Building Safety Fund – Parliamentary Written Answer

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether, in respect of buildings with unsafe cladding, he has inserted a contract clause to say that leaseholders cannot claim assistance for cladding repairs from the Building Safety Fund unless they can prove that they have sufficient funding to complete all necessary fire safety works; and if he will make a statement

Christopher Pincher: ..we must ensure that the remediation of the unsafe cladding systems is not delayed by any funding shortfalls for any additional works the applicant may want to take forward at the same time that are not eligible for funding. There is no requirement within the contract for applicants to perform other fire safety works at the same time as cladding works, and if the applicant chooses to perform other works as separate projects, this will not affect the payment of funding for cladding remediation.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-03-03/162511

Developers Swamp Council With 'Horrendous' Number Of Housing Proposals

A council has been swamped with new housing proposals from opportunistic developers. About 9,000 sites have been put forward for development in South Staffordshire – with a large swathe bordering the Black Country. But Brian Edwards MBE, leader of South Staffordshire District Council, claims this number is 10 times too many. He says council planners face a "horrendous" task sorting out which developments are most suitable. And he accused developers of "scaremongering" residents in the process. It comes after the local authority identified a shortfall of 8,845 homes needed within the district by 2037. Read more on the Express & Star website.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/property/2019/12/11/developers-swamp-council-with-horrendous-number-of-housing-proposals/

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he is meeting the Government's commitment to replace homes sold through the council right to buy scheme.

James Brokenshire: The latest figures for the replacement of council homes sold under the Right to Buy can be found in the statistical release Right to Buy Sales in England: July to September 2018 , and show a shortfall of 2,501 replacements against additional sales.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-28/213230

Government Fail To Meet 300,000 New Home Pledge

Despite insisting in the 2017 budget that the government intended to build 300,000 new homes a year to help ease the housing crisis in England, latest figures by the Office for Budget Responsibility have found that hosing stock in England is falling short of the 300,000 pledge by over 20%. At current levels, the OBR claims that 233,430 new residential properties will be built in 2018, 66,570 dwellings short of the required amount. Further predictions have indicated that within the next five years this figure would rise to around 250,000 new homes per year. Read more on Today’s Conveyancer website.

https://www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk/main-news/government-fail-to-meet-300000-new-home-pledge/

Landlords Pushing Up Rents To Exploit Housing Benefit Shortfall

Benefit cuts and unscrupulous landlords have combined to create an explosion in temporary housing that is costing taxpayers more than a billion pounds a year. The latest figures reveal that housing benefit does not cover rents in 95 per cent of the country, pushing thousands of families into homelessness. The gap between welfare support and costs is more than £100 a month in much of England and in excess of £900 in central London. Spending by councils on emergency bed and breakfast accommodation has risen by 147 per cent in five years. The number of units has grown by only 32 per cent, leading to claims that rates are being inflated by “wily landlords” to take advantage of spiralling demand.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/landlords-pushing-up-rents-to-exploit-housing-benefit-shortfall-bpvht6lbg

Housebuilding Targets More Than Six Years Behind

Councils have fallen more than six years behind their own house-building targets. Development is on average 6.2 years behind the rate of building needed to hit targets identified as part of the government’s 10-year plan ending in 2026. The MHCLG jointly set out annual housing targets with local authorities up to 2026 and published these in September 2017. However, building in 316 locations is set to fall short of housing need by 889,803 homes over the decade. Some of these areas  are keeping pace with housing requirements but just one year in, 241 locations are already in deficit, leaving them 9.2 years behind target on average. Read more on the HR Director website.

https://www.thehrdirector.com/business-news/housing/housebuilding-targets-six-years-behind/

Housing Crisis Drives More Than 1m Private Tenants Deeper Into Poverty

More than a million vulnerable people on low incomes are being driven deeper into poverty after being shunted into the private rental sector due to an acute shortage of social accommodation. A report commissioned by the Nationwide Foundation, an independent charity, says that the shortfall in social housing has been met by a doubling in size of the private rented sector in the past 25 years. But this has forced more households, many on benefits with dependent children or a disabled family member, to pay significantly more for unsuitable housing. Download the report from the University of York website.

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/news-and-events/pressreleases/2018/the-evolving-private-rented-sector.pdf

Benefit Freeze Puts Private Renting Out Of Reach For Low-Income Tenants

Even the lowest private rents are now out of reach for people on low incomes – putting thousands at increased risk of homelessness. Research from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) showed that more than 90 per cent of Local Housing Allowance rates across Great Britain now fail to cover the cheapest rents, as they were originally designed to do. LHA rates were frozen for four years in 2016 and CIH is warning that they have fallen so far behind even the cheapest rents that private renting has become unaffordable for most low income tenants – putting them at risk of homelessness as they are forced to choose between basic living expenses and paying the shortfall. The organisation is calling on the government to review the policy and to end the freeze immediately. Read more on the CIH website.

http://www.cih.org/news-article/display/vpathDCR/templatedata/cih/news-article/data/Benefit_freeze_puts_private_renting_out_of_reach_for_low-income_tenants_and_risks_fuelling_homelessness

Warning Over Benefits Tempers Rent Settlement Optimism

Welfare reforms could leave some tenants struggling to pay higher rents once they begin rising in 2020, experts have warned, tempering some of the optimism about the recent rent deal. The announcement that social landlords will be able to raise rents by Consumer Price Index plus 1% for five years from 2020 was widely welcomed by the sector as a generous deal. However, some have warned that the forthcoming cap on benefits at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels, which is due to be imposed from April 2019, could create a shortfall between housing benefit and rents, leaving tenants having to cover the difference themselves. Read more on Inside Housing.

Major Cities Falling Short On Right To Buy Replacements

Major city councils are failing to replace homes sold through the Right to Buy since the government introduced a larger discount for tenants. Birmingham City Council has the largest shortfall between homes sold through the Right to Buy and replacements either acquired or built, with only 253 homes replaced against sales of 2,627 homes since 2012/13 when the government increased the discount council tenants could get when buying their home through the Right to Buy. Read more on Inside Housing.

Buy-To-Let Tax Changes The 'Next Pension Crisis'

The impact of recent changes to the way buy-to-let properties are taxed could create the next pension crisis as individuals are becoming over-reliant on property to fund their retirement years. Seventy seven per cent of landlords say they rely on their investment for their retirement and buy-to-let continues to be viewed as a safe way to save for later life. However, figures from the ONS estimate the average retired household spends £21,770 every year, which leaves a shortfall of more than £15,000 after taking the full basic state pension of £6,359.60 into account. In order to make up a £15,000 shortfall per year would require savings in the region of £300,000, which is why so many people have turned to property to provide for later life. Read more on the NLA website.

Where Have All The Movers Gone?

Before the recession, there were about 1.6 million home sales a year in the UK, which plummeted to 860,000 in 2009 but has since recovered to around 1.2 million. New research suggests that the shortfall is largely the result of "missing movers" - mortgaged home-owners not moving up the housing ladder. The CML commissioned research which suggests that "missing movers" account for about 320,000 of the annual housing transaction shortfall. There are a number of reasons for the decline, including the fact that there are now fewer mortgaged owners, and they tend to be older and so naturally less likely to move. However, there are still around 140,000 missing moves that can be attributed to a decline in the rates of moving among mortgaged home-owners. Read more on the CML website.

Housing Benefit: The Black Hole That Continues To Grow

Since 2011, as benefits have been cut back, a black hole has started to appear in our welfare system for private renters. This black hole is the widening gap between housing benefit and rents at the very cheapest end of the private rental market. This is because while housing benefit rates for private renters have been frozen by the government, private rents have continued to climb. We calculate that if something doesn’t change before 2019/20, the gap between housing benefit rates and local rents will have grown so much that the black hole in Britain will be worth £1.9billion. More than one million people will be affected by this. And few have the resources to sustainably cover the increasing shortfalls. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

Charities Criticise Government Fund To Address LHA Rate Freeze

Charities have slammed a government fund intended to mitigate the worst effects of the Local Housing Allowance freeze, after it confirmed just £13.3m will be available next year. Recent research by Shelter revealed one in four families in a two-bedroom home must find an extra £100 a month or more to make up the shortfall in their rent due to the LHA rate freeze. Marc Francis, policy and campaigns director at anti-poverty charity Z2K, said: “In those parts of the country experiencing the sharpest rent rises, there is little or no benefit, leaving disabled and unemployed private tenants with an increasing shortfall between the rent they owe and the housing benefit they receive.” Read more on Inside Housing.

LHA Cap: £64m Funding Gap Risks Breaking Service

The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap for supported housing risks “breaking” sheltered housing, three specialist housing providers have warned. Anchor, Hanover and Housing & Care 21 warn the proposals could result in up to a £64m annual shortfall. The three organisations provide services for almost 100,000 residents and estimate they will face a £64m shortfall if the cap is brought in and the one-bed LHA rate is applied to all the sheltered housing they own combined. There is an estimated £58m shortfall if the two-bed rate is applied to those living in two-bedroom properties. The government has proposed to fund the extra costs of supported housing through a ringfenced top-up fund administered by councils. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit: Supported Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will ensure that ring-fenced funding for local authorities will meet the shortfall between LHA rates and the cost of provision of supported housing.

What assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed application of the cap on supported housing providers based in those parts of the country where there is a significant gap between LHA rates and the cost of provision.

Lord Henley: the new funding model will ensure that the supported housing sector will be funded at the same level it would have otherwise been in 2019/20, taking into account the effect of Government policy on social sector rents.

UK House Prices To Increase By 3% In 2017

House prices in the UK will see an average increase of 3% over the course of next year as the number of transactions stabilises, according to the RICS housing forecast for 2017. Forecast in brief:

·         Transactions set to stabilise in line with recent trend, but fall short of full year 2016 outturn

·         Supply shortfall to continue pushing prices higher with prices to increase by 3%

·         Rents likely to increase by 2-3% across the UK in 2017

Read more on the RICS website.

Healey Slams “Disappointing” 11% Rise In Net Housing Supply

Despite an 11% increase in net supply over the last year, England continues to fall short on the number of new homes needed to tackle the housing crisis, the latest official statistics have revealed. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) was generally upbeat in its response to the net housing supply figures, suggesting that it indicated the housebuilding industry was on track to meet the Government target of one million homes over the course of this Parliament. Annual housing supply in England in 2015-16 came to 189,650 net additional dwellings – up 11% on 2014-15 – according to today’s figures. Newbuilds accounted for 163,940 of these net additions. Read more on Housing Excellence.

UK Faces Shortfall Of 1.8m Rental Homes, Warns Housing Body

The UK is facing a shortfall of 1.8m rental properties unless the government acts fast to slow a sharp drop in the number of available homes, according to a leading housing industry body. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) called on the government to drop reverse stamp duty changes on second homes and consider incentives for build-to-rent schemes, after it found a drop in property investors’ appetite to add to their buy-to-let portfolios. The private sector has taken over from councils and housing associations as the biggest provider of rented homes, but Rics found that sales had slowed over the summer, after changes to the stamp duty rules. Read more on the Rics website.

NHF Campaigns Against Housing Benefit Cap Threat

Thousands of vulnerable people living in supported housing in the North of England are at risk of losing their homes because of a proposed cap on Housing Benefit that will leave them short on their rent. Rents are typically higher for such homes compared to general needs properties because of the specialist support that is provided for residents, but the Government proposes to limit the amount of Housing Benefit social tenants can claim to bring it in line with the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) paid to tenants in the private sector. In Yorkshire and Humber, there are more than 34,000 living in this type of housing, more than half of whom are older people. The estimated £68 a week shortfall in Housing Benefit would mean that vulnerable residents need to find an extra £3,500 a year to cover their rent. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.