Thursday, 09 February 2012

Inside Housing
27/08/2010

View all stories from this issue.

  • Allocation rules to favour local people

    31/08/2010

    Councils are to be allowed to favour social housing applicants with a strong local connection, in a shake up of allocation policy.

  • Locals should be paid to approve homes

    31/08/2010

    Housing developers should be able to offer cash incentives to local people in exchange for new house building in their area, an influential think tank has suggested.

  • UK Housing Award finalists unveiled

    27/08/2010

    More than 70 housing organisations have reached the final stages of the prestigious UK Housing Awards.

  • Albyn secures £40m RBS loan

    27/08/2010

    Albyn Housing Society has agreed a £40 million loan with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

  • An end to ASBOs?

    27/08/2010

    The review of anti-social behaviour powers must not impact the ability of social landlords to tackle the problem

  • Association gets shirty over dress code

    01/09/2010

    A pensioner in Hampshire is fighting for his right to walk around his block of flats without his top on.

  • Balls demands £6bn for affordable homes

    31/08/2010

    Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls is calling for a £6 billion investment to build 100,000 affordable homes over two years.

  • Boris should be 'ashamed' of house building record

    27/08/2010

    London mayor Boris Johnson should be ‘ashamed’ about the lowest house building completion figures in the capital for nearly 20 years, according to his predecessor Ken Livingstone.

  • Campaign seeks ruling on national park homes

    01/09/2010

    A campaigning group is appealing to the Scottish Government to ensure development on Britain’s largest national park is 100 per cent affordable.

  • Council officers to run homelessness enterprise

    27/08/2010

    Housing officers in Mansfield are going to form a new company to house homeless people in the private sector.

  • Councils success in preventing homelessness

    27/08/2010

    Councils helped thousands to avoid or solve homelessness issues when it was not their legal duty to do so, government figures shows.

  • Decent homes delayed by £100m cash crisis

    31/08/2010

    A cash crisis has left thousands of social tenants in Northern Ireland without vital improvements to their homes.

  • Demand for housing drops

    30/08/2010

    Demand for housing dropped by 2.2 per cent in August, according to a new survey.

  • Ed Balls on his alternative plan for housing

    01/09/2010

    The Labour Party leadership candidate tells Carl Brown why he’d spend £6 billion on social housing.

  • Educators need help from the CIH

    27/08/2010

    It was with a sense of resignation but not surprise that we read the articles on housing education which presented a negative picture, suggesting that universities need to ‘pull their socks up’ with regard to value for money and responding to employers needs (Inside Housing, 6 August).

  • Efficiency scheme axed to save mortgage rescue

    31/08/2010

    The Welsh government dropped a pledge to help first-time buyers make their homes more energy efficient in favour of its mortgage rescue scheme.

  • Equality watchdog issues cuts threat

    27/08/2010

    The Equality and Human Rights Commission has threatened to take action against the government over whether its spending cuts have an unfair impact on women and minority groups.

  • 'Fairer deal' for Gypsies and Travellers

    01/09/2010

    The communities secretary has given greater security to Travellers and Gypsies on authorised sites but stronger powers to councils to tackle unauthorised developments.

  • Find the right formula

    27/08/2010

    Every November, the eyes of finance directors across the housing world are peeled for the Tenant Services Authority’s announcement on what level rents can be set at the following financial year.

  • Happy snappers

    27/08/2010

    Last month, Inside Housing asked for your photographs depicting what summer means in your community. We were inundated with entries, but there can only be one winner. Lydia Stockdale reports

  • High Court to rule on legal aid cuts

    02/09/2010

    The High Court will examine whether legal aid contracts for social welfare have been awarded lawfully at a judicial review next week.

  • Homelessness used to secure tenancies

    01/09/2010

    Households are making themselves homeless so they stand a chance of being allocated a social tenancy, the National Housing Federation has said.

  • House prices fall for second month

    02/09/2010

    UK house prices fell 0.9 per cent in August, according to Nationwide, following a 0.5 per cent fall in July.

  • Housing providers to miss TSA targets

    27/08/2010

    A quarter of housing providers think they will not meet regulatory requirements set out by the Tenant Services Authority as a result of government spending cuts.

  • 'I'll shout until they hear me'

    27/08/2010

    Liberal Democrat backbencher Bob Russell is so opposed to plans to cut housing benefit that he is lobbying his fellow MPs to stand up for Britain’s most vulnerable families. Isabel Hardman reports.

  • Is this the end of the right to buy?

    27/08/2010

    Grant Shapps states that something has to be done to make better use of our social housing, and poses the question, ‘just because somebody is in need at some point in their life and, therefore, gets a council home, do they necessarily need it forever?’ (We need change, Inside Housing, 12 August).

  • Islington gag order dropped

    27/08/2010

    United House has agreed to stop issuing gagging orders to tenants to whom it has paid compensation.

  • Keep it simple

    27/08/2010

    The creation of special purpose vehicles to fund the building of new homes is an ‘innovation’ too far, says Tim Leunig

  • Knight evicted from council flat

    01/09/2010

    A self-styled knight has been evicted from his council home after officers discovered he owned four properties, including one worth £700,000.

  • Labour backers urged to fight benefit cuts

    01/09/2010

    Former housing minister Yvette Cooper has called on Labour supporters and members in every part of the country to campaign against the planned changes to housing benefit.

  • Landlords brace for new accounts rules

    27/08/2010

    Housing associations are preparing for higher administration costs and some could breach their covenants because of new accounting rules.

  • Landlords fear approach of rent overhaul

    27/08/2010

    Worried housing associations are planning for a dramatic change to the way rents are calculated which could cost the sector £20 billion.

  • Legal aid cull prompts fears

    27/08/2010

    A legal aid cull will see homelessness rise and people in desperate housing need face problems in accessing help, lawyers and charities have warned.

  • Let’s not condemn PM’s idea just yet

    27/08/2010

    We should not rush to condemn David Cameron’s idea to end security of tenure for new tenants in social housing (Inside Housing, 6 August).

  • More muscle

    27/08/2010

    If tenant panels are to be central to future housing regulation, they must be given more powers

  • MP to investigate Connaught services

    26/08/2010

    A Liberal Democrat MP who received complaints about Connaught is to launch an investigation into the performance of the beleaguered social housing contractor.

  • Negative equity to remain for four years

    31/08/2010

    Homeowners who bought at the peak of the property boom face another four years of negative equity, a report warns today.

  • NHF plans £75m retrofit fund

    27/08/2010

    The National Housing Federation has called for expressions of interest from housing associations to set up a retrofit loan fund that could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

  • NHF: landlords could pay regulatory fee

    27/08/2010

    The government should consider charging social landlords for any new regulatory regime, the National Housing Federation has suggested

  • No regulatory role for the Nat Fed

    27/08/2010

    Simon Randall is always entertaining and thought provoking. But his latest column, suggesting that the National Housing Federation should become a regulator, is not the answer, whatever the question (Inside Housing, 20 August).

  • Nurse knows best

    27/08/2010

    Housing 21 is addressing the needs of tenants with dementia by employing its own specialist nurse. Anita Pati finds out what advice she is dispensing

  • Pathfinders in plea to government

    27/08/2010

    Organisations set up to tackle low demand for housing in the north and midlands have acquired enough land to build 40,000 new homes.

  • Pope visit raises Traveller concerns

    31/08/2010

    Birmingham council fears an influx of Travellers looking for places to pitch next month during a visit from the Pope.

  • Registry records increasing house price growth

    27/08/2010

    House prices rose 0.4 per cent across England and Wales in July, according to the Land Registry.

  • Sleeping giants

    27/08/2010

    The UK’s energy giants have just under 18 months to fund improvement work to 90,000 homes. So far, they’ve barely opened an eye. Isabel Hardman asks what it will take to wake them from their slumber.

  • South east approach ‘very disappointing’

    27/08/2010

    Council assessments of the housing needs of Gypsies and Travellers in the south east were ‘very disappointing’, according to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

  • State of play

    27/08/2010

    As the building blocks of social housing are pulled out from under them, our exclusive survey reveals landlords are putting on a brave face. Lydia Stockdale reports.

  • Stevenage window danger prompts urgent work

    27/08/2010

    Stevenage Homes is carrying out improvement work after discovering young children were in danger of falling to their deaths from tower block windows.

  • Switch on to the future

    27/08/2010

    Social landlords and utility providers haven’t exactly been the easiest bedfellows over the years.

  • Taking courses in-house is a step back

    27/08/2010

    The closure of housing courses across several institutions is a great cause for concern considering the extraordinary and successful efforts made in the 1970s and 1980s to establish housing as a degree level qualification in higher education.

  • Think twice

    27/08/2010

    The expulsion of eastern European migrants will not solve the growing problem of homelessness among this group

  • Timber frame fires ‘more damaging’

    27/08/2010

    Fires in timber frame buildings are more likely to spread than those in other building types, government figures have revealed.

  • Unlock sex offender data

    27/08/2010

    Scottish housing providers were refused statistics on sex offenders but have won an appeal. Emma Gilpin, senior solicitor in public law at Brodies, explains.