Most Landlords Stood By Their Tenants During The Lockdown

Some 87% of landlords who received a received a request from a tenant for a rent reduction or payment holiday due to COVID-19 agreed to a concession. More than a third (35%) received a request from a tenant for a rent reduction or payment holiday from March to June, outlining the scale of the disruption caused by Covid-19. Despite this difficult period half (50%) of landlords plan to buy at least one property in the next 12 months. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/most-landlords-stood-by-their-tenants-during-the-lockdown/

Government Urged To Step-Up Support For Small Construction Firms

Government must step-up its support for small construction firms amid the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said. Referencing construction PMI data, FMB highlight that construction activity in March fell at the fastest rate since the financial crisis of April 2009. Lower workloads and business closures resulted in a marked reduction in staffing numbers across the construction sector during March, the report reveals. This indicates the steepest pace of job shedding since September 2010. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/coronavirus-government-urged-to-step-up-support-for-small-construction-firms/

Universal Credit Explained

Universal Credit is a new benefit to support you if you’re working and on a low income or you’re out of work. This page explains how Universal Credit is different from existing benefits, how much you’ll be paid and how to apply for it. Do you know…

·         What is Universal Credit?

·         Universal Credit key facts

·         When will I be paid Universal Credit?

·         How much is Universal Credit?

·         How does working affect Universal Credit?

·         How does other income affect Universal Credit?

·         How do savings affect Universal Credit?

·         How to apply for Universal Credit

Get the lowdown on Universal Credit from the Money Advice service website.

New Homelessness Duties Could Cost London Councils Millions

New duties introduced through proposed homelessness laws will cost town halls millions, councils in London have calculated. The Homelessness Reduction Bill would require councils to support more homeless people, such as single people and those likely to become homeless within 56 days. Lewisham Council alone estimates the new duties could cost it £2.38m a year. A spokesperson said it might need 40 additional staff to handle the extra workload, which would include creating personal housing plans for an estimated 2,165 additional people. The new laws would also make it easier for homeless people to appeal council decisions to refuse housing applications. Read more on Inside Housing.

A Low Score For Universal Credit

Universal credit, which amalgamates six welfare benefits, still has cross-party support, despite being beset by delays and fears that it will fail to meet its main objective of encouraging people to work The most ambitious welfare reform for decades was bound to take a while to get right. But did the introduction of universal credit really need to take this long? By the time it is rolled out in job centres across the country over the next 18 months, UC will already have been more than five years in the making. The latest estimate is that some claimants will not switch to UC until 2022. The most recent delay was announced in July by Damian Green, the new work and pensions secretary, and the third person to hold the post this year. Read more on the Public Finance website.

Government Must Renew Strategy For Tackling Homelessness

A demonstrable increase in homelessness, driven by the cost and availability of housing, has pushed the problem to such a level that a renewed Government-wide strategy is needed, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee concludes in its report. The Committee found that despite some examples of great work, it is not acceptable that the level of support offered to vulnerable people varies significantly across the country. Many people are badly treated by council staff and those who are judged not to be in priority need are often poorly served and sent away without any meaningful support or guidance. Download a copy of the report from the Parliament 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.

Surge In Demand For Help From People Facing Homelessness

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter is urgently appealing for support for its helpline, after receiving a record 450,000 calls in the last year alone – equivalent to over 1,200 calls every single day. In the last year, the number of calls to the charity’s free helpline has increased by 50,000 – or 12%. With the helpline struggling to meet demand, this includes many people ringing multiple times desperate to get through. Shockingly, 1 in 4 of the calls answered came from people on the brink of homelessness who faced losing their home within a month. Read more on 24dash.

Richest Borough to Move Those in Temporary Housing to Cheaper Areas

The UK’s most expensive borough to live in, the royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea, plans to send some of its most vulnerable residents to live outside London because the soaring property market means it can no longer afford to house them. The Conservative authority, where the average home costs £1.4m, will spend £10m buying properties outside the borough for people who have been made homeless. It is searching for 39 homes in outer London, the M25 corridor and the home counties suitable for temporary accommodation, used by people who often suffer physical or mental health problems and are left without a roof over their heads. The policy has been fiercely criticised by housing activists, who say the use of temporary accommodation to house vulnerable tenants will isolate them from vital community support. Read more on the Observer website.

Homelessness: Single People – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stuart Andrew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government has taken to ensure that local councils provide adequate support and assistance to single homeless people when they approach their council for help.

Mr Marcus Jones: By law local authorities have a duty to provide advice and information to anyone asking for help. To help them discharge that important duty, we have, among other sources of support, provided £10 million funding to the National Homelessness Advice service to support frontline staff, and introduced the £8 million Help for Single Homeless Fund which will help 22,000 people in 168 areas across England by April 2016.

Housing Bill

The Housing Bill was introduced in the Queen’s Speech on 27 May 2015. The aim is;

“Legislation will be introduced to support home ownership and give housing association tenants the chance to own their own home.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• Help provide more hard working people with the chance to own their own home.

• Increase housing supply and access to home ownership.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• Helping more tenants of housing associations to buy a home of their own.

• Increasing the supply of new Starter Homes (to be exclusively offered to young first-time buyers, at a 20 per cent discount below their open market value).

• Helping those wishing to build their own home.

• Ensuring local people have more control over planning.

Read the full details on pages 27-29 of the Queen’s Speech on the Gov.Uk website.

Labour Moves to Support Tories' Lower Benefit Cap

Labour has moved to support the Government's plan to lower the benefit cap to £23,000, according to a statement made by interim leader Harriet Harman. Responding to the Queen's Speech Ms Harman said her party was “sympathetic” to cutting the maximum amount a family can be paid in benefits by £3,000, a provision in the Conservative manifesto and in the Queen’s Speech. Labour's support for reducing the cap comes despite warnings from charities and researchers that it was already responsible for increasing homelessness and putting "children on the breadline". Ms Harman outlined several caveats to Labour’s support, arguing that the lower cap should not put children into poverty or increase homelessness. She said discretionary housing payments and other measures could prevent the problems seen so far. Read more on the Independent website.

Tory Election Majority Means Housing Market ‘Dodged a Bullet’

A Mortgage Strategy poll of more than 900 readers at the end of April highlighted the mortgage industry’s overwhelming support for the Tories. There were concerns about Labour’s plans to introduce three-year tenancy agreements as standard and cap rent rises at inflation. They also pledged to scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers on homes worth less than £300,000, which critics suggested would boost demand but not increase supply.  Labour also pledged to build 200,000 homes a year by the end of the next parliament.  The Tories promised to expand Right to Buy to 1.3 million housing association tenants and introduce a Help to Buy Isa to help borrowers save for a deposit. It also pledged to build 200,000 homes for first-time buyers aged under 40 at 20 per cent discount and create a £1bn brownfield regeneration fund to unlock sites for 400,000 homes. Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

Majority of UK Supports Rent Controls

A poll for Generation Rent shows that Britain overwhelmingly backs the return of rent controls. The poll of 1,009 people shows that 59% of people back rent controls and only 6.8% of people oppose them. 34% had no opinion. That’s one person opposing the measure for every 9 people who support it. Surprisingly, rent controls were popular with the supporters of all political parties with 55% of Conservative supporters backing the measure and 58% of UKIP supporters. The measure had 69% and 70% backing from Labour and LibDem supporters respectively. While rent controls were predictably popular with private sector tenants, receiving the backing of 77%, there was a surprisingly high level of endorsement from homeowners, 56% of whom backed the measure. Read more on the Generation Rent website.

More People Want More Homes after Planning Reforms

British households are increasingly happy to accept mass housing schemes, a Government minister claims. Brandon Lewis said reforms to the planning system have 'changed the mindset' and helped increase support for the construction of new homes. Mr Lewis hinted that the 'Not in My Backyard' attitude has changed, with support for housebuilding increasing 'dramatically'. Referring to a survey of British Social Attitudes the minister said support for new homes has risen from 28 per cent in 2010 to 47 per cent by last year. The percentage of those opposing new homes has decreased by 15 per cent over the same period, the survey showed. Mr Lewis credited the reforms with giving local people control over their local areas. Download the survey from the GovUK website.

From Right to Buy to Buy to Let

Tom Copley, Labour’s housing spokesperson on the London Assembly and chair of the London Labour Housing Group, has compiled an astonishing report on the disaster of the right to buy in London. Tom concludes: ‘As a policy, Right to Buy is possibly unrivalled in representing such poor value for money to both taxpayers and local authorities. For taxpayers, they not only funded the initial building of the council home, they then subsidised the substantial discounts offered to tenants and then – once the homes were sold – missed out on the rental income that would have covered the build costs.’ Tom focuses on the evidence he has collected that shows that a minimum of 36% of all homes sold by councils across London are now let by private landlords. Many are let at extremely high market rents to tenants who need support from housing benefit. Tax payers have to pay again. To add insult to injury, some of the homes are let back to councils or housing associations to house homeless households for which the councils have statutory responsibility. Read more on the Red Brick blog.

Universal Credit - Parliamentary Written Answers

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are their current working assumptions about the number and proportion of universal credit claimants who are likely to require personal budgeting support.

Lord Freud: All new Universal Credit claimants will be offered personal budgeting support if they require it. Of those that do require assistance, we know that a small proportion will require in-depth budgeting support and we have arrangements in place to ensure that they can receive this. This work will be informed by experience in the live service sites as well as the Direct Payment Demonstration Projects.

How Councils Can Prepare Residents for Universal Credit

Citizen's Advice found that 9 out of 10 of their clients who will claim universal credit in the future will need support to manage the transition in at least one area. They found that 73% of participants needed help with monthly payments, 77% needed help with budgeting, 52% needed help with banking, 81% needed help to stay informed, and 66% needed help to get online. Read more on the Citizens Advice website.