Don't Dilute Planning Reforms, Jenrick Urges PM

Recently sacked Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has urged the prime minister not to water down planning reforms to enable more house building. Sources have told the BBC the changes - which would help meet a pledge to build 300,000 new homes - are being paused amid a backlash among Conservative MPs. Mr Jenrick's successor Michael Gove is said to want to address the concerns. But Mr Jenrick told the BBC's Newscast a government with a big majority must tackle difficult issues. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it remained "committed" to meeting its housing targets. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58837621

Jenrick Says Ending Rough Sleeping ‘Isn’t High Enough On The Government’s Agenda’

Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has warned there is not enough political will in the government to hit its target of ending rough sleeping by 2024. Jenrick, who was sacked last month, told a Conservative Party Conference fringe event that getting other departments to “step up” will be a challenge his successor Michael Gove faces if he is to deliver on the Conservative manifesto promise. “Some issues stay with you long after you have left a job. For me, this is true of homelessness,” said Jenrick at the event. Read more on the Big Issue website.

https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/robert-jenrick-says-ending-rough-sleeping-isnt-high-enough-on-the-governments-agenda/ 

Jenrick Exits As Housing Secretary In Cabinet Reshuffle

Robert Jenrick has lost his job as housing secretary in a major cabinet reshuffle and been replaced by Michael Gove. The former housing secretary announced his departure in a tweet which made no reference to a new ministerial post - suggesting he has been removed from the cabinet. The reshuffle brings to a close a two-year run in the position for Mr Jenrick. It makes him the longest serving secretary of state in this role since Eric Pickles, who left office in 2015. Former education and justice secretary Mr Gove was announced as his replacement, moving from his current role as chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/jenrick-exits-as-housing-secretary-in-cabinet-reshuffle-72531 

Calls For ‘Cruel’ And ‘Antiquated’ Vagrancy Act To Be Scrapped

Campaigners and cross-party MPs are calling for the Government to scrap an “antiquated” law that the Housing Secretary six months ago said should be abolished. Robert Jenrick told Parliament in February that the Vagrancy Act’s “time has been and gone” and the “antiquated” law should be “consigned to history”. The 19th-century law criminalises people for rough sleeping or begging, with anyone prosecuted facing a fine of up to £1,000 and a criminal record. Critics say the “cruel” law drives vulnerable people further away from support, and people should not be punished for being homeless. Last year there were 573 Vagrancy Act prosecutions in England and Wales. Read more on the ITV website.

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-08-24/calls-for-cruel-and-antiquated-vagrancy-act-to-be-scrapped

Proposals To Help People Build Their Own Homes Welcomed By Housing Secretary

Proposals to help more people build their own homes have been ‘warmly welcomed’ by Robert Jenrick. Richard Bacon MP’s review of Custom and Self Build finds huge potential in the sector which could deliver 30-40,000 more homes every year, and recommends a major-scaling up of self-built homes to boost the overall housing supply. The report was commissioned to improve the housebuilding industry by giving customers more choice, and to make home building a mainstream, realistic and affordable option for people across the country. Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/proposals-to-help-people-build-their-own-homes-welcomed-by-housing-secretary-robert-jenrick

Jenrick Tells Councils To Produce 10-20 Year Plans

The communities secretary has urged every council to produce a “10 or 20 year plan" for its area and has revealed proposals for government departments to work with councils taking a more place-based approach will emerge in the upcoming levelling up white paper. Jenrick said the government wants “every local council now to produce a 10 or 20 year plan for their town, or their city, their communities, and for government to work with you in a genuinely place based way”. He said the government was “already working directly with a third of towns across the country” through recent funding initiatives such as the community renewal fund and the levelling up fund. Read more on the Local Government Chronicle website.

Jenrick tells councils to produce 10-20 year plans for their areas | Local Government Chronicle (LGC) (lgcplus.com) 

Government Could Give Greater Planning Control To Councils With Good Housebuilding Records

 Councils in England with good track records of delivering new housing could be given greater planning powers under the overhauled system envisioned by government, Robert Jenrick has hinted. The housing secretary said he wants to legislate for “a planning system that genuinely trusts councils and treats councils as adults”. That could include offering some local authorities the power “to take action” against developers “impeding” their ability to deliver new homes for their areas, he suggested. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - Government could give greater planning control to councils with good housebuilding records, says Jenrick

Thousands Of Leaseholders In Unsafe Homes Will Be Unable To Sue Developers

Thousands of leaseholders living in dangerous blocks will not be protected by the latest government attempt to tackle the spiralling cost of the post-Grenfell fire safety crisis, it has emerged, as ministers publish legislation allowing developers to pass on costs to residents. The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, introduced a bill extending leaseholders’ rights to sue developers, but residents in at least 239 buildings will not be able to take advantage because their buildings are too old, according to research by the UK Cladding Action Group. The study appears to undermine Jenrick’s claim that the “lion’s share” of the buildings identified as fitted with dangerous cladding would qualify under the 15-year retrospective law. Read more on the Guardian website.

Thousands of leaseholders in unsafe homes will be unable to sue developers | Housing | The Guardian

UK Charities Warn Of Cliff Edge As Ministers Stall On Housing Funds

Housing campaigners are warning that a widely praised initiative to get people off the streets in the long term faces “catastrophic disruption” if the chancellor Rishi Sunak does not renew funding. Charities including Crisis, St Mungo’s and Homeless Link have written to the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, and the chancellor demanding the government extends finance for three pilots of Housing First in the West Midlands, Liverpool and Greater Manchester. The initiative, which gained traction in the US and involves giving homeless people homes before trying to tackle addiction or mental health problems, is being developed in England through three regional pilots. Read more on the Guardian website.

UK charities warn of cliff edge as ministers stall on housing funds | Housing | The Guardian 

Denton Confirmed As New Homes England Chief Executive

Housing association boss and former banker to lead ‘reset’ of funding agency. Former banker and housing association chief executive Peter Denton has now been officially confirmed as the new chief executive of Homes England. Peter Denton, chief executive of Hyde Group, will take over at the helm of the agency later this year, with responsibility for administering a new £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme and a stake of around £14bn in homes acquired through the Help to Buy. Denton will be tasked with leading what housing secretary Robert Jenrick has this week called an “important reset” of the agency’s function, focusing more on regeneration. Read more on the Homes England website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-phase-for-agency-as-peter-denton-joins-homes-england

Government Will Act On Build Out Rates

Robert Jenrick has confirmed that the government intends to bring in measures designed to force housebuilders to build out sites more quickly, despite admitting that there was no evidence of “land-banking”. Speaking to the Home Builders’ Federation’s annual policy conference, the housing secretary said he was planning to act because there remained a “public perception” of landbanking, despite two government-commissioned investigations having found no evidence of it happening. The announcement comes in the wake of the confirmation that the government will press ahead with controversial planning reforms in the face of significant backbench disquiet over the measures. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-will-act-on-build-out-rates-jenrick-confirms/5112044.article 

Jenrick Pledges To Consider New Developer Levy

Housebuilders have reacted with scepticism to comments by Robert Jenrick suggesting the government is considering taxing developers if they don’t build out planning permissions quickly enough. Writing in the Daily Telegraph yesterday, the communities secretary said the government was going to “look at ways of ensuring sites build out as expected”, after the Local Government Association last week raised concerns over unused planning permissions for more than one million homes. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/jenrick-pledges-to-consider-new-developer-levy/5111886.article 

Rough Sleepers To Get £203m Funding To Help Them Off The Streets

More rough sleepers in England will be helped off the streets and into housing this year as part of a £203m programme, the government has announced. Some 2,688 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on any single night in England last autumn. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the money will be given to councils to support shelters and specialist mental health or addiction services. But charity Crisis warned the funding "will only scratch the surface". Read more on the BBC website.

Rough sleepers in England to get £203m funding to help them off the streets - BBC News

Government Launches £150m ‘Help To Build’ Fund

The government has unveiled a new £150m fund aimed at making it easier and more affordable for people to build their own homes. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced the new ‘Help to Build’ scheme to make self and custom homebuilding a realistic option to enable people to get on the housing ladder. The fund will provide an equity loan to those looking to take the self-build option. This will work similarly to the Help to Buy scheme. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-announces-150m-self-build-boost/5111549.article 

Government Slips Out U-Turn On Affordable Housing Planning Reforms

Robert Jenrick’s vast overhaul of the planning system has hit a further setback after the Government quietly u-turned on plans to scrap the duty on developers to build affordable housing on small sites. Last summer, the Housing Secretary announced a string of reforms to the current planning system including proposals to abolish the requirement for housebuilders to deliver affordable housing on sites of up to 50 homes. Mr Jenrick believed the move, along with a raft of other changes to the planning rules, would dramatically speed up housebuilding in England by “cutting red tape but not standards”. Read more on the inews website.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/government-slips-out-u-turn-affordable-housing-planning-reforms-robert-jenrick-960077 

Jenrick Confirms Huge Expansion Of High Street PD Rights

The government will lay down new planning rules allowing the conversion of a vast array of high street premises into housing without planning permission. Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said the measures will help high streets to adapt and thrive, despite a coalition of planners and developers voicing concerns that they risk doing the opposite. From 21 April, unused commercial buildings will be granted a new permitted development to be converted into homes via a fast-track prior approval. Under the new system, councils will only be able to turn down applications on very limited grounds including flooding risk, noise pollution and inadequate natural light. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/jenrick-confirms-huge-expansion-of-high-street-pd-rights/5111211.article

Eviction Orders Being Issued Despite UK Government Covid Pledge

Eviction orders are being issued to tenants who have run up rent arrears because of the pandemic despite a promise by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, that “no renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home”. The government quietly changed its eviction ban last month to allow landlords to throw out tenants who had fallen into arrears as a result of Covid. Until January, landlords could not evict tenants because of rent arrears amassed since the first March lockdown. They could only act if nine months’ arrears had built up prior to the pandemic. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/28/eviction-orders-being-issued-despite-uk-government-covid-pledge

Johnson Accused Of Betraying Homeowners Over Cladding Crisis

 Boris Johnson stands accused of betraying homeowners after ministers unveiled a £3.5bn fund to fix dangerous cladding which risks leaving an estimated half a million people still facing financial difficulties. The prime minister faced a backlash from his own MPs after the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced that homeowners in blocks less than 18 metres tall would be left out of a new cladding crisis fund. They will be offered long-term low-interest loans instead, which some said risked pushing them into negative equity. Last week Johnson told parliament: “No leaseholder should have to pay for the unaffordable costs of fixing safety defects that they didn’t cause and are no fault of their own.” Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/10/boris-johnson-accused-of-betraying-homeowners-over-cladding-crisis

New Regulator To Monitor Safety Of Construction Materials

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has announced the establishment of a national regulator to guarantee that materials used to construct homes would be made safer. The construction products regulator will have the power to remove products from the market if they present a “significant safety risk” – and to prosecute companies that don’t follow the rules on product safety. The regulator will be empowered to conduct its own product-testing when investigating concerns. The government explained that establishing the regulator follows testimony at the Grenfell Inquiry which had highlighted “dishonest practices” carried out by some construction material manufacturers, such as altering the results of safety tests. Read more on the Planning Portal.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/news/article/752/planning_news_-_28_january_2021?utm_source=PPQ+Newsletter&utm_campaign=346494a346-Newsletter_11072019_HTML_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_734e0b63a9-346494a346-7266185#one 

MPs Demand Answers Over Cladding Fund Gagging Clause

A committee of cross-party MPs has written to Robert Jenrick demanding answers over the inclusion of non-disclosure agreement clauses in two cladding removal funds. Their letter refers to a clause in the £1bn Building Safety Fund and the £200m private sector aluminium composite material cladding fund which restricts applicants from speaking to any journalists about the project or funding agreement without prior written approval from the government. The clause “seemingly also restricts public interest disclosure” without Homes England, the Greater London Authority and the MHCLG first being given the chance to make “representations” about any disclosure, the committee’s letter said. Read the letter on the House of Commons website.

https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/4337/documents/44127/default/