allowance and hiking up Stamp Duty by 3% on buy to let properties,’ said David Cox, ARLA managing director. Read more on the Property Wire website.

LGA Calls For Rogue Landlord Database

A far-ranging national government-backed database, covering all housing-related convictions, should be created to help councils launch a crackdown on "postcode" rogue landlords who are endangering tenants' lives. The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents over 370 councils in England and Wales, says serial criminal landlords, who are being blocked from operating by some boroughs running licensing schemes, may be moving to other postcodes and trying to set up their unscrupulous businesses. The LGA is calling for:

·         A much tougher "fit and proper person" test – an initial screening process which is designed to weed out rogue landlords

·         Letting agents to be brought under the same legislation as estate agents so the bad operators can be booted out

·         Stronger sentencing guidelines for magistrates and a wider range of penalties

Read more on the LGA website.