Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Inside Housing
01/08/2008

View all stories from this issue.

  • ‘Major breakthrough’ on fourth option

    01/08/2008

    Campaigners have claimed a major breakthrough after the housing minister opened the door for direct investment in council homes.

  • ‘Paper tiger’ regulator could have saved Ujima

    01/08/2008

    The staff and board of the Housing Corporation share responsibility for the failings in the regulation of Ujima Housing Association, the agency’s chair admitted this week.

  • A different approach

    01/08/2008

    Adrian Coles asks whether the spluttering economy means the co-operative housing sector will finally win a bigger role

  • About face for Labour

    01/08/2008

    For years, the Labour hierarchy has attempted to head off calls for direct investment in council housing.

  • Access denied

    01/08/2008

    Salford Council needed to do urgent repairs in two tower blocks. The main soil stacks (vertical sewage pipes) needed replacing, as they were in danger of leaking sewage.

  • An equal footing

    01/08/2008

    The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 provides that it is unlawful for a landlord to evict or subject a disabled person to any detriment ‘for a reason related to their disability’, unless the landlord reasonably believes that the action is necessary so as not to endanger the health or safety of any person including the disabled person.

  • Association lost £28m in two years

    01/08/2008

    Financial basket case Ujima Housing Association lost £28 million in two years after embarking on a disastrous land-banking binge, the inquiry into its collapse revealed this week.

  • Badger on board

    01/08/2008

    Dave Badger has been re-elected as a board member of Clwyd Alyn Housing Association, part of the Pennaf Housing Group.

  • Best efforts have not been enough

    01/08/2008

    I should like to reassure Nicola Reid. (Inside Housing, 25 July) that Waverley has been working over the last 34 years to improve its housing stock.

  • Breaking down barriers

    01/08/2008

    The welfare reform proposals will be a source of opportunity

  • Builder wins £84.5m for affordable housing

    07/08/2008

    Galliford Try has won four affordable housing contracts worth a total of £84.5m.

  • Calling all capacity builders

    01/08/2008

    Some years ago I did some work for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the concept of community capacity building.

  • Campaigning council plans to use CLG officer in HRA protest

    01/08/2008

    The council that urged tenants to take to the streets in protest at the housing finance system will put an officer from the Communities and Local Government department in charge of its campaign.

  • Continuing support

    01/08/2008

    LHA-ASRA has promoted Patrick Taylor to director of support services.

  • Corporation: so sorry, no apology

    01/08/2008

    The Housing Corporation has declined to apologise for its role in the collapse of Ujima Housing Association – even though the inquiry into the debacle found that if it had acted sooner the organisation might have been saved.

  • Council brings advice service back

    01/08/2008

    Cotswold District Council is to bring its housing advice service back in house to save £72,000 a year.

  • Council homes to be built after 20-year hiatus

    06/08/2008

    Proposals are being drawn up in Edinburgh to build the city’s first council homes in nearly 20 years.

  • Dramatic planning cut challenges mayor

    01/08/2008

    London mayor Boris Johnson is facing the first big test of his housing policies after a Conservative council approved plans to cut all social housing from a major development.

  • Dramatic shift: a new act for a new world

    01/08/2008

    After months of debate and hundreds (and hundreds) of amendments, the Housing and Regeneration Bill finally gained royal assent last week.

  • Eco-homes to meet lowest demands

    01/08/2008

    The proportion of affordable housing in the proposed eco-towns is only likely to meet the lowest of the government’s original demands.

  • Economists warn building targets will be missed

    05/08/2008

    House building will remain below government targets for the next five years, economists have warned.

  • Esh expands

    01/08/2008

    Esh Group has appointed Darren Warneford as group customer relations director, Colin Bennett as technical director with Dunelm Homes and has promoted Stephen Francis, operations director at Dunelm Property Services, to managing director.

  • Ethical expansion into housing finance

    01/08/2008

    Ethical bank Triodos has announced plans to snatch ground in the housing association market from mainstream lenders hobbled by the credit crunch.

  • Families stressed by overcrowded homes

    05/08/2008

    Unsuitable homes are causing emotional turmoil for their occupants, a charity has warned.

  • Fourth protocol

    01/08/2008

    Finally! After three party conference defeats in four years, it seems that the government has at last decided to listen and allow the fourth option with ‘exciting new proposals to allow councils to play a greater role in future provision of social housing including building new council homes’.

  • Got milk?

    01/08/2008

    A rehabilitation centre helping homeless people in rural Devon was on the brink of losing its funding - until it discovered dairy products.

  • Groups take on jobs challenge

    06/08/2008

    A housing association and a private housing management company have been shortlisted to receive government funding if they promise to find their tenants jobs.

  • Half of tenants defined as vulnerable

    04/08/2008

    Over half of new housing association tenants can be defined as ‘vulnerable’ according to a study.

  • Holiday mood

    06/08/2008

    Drive past any new housing development around the country and you will see why the stamp duty holiday idea floated yesterday will have a negligible impact on the housing market.

  • Infrastructure levy could 'top up' affordable housing funds

    06/08/2008

    Builders could be made to contribute to affordable housing through a new infrastructure charge, the government has revealed.

  • Judgement forces benefit rethink

    06/08/2008

    The government is being forced back to the drawing board on its controversial housing benefit regime for private tenants following a landmark judgement in the House of Lords.

  • Lenders told to avoid repossessions

    05/08/2008

    The financial services watchdog has warned lenders to treat borrowers fairly after a surge in repossessions.

  • Loan danger

    05/08/2008

    The scariest thing about the way that rising levels of defaults on mortgage payments have driven Northern Rock to the £585m half-year loss it announced this morning is that its mortgage arrears remain below the industry average.

  • Managing well

    01/08/2008

    Josephine O’Connor has joined Crispin and Borst Limited as business manager.

  • Mayne event

    01/08/2008

    Jenny Mayne has been appointed director of community services at Broadland Housing Association.

  • Missing the mark

    01/08/2008

    Councils’ decent homes budgets can barely fix the basics, much less stretch to meet the wishes andaspirations of tenants

  • Planning changes could boost affordable homes

    07/08/2008

    Planners could increase the supply of affordable homes by using standard policies on section 106 agreements.

  • Questioning floating support

    01/08/2008

    Following your article on sheltered housing and our scheme in Hackney (Inside Housing, 18 July), here are some reasons why floating support is questionable.

  • Regulator to bin traffic light assessments

    05/08/2008

    The Tenant Services Authority is likely to scrap the current traffic light assessment system as soon as it goes live in December.

  • Right to Byers

    04/08/2008

    Council tenants should be allowed to use their right to buy discount to buy homes on the open market as part of a set of ‘bold and ambitious’ Labour policies to change the terms of the political debate, Blairite ex-minister Stephen Byers argued over the weekend.

  • Should I stay or go?

    01/08/2008

    Does the credit crunch mean I should be worried about finding a new job if I decide to leave?

  • So happy together

    01/08/2008

    Small and tenant-run: the qualities that made co-operatives unpopular in the past are giving them the edge today

  • Social splits by gangs, not race

    01/08/2008

    Young people on England’s housing estates are as likely to be divided by gang culture and the neighbourhood they live in as by race and ethnicity, a new report has found.

  • Sorry seems to be the hardest word

    01/08/2008

    Is the Housing Corporation sorry that its failure to act contributed to the loss of England’s leading black-led housing association?

  • Southwark residents face double move

    06/08/2008

    Residents of one of the largest housing estates in Europe face having to move twice if they want to stay there, under redevelopment plans.

  • Surtees a certainty

    01/08/2008

    Weymouth and Portland Housing has appointed Jo Surtees as housing manager.

  • Take heed of sheltered housing warnings

    04/08/2008

    Resident wardens are fast becoming a thing of the past in sheltered housing. And campaigning Chelmsford tenant Vernon Yarker has been dogged in his warnings of what the result of their removal will be.

  • Tenants deserve their say in review

    01/08/2008

    Defend Council Housing welcomes the appeal for help by Abigail Davies, head of policy at Chartered Institute of Housing, to ‘ensure that as many tenants as possible know that they can have their say’ in the government’s review of council housing finance (Inside Housing, 25 July).

  • The bigger picture

    01/08/2008

    Born in Britain, the co-operative dream has spread around the world, giving millions of people housing.

  • Top bidder

    01/08/2008

    Frank Haslam Milan has promoted bid manager Katy Leverton to business development manager for the West Midlands.

  • Tories highlight plight of homeless women

    04/08/2008

    The Conservative Party has slated homelessness provision for women after its research unit alleged soaring numbers are stuck in temporary accommodation.

  • Travellers rendered 'homeless' by lack of support

    04/08/2008

    Housing associations should get more involved in providing pitches for Gypsies and Travellers, the Housing Corporation has said. 

  • Voice of the people

    01/08/2008

    The National Tenant Voice will be a force for change - nationally, regionally and locally

  • Why should our rent pay old debts?

    01/08/2008

    Nicola Reid suggests that it is reasonable for the government to keep ‘some of the returns’ from Waverley council tenants and others, because of the need to repay the historic housing debt (Inside Housing, 25 July).

  • Written apology for Gbangbola

    01/08/2008

    The development director whose dismissal was one of the triggers for the Housing Corporation’s eventual intervention in Ujima has received a written apology over attempts to blame him for the association’s problems.