Government Urged To Remove ‘Last Barriers’ Preventing Councils From Housing Homeless

Homelessness charities have written to the government urging the removal of the remaining barriers preventing people who are homeless from getting access to the self-contained accommodation they need. The charities state that over the course of the week, they have heard repeated examples of councils denying help to people on the basis of them not having a local connection to the area or that they have no recourse to public funds – meaning they are not eligible for government assistance. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-urged-to-remove-last-remaining-barriers-preventing-councils-from-housing-homeless/

Vulnerable People 'Trapped In Homelessness' Due To Law

Vulnerable people are unable to access social housing, potentially trapping them "in a cycle of homelessness", due to a change in the law. Under the Localism Act 2011 councils were granted greater powers to restrict access to social housing. Since then 700,000 households have disappeared from waiting lists across England. The HCLG said: "Social housing is a priority for us." Until the act became law in 2012, councils were required to consider all housing applications, with few powers to remove households from the list. Now a local connection - often more than five years in a borough - is required by 35% of councils to access the social housing register. Read more on the BBC website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42919703

Social Rented Housing: EU Nationals – Parliamentary Written Answer

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 7 July 2015 to Question 5576, on social rented housing: EU nationals, whether it remains his Department's policy to introduce a four-year residency requirement for EU migrants following the decision of the UK to leave the EU.

Gavin Barwell: The Government remains of the view that social housing should be for those with a strong connection to the local community. Statutory guidance issued in December 2013 already ensures that only people who have lived in their area for at least two years can apply to their council for social housing. We are considering whether to go further and adopt a stronger residency test by extending this to four years.

Government Defeated Over Housing Bill

The Government has faced a series of defeats on the Housing Bill. Councillors and MPs have expressed concern about the impact on the supply of affordable rented properties.  Some have also raised concerns about the ability to prioritise local families under new rules, and the threat to keeping local housing affordable "in perpetuity". However, the House of Lords have been successful in passing an amendment that goes some way to addressing these criticisms. Peers voted 275-181 in favour of extending the life time of the Starter Home discount to 20 years instead of eight. This means the discount will now be reduced by 1/20th a year – instead of 1/8th – in a bid to deter buyers from "cashing in". Peers have also voted in favour of an amendment to give local authorities more powers to decide the appropriate level of Starter Homes for their local area.  Read more on the Plymouth Herald website.

New Campaign To Help Veterans In Council Housing

A new campaign is being set up to stop the “bias” against veterans getting council housing. Former housing minister Grant Shapps is the founder of the group, called Homes for Heroes Foundation,  aiming to ensure the best housing is available to veterans within the next four years, to coincide with 100 years since the original homes for heroes Housing Act was passed. The investigation into the campaign will find council housing priority is given to those with a strong local connection to the area and on the council waiting list. The campaign evidence suggests there could be a failing to apply statutory government guidance on prioritising veterans on social housing waiting lists.  Read more on 24dash.

Council Privately Rent Houses - As 1,700 Still On Waiting List

Council houses are being offered for rent on the open market because people do not want to live in them – despite 1,779 tenants on the waiting list for properties. Dozens of hard-to-let council houses have already been rented out in Stoke-on-Trent. The unwanted properties have been snapped up by people attracted by the cheaper rents compared to the private sector. People must have a 'local connection' and be able to afford the rent to qualify for one of the homes. Many of the properties shunned by tenants are two and three bedroom homes. The situation has been blamed on the Government's welfare reforms which have seen tenants penalised for having spare bedrooms. Read more on the Stoke Sentinel website.

Local Authority's 'Benefit Tourism' Rule Discriminated Against Residents

A local authority acted illegally when it introduced strict residency criteria designed to prevent it becoming a magnet for "benefit tourists" priced out of high-cost areas of London and the south-east by welfare reforms, a judge has ruled. Sandwell council brought in a policy over a year ago which prevented people on low incomes claiming council tax support unless they had been resident continuously in the borough for two years prior to the claim. Rather than discouraging "incomers" from the south-east, however, the court heard that the policy seemed to mainly affect people who had been born in Sandwell and had strong family connections there, while also discriminating against local women affected by domestic violence. Thousands of Sandwell residents denied council tax support since April 2013 may now be eligible to claim their money back. Read oore on the Guardian website.

Council House Waiting Lists Slashed With a Sweep of a Pen

Havering, where 'right to buy' was launched, has cut its waiting list by 75% by telling applicants they are no longer eligible – and other councils are following suit. The London Borough of Hammersmith's housing waiting list has fallen– from 8,171 in April 2012 to just 768 in April 2013. Warrington's has fallen from 12,091 to 3,173. Havering's is now below 3,000.  Behind the extraordinary collapse in waiting lists is not a sudden surge in the supply of council homes. Instead, local authorities are writing to applicants telling them that they no longer stand a chance of obtaining a home from the council unless they meet new local criteria. Hammersmith has imposed a rule that people must live in the area for at least five years before they can apply for a council house. Havering, which used to allow people to apply for a council home if they had lived in the area for six months, has changed that to two years. Read more on the Guardian website.

Locals Prioritised For Social Housing

The CLG has published additional guidance on 'Providing social housing for local people', to supplement the statutory guidance on social housing allocations for English local authorities published in June 2012. The new guidance strongly encourages all local authorities to adopt a two year residency test as part of their qualification criteria for social housing. It also suggests the need for other criteria alongside a residency test so that people who are able to demonstrate a strong association to the local area are not disadvantaged, stresses the need for flexibility to take account of special circumstances such as domestic abuse and mobility moves for existing social tenants.  Download a copy of the guidance from the Govuk website.

Local People First In Line for Council Homes

New measures will ensure local people are prioritised for homes and introduce greater transparency on who is getting a council house, Eric Pickles has announced. New proposed statutory guidance for councils makes clear that only people with a well-established local residency or connection to an area can go on that council’s waiting list for social housing. It will help avoid confusion in local government about equality laws that could lead to some councils sidelining local residents. Along with giving priority to local people, the guidance makes clear that councils are required to make an exception to members of the Armed Forces who apply for housing. Due to the nature of their work, travelling from base to base, they do not build up a local connection. Read more on the Govuk website.

Council Ends Lifetime Tenancies for Social Homes

Lifetime social housing tenancies for new applicants are now a thing of the past in Hammersmith & Fulham.  And from April the Council will also be tightening the rules to make it easier for local people, who have a five year connection to the borough, to access social housing.  The Council is the first local authority in the country to bring in these radical changes simultaneously -with the Government now calling for other councils to follow its lead and introduce local connection rules.  From March 5 the Council is only issuing fixed-term tenancies of five years for new social housing lettings. This will be reduced to two years in certain cases.  From April, households earning above £40,200 will be prevented from accessing the housing register and instead directed towards low-cost home-ownership options. Read more on the H&F website.

Council Approves Plans to Halve Waiting List

Northampton Council has approved plans that will slash its housing waiting list by more than half.  Councillors have backed changes that will see 5,396 households removed from the waiting list, which currently contains around 10,500 households.  Under the new rules restrictions will be placed on the housing waiting list, barring households with no ‘local connection’ and those with a single annual income of more than £30,000 or a combined annual income of more than £50,000. The changes will also mean households will be struck off the waiting list if they have not bid for a home in 12 months, or have refused three offers of housing within the same timeframe. Read more on Inside Housing.

Councils Restrict Access to Housing Waiting Lists

Councils are preparing to bring in tough new allocations policies that will restrict access to their housing waiting lists.  Councillors in Newham approved plans to make sure people have lived in the area for two years or have a ‘strong local connection’ to the area before they can go on the list.  They also agreed proposals that will give applicants who are in work greater priority than those who are unemployed, and to give current and former members of the armed forces the highest level of priority.  Councillors in Hammersmith and Fulham will vote on some of the toughest proposals brought forward since councils were given greater freedom to set their allocation policies through the Localism Act.  These include introducing five-year fixed-term tenancies for all new tenants, with two year tenancies for under 25s, and a £40,200 cap on household income for anyone who wants to go on the waiting list.  Bournemouth Council has written to all 10,000 residents on its waiting list asking them to re-apply.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Council to Remove 5,000 from Housing Waiting List

MORE than 5,000 people will be removed from Bournemouth’s housing waiting list as the council seeks to cut the number to a manageable level.  Currently more than 8,335 households are on the housing register and officially waiting for a council or housing association property to become available.  Now the council is proposing to remove all those people that have no realistic chance of ever being offered a property and reduce the waiting list to less than 3,000 households. It plans to do this by changing its allocations policy, prioritising local people in housing need and on low incomes, people who are making a positive contribution to the local community and applicants who have recently served in the HM Forces or who are foster carers.  Out of the 8,335 households currently on the waiting list, 35 per cent are not deemed to have a housing need and 16.5 per cent have no local connection.  These families have a less than two per cent chance of being offered accommodation.  Read more on the Bournemouth Echo website.

Housing Crisis: the Westminster Letters

Westminster's cabinet member for housing Philippa Roe wasted little time before writing to housing minster Grant Shapps to seek "urgent clarification" about the government's planned housing benefit caps. Her letter of 5 July began by assuring him that Westminster was in "full support" of the measure. However, she sought Shapps's support for three "associated changes" which she argued would "complement" the objective of the policy change and "allow local authorities to successfully manage its implementation." Each change would reduce the borough's responsibility to rehouse locally residents who become homeless. Read how Westminster would like to minimise its responsibilities by increasing the “local connection” qualifying period and moving homeless people out of the borough into cheaper areas plus Grant Shapps’ initial reply on The Guardian website by clicking on the logo below.