Thursday, 09 February 2012

Inside Housing
02/07/2010

View all stories from this issue.

  • Cuts will hit plans for 6,000 homes

    07/07/2010

    Government cuts will mean 6,000 planned affordable homes will not be built this year, the shadow housing minister has said.

  • Half of adults struggle with housing costs

    06/07/2010

    A survey carried out for Shelter Cymru has found almost half of adults in Wales who have a mortgage or rent struggle with payments.

  • Pickles abolishes house building targets

    06/07/2010

    Communities secretary Eric Pickles has laid an order before Parliament to scrap house building targets with immediate effect.

  • Weaknesses found at Home Group

    08/07/2010

    The Audit Commission has found weaknesses outweigh strengths across a series of Home Group services.

  • 10,000-home plan for Stevenage under threat

    02/07/2010

    Plans to build more than 10,000 homes in Stevenage have been put on hold owing to the planning shake-up announced by the new government.

  • Advisory role for the HCA

    02/07/2010

    The Homes and Communities Agency is set to become a smaller body which will focus on helping local authorities and public bodies achieve value for money.

  • Avoid the blame game

    02/07/2010

    It takes more than oratorical fireworks to make a good leader, says Blair McPherson

  • Benefit blow for private tenants

    02/07/2010

    Yet again private tenants bear the brunt of government changes to housing benefit (emergency Budget, Inside Housing, 25 June 2010).

  • Benefit recipients barred from expensive areas

    07/07/2010

    A minister has said the government’s decision to cap the local housing allowance is aimed at preventing private tenants on benefit living in expensive areas.

  • Benefit restrictions drive demand for food banks

    19/07/2010

    A tightened benefits system will lead to increasing numbers needing the services of food banks, a charity has warned.

  • Benefit tenants priced out of all private homes

    02/07/2010

    Private tenants on local housing allowance face being unable to afford to rent a property within a decade, the Chartered Insitute of Housing has warned.

  • Brace yourself

    02/07/2010

    The cuts announced in last week’s emergency Budget are just the beginning

  • Call this social justice?

    02/07/2010

    A squeeze on housing benefit and too few jobs present bleak prospects for the less privileged, says Tim Leunig

  • CLG cuts £220m to fill funding ‘black hole’

    05/07/2010

    The Communities and Local Government department is to cut previously agreed spending commitments by £220 million.

  • Completions rise at Persimmon

    07/07/2010

    House builder Persimmon increased its legal completions by 16 per cent in the first half of the year, compared with 2009.

  • Confidence low despite rise in lending

    05/07/2010

    Gross mortgage lending by mutuals rose in May, according to Building Society Association figures.

  • Connaught chief quits after profit warning

    08/07/2010

    The chief executive of troubled contractor Connaught has stepped down with immediate effect.

  • Cuts threaten construction sector recovery

    02/07/2010

    Public spending cuts have hit confidence in the construction industry despite increasing activity, a survey had found.

  • Cuts to fund eco-bank

    02/07/2010

    The government should scrap a number of energy and climate change quangos to fund a new green investment bank, a new report has argued.

  • Domestic violence ruling overturns eviction ban

    08/07/2010

    Perpetrators of domestic violence can be evicted even if they have moved out of a property and split up with their partner, a court has ruled.

  • Equal initiative

    02/07/2010

    Social landlords must take the lead on tackling inequality

  • Food growing competition targets social tenants

    06/07/2010

    London’s 75,000 social housing residents are being invited to show off their green fingers in a competition launched by Boris Johnson.

  • Fuel bill savings to fund efficiency work

    02/07/2010

    Social tenants will pay for energy efficiency improvements to their homes through their fuel bills, as part of the government’s ‘green deal’.

  • Galliford Try reports increase in house sales

    08/07/2010

    Galliford Try has reported a 25 per cent increase in house sales during the first half of the year.

  • Gate use suspended after child dies

    07/07/2010

    A housing association in south Wales has stopped using electronic gates while the Health and Safety Executive investigates the death of a five-year-old child.

  • Genesis chair to step down in September

    06/07/2010

    The chair of Genesis will step down in September due to other commitments.

  • Government to review ASB

    02/07/2010

    The government will review the powers available to tackle anti-social behaviour, the policing and criminal justice minister has announced.

  • Green deal – or no deal?

    02/07/2010

    The energy secretary has now outlined his £90 billion ‘green deal’ to retrofit 14 million homes in the UK, but should the public shake on it?

  • HCA sets priorities after £450m cut

    07/07/2010

    The Homes and Communities Agency has set out its priorities for investment after suffering £450 million of cuts to its budget.

  • Housing boss claims localism is a ruse to stop investment

    05/07/2010

    The former deputy chief executive of the Housing Corporation has said the government’s localism agenda is a ‘clever formulation’ designed to prevent funding for affordable housing.

  • Housing PFI in doubt as Shapps launches review

    02/07/2010

    Housing private finance initiatives will be reviewed by the government following a damning report which showed the total cost of signed off projects was £694 million more than expected.

  • Is the money in the bag?

    02/07/2010

    At what point does HCA grant approval become legally binding? Naomi Goode explains

  • L&Q launches rent to buy product

    08/07/2010

    London and Quadrant housing association is to launch a rent-to-buy product which it says will help low-paid workers save for a deposit.

  • Landlord raises £76m in Japan

    02/07/2010

    Places for People has raised £76 million after turning to the Japanese bond market for funding.

  • Lists show projects threatened by HCA cuts

    07/07/2010

    The Homes and Communities Agency has published full details of the schemes affected by the cuts to its budget.

  • Marsh insists its business as usual at TSA

    02/07/2010

    The chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority has written to all housing associations telling them they must continue to meet its standards despite plans to scrap the regulator.

  • Movers & shakers

    02/07/2010

    Isos Property Services has appointed Bill Tuddenham as general manager to oversee its operations across the north east. He joins from the Home Group where he was head of responsive maintenance.

  • New life cycle

    02/07/2010

    A new breed of business is changing the lives of homeless people in Preston. Marie-Claire Kidd reports from Britain’s first commercial recycling and social welfare centre

  • New precedent for tenancy succession

    02/07/2010

    The Supreme Court has granted victory to a man fighting to take over the tenancy of his late brother’s flat, in a case that could pave the way for hundreds of similar claims.

  • Politicians ‘pushed’ PFI regardless of value

    02/07/2010

    Politicians were ‘hell-bent’ on pushing forward private finance initiatives, regardless of value for money, a council officer who supervised one project has stated.

  • Poor funding ‘violates rights’

    02/07/2010

    Social housing in Northern Ireland is breaking international human rights standards, according to new analysis of the way the sector is funded.

  • Scots release extra funding for council homes

    05/07/2010

    The Scottish Government has committed £45 million to the building of affordable homes in the country.

  • Scots secure £50m regeneration fund

    15/07/2010

    The Scottish Government is putting £50 million of European funding into revitalising stalled regeneration projects.

  • Seven housing quango staff break £150k barrier

    05/07/2010

    Seven people employed in housing roles at quangos are earning more than £150,000 a year.

  • Social housing firm buys services business

    05/07/2010

    Morgan Sindall has acquired maintenance services contractor Powerminster Gleeson Services in a deal worth £6.61 million.

  • Social housing spaces are not used

    07/07/2010

    Less than one per cent of people on social housing estates take advantage of green space around them, a study has found.

  • Streets apart

    02/07/2010

    Chancellor George Osborne’s move to slash £4 billion from the soaring housing benefit bill was no surprise to the social housing sector. But welfare reforms, which could see thousands of tenants forced to leave their communities to find cheaper housing, have caused a collective intake of breath. Chloë Stothart investigates

  • Summer photo competition launched

    02/07/2010

    Football in the park, ice cream, trips to the seaside. What does summer mean in your community?

  • Survival of the fittest

    02/07/2010

    When bidding opened for the latest of six rounds of the housing private finance initiative last July, the Homes and Communities Agency said it had received ‘more bids than we could resource’.

  • Tackling the tenements

    02/07/2010

    Slum-like living conditions in Glasgow’s Govanhill have shocked ministers into action. Now the Scottish Government is using the rundown area to test new laws aimed at tackling rogue landlords and improving their tenants’ homes. Can it work, asks Clare Harris.

  • The HOS will not protect tenants

    02/07/2010

    Regarding your report that the Tenant Services Authority is to be scrapped (Inside Housing, 18 June), I think this is good news for taxpayers and tenants.

  • The price is right

    02/07/2010

    Community land trusts are to play a bigger part in the provision of affordable homes, says Tim Davies

  • Training spend rises despite cutbacks

    08/07/2010

    A quarter of housing employers are spending more money on staff training than they were this time last year, according to a report from Asset Skills.

  • Turner nominee decorates Southwark tower block

    06/07/2010

    Work by a Turner Prize-nominated artist has gone up on a tower block near to a 14-storey high rise where six people died in a fire last year.

  • UK to miss carbon target

    02/07/2010

    The UK will miss its targets for carbon reduction unless it makes a step-change in cutting emissions, a report said this week.

  • U-turn over Welsh housing powers

    02/07/2010

    The UK government has made an eleventh-hour U-turn over a refusal to allow the Welsh Assembly to adopt new powers over the right to buy.