Affordable Housing Commission Calls For £1.3bn Fund To Convert Private Homes To Social Housing

 Housing leaders are calling on the government to establish a £1.3bn ‘national housing conversion fund’ to enable social landlords to buy up private housing amid warnings of a housing market downturn. The Affordable Housing Commission said that such a fund could deliver 42,500 new affordable homes and 9,300 new jobs. It argued the fund could mitigate an anticipated downturn in the housing market and would be a cost-effective way to help tenants and increase the provision of social housing. Similar schemes have been introduced during past recessions, for example in the early 1990s through the Conservative government’s Housing Market Package. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/affordable-housing-commission-calls-for-13bn-fund-to-convert-private-homes-to-social-housing-67985#:~:text=Policy-,Affordable%20Housing%20Commission%20calls%20for%20%C2%A31.3bn%20fund,private%20homes%20to%20social%20housing&text=Housing%20leaders%20are%20calling%20on,of%20a%20housing%20market%20downturn

Scandal Of Birmingham's 4,575 Empty Private Homes - As 13,000 On Housing Waiting List

Birmingham tops a government list for having the most empty homes in England. Around 13,000 people are on the housing waiting list - as enforcement officers battle to reclaim private homes left to rot across the city. The city has 4,575 long-term empty homes - a 6.8 percent on the year before. The statistics were taken from government-published empty homes data. Across England, the number of long-term vacant properties rose 4.5 per cent to 225,845 in the 12 months to October 2019. Read more on the Birmingham Live website.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/scandal-birminghams-4575-empty-private-17994809

£1bn Fund To Strip Cladding From Tall Buildings

A £1bn fund to help strip combustible cladding from homes in privately owned tower blocks is “a huge step forward”, but likely to be too little and would still leave thousands of people in financial and safety limbo, leaseholders said. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, accepted demands to bail out hundreds of thousands of leaseholders living in buildings constructed with combustible panels that are different from those used on Grenfell Tower. His budget included the announcement of new money to remove the materials from private and social tower blocks over 18 metres tall. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/11/budget-2020-1bn-fund-to-strip-cladding-from-tall-buildings

'Councils Should Get First Refusal On EVERY Home Up For Sale In Britain'

An ally of Jeremy Corbyn has said all private homes should be 'nationalised' by giving town halls the right to buy them. Hard-left Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle told a rally that council bosses should be given the power of first refusal on houses up for sale. The plans would see swathes of privately-owned property being taken into public control. In response, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis tweeted: 'Even your home is not safe from Labour now.' Read more on the Mailonline website.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6352505/Labour-MP-Lloyd-Russell-Moyle-wants-nationalise-homes.html

Construction Output Suffers Sharpest Fall For Five Years

The run-up to the General Election saw the largest three-month drop in construction output for five years, according to latest official figures. New figures for May showed all work output slipped by 1.2% month-on-month, driven mainly by a 4% fall in infrastructure, equating to a real value fall of £61m. The only sector to show growth was social housing, up £6% or £21m in cash terms. The Office of National Statistics three-month trend figures also slipped back 1.2%, which represented the sharpest fall for five years, albeit after a sustained period of growth. This fall was driven mainly by infrastructure and private new housing, which dropped 1.3% and 1.8% respectively. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Alarming Lack Of Government Investment In Affordable Housing To Rent

The UK Housing Review briefing's summary of current government support for affordable and private market housing investment in England from 2015/16 onwards shows that out of the £45 billion of government investment dedicated to housing, just £2 billion is being spent on below-market rented housing, only four per cent of the total. This is largely because money previously directed toward housing for rent is now going towards low-cost homeownership initiatives, such as shared ownership and starter homes, where over £6 billion is now to be invested. This means that 80 per cent of government commitments - a further £36 billion – is now going to wider initiatives to support the private market, especially via help to buy. Read more on the Housingnet website.

Fall In Public House Building

The number of public homes built has fallen by 20.7%, compared to a 5.8% increase in private housebuilding. The latest release on construction output in Britain from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows in April public housebuilding fell by 20.7% compared to April 2015, whereas private new housing increased by 5.8% in the same period. The ONS said this is the twelfth year of decreases in public housebuilding. Overall housebuilding increased by 0.9% compared to April 2015. The ONS defines public housing as local authority schemes, hostels, older people’s homes, orphanages and children’s remand homes for juvenile offenders. Download the figures from the ONS website.

Council Tenants Protest Against ‘Social Cleansing’

A group of tenants are protesting against council plans to demolish over three and a half thousand homes on council estates, a move which they describe as ‘social cleansing.’ The source of much of the tension is due to council plans to build private housing around the borough. Broadwater Farm is a particular flashpoint, with the 1,000 home estate set to be bulldozed and turned into high density, mainly private housing. The total number of homes that are planned to be demolished under the current agenda is 3,644 in thirteen different locations around Tottenham. The protesters say that this will have no help for people on the council waiting list or for families who are currently in temporary accommodation. Read more on 24dash.

Economic Benefits Of New Home Building

House builders in the UK are providing more than just homes with a new report revealing the extent of the benefits. The report from the Home Builders Federation, says that last year in the East Midlands, 13,190 homes were started by private house builders, the public sector and housing associations. Based on the findings of the report, the economic footprint of this house building meant that:

·         56,717 jobs were supported

·         528 graduates and apprentices positions were created

·         £21,196,330 was contributed towards education in the area

·         £16,962,340 in extra council tax revenue was generated plus £131,900,000 in other tax contributions

·         £12,345,840 towards new open spaces, community spaces or sports facilities, or enhancing existing resources was paid to Local Authorities

·         3,034 new affordable homes were built

·         Payments of £292,066,170 were made to local authorities for further provision of new affordable homes

Download the report from the HBF website.

Back on the Market: Bringing Empty Homes Back Into Use

There are estimated to be around 635,000 empty homes in England. Of those, 216,000 have been unoccupied for longer than six months. It is notable that the vast majority of these homes are in private hands, with private owners accounting for 91 per cent of all empty dwellings, and probably an even higher percentage of all long-term empty homes. The challenge is to address this imbalance in the market, when incentives on homeowners to fill or sell empty homes are weak, and when regional variations raise the risk, for example, of inadvertently punishing landlords who are genuinely trying but unable to fill a vacant property. In this briefing, we argue that local authorities should be offered an enhanced set of powers to address the problem. Read the briefing on the IPPR website.

Construction Output For Public Housing Up By 30%

The construction industry output for new public housing work has increased by nearly 30 per cent in the past 12 months. Office for National Statistics figures for May show activity rose by 29.3 per cent year on year, compared with 16.8 per cent for private housing. All new housing work grew by 19.4 per cent. The data is based on the results of a monthly survey of 8,000 businesses in Great Britain. Output is defined as the amount construction companies charge to customers for value of work produced during the period, excluding VAT and payments to sub-contractors. Read more on Inside Housing.

Plea to Aid Downsizing Amid Empty Rooms Glut

Seven in 10 households in England and Wales have at least one spare bedroom, with eight million homes having two or more, according to analysis from the Office for National Statistics. The figures, drawn from the 2011 census, show significant levels of under-occupancy in the country. Of the 23.4 million households in England and Wales, more than 16 million, or 68 per cent, have at least one spare bedroom. More than 82 per cent of privately owned homes have spare bedrooms, the ONS analysis reveals. Under-occupation is highest in rural parts of the East Midlands – including Rutland, South Northamptonshire and Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire – and Monmouthshire, Wales.  Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.