Pay (MORE) to Stay

The Observer has a piece about the government policy they call “pay to stay” which is a misnomer as tenants already pay to stay, else they will be evicted, and the policy is one of paying MORE to stay. What the article does NOT say is:

·         The policy does not apply in Scotland & Wales

·         The income threshold is household income not just wage income

·         The policy is mandatory for council landlords to impose yet is voluntary for housing association landlords.

·         Council landlords return all added rental income to central government, yet housing associations get to keep all added rent charged under the policy

What the article gets wrong is that a couple both working 40 hours per week at the £7.20 national living wage have a wage income ABOVE the £30k threshold as this is £30.034 per year. Read more on the Joe Halewood blog.

ALMO CEO Stands Down In Restructure

The chief executive of Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) is to step down after 10 years at the helm of the city’s housing provider. John Lee will leave at the end of the year after heading up the arms-length management organisation (Almo), owned by Newcastle City Council, since it was set up in 2004. Mr Lee had been seconded as a business expert to the council in August to help it become more commercially focused, but it is understood he has now accepted a voluntary redundancy arrangement. It comes following a YHN board meeting in which a restructure was agreed and amid housing reforms and continuing central government austerity. Also, in a significant change to the management of the city’s housing, “financial and strategic accountability” for the housing revenue account has been passed back to the city council. Read more on the Newcastle Chronicle website.

Pay To Stay To Be Voluntary For Housing Associations

By offering to make ‘pay-to-stay’ voluntary for housing associations, Brandon Lewis is effectively discriminating against council tenants, suggests a lukewarm response from the Chartered Institute of Housing. The housing minister has announced an intention to table a series of amendments to the Housing & Planning Bill to deregulate the social housing sector. The move will remove housing associations from the public sector, following their reclassification as such by the Office for National Statistics. Among the measures, which include removing the need for housing association to seek the regulator’s permission before changing their organisations – mergers acquisitions and so forth – Lewis said that so-called ‘pay-to-stay’ would not be compulsory for housing associations. Read more on the CIH website.