Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Inside Housing
06/11/2009

View all stories from this issue.

  • £500 million investment fund to launch

    06/11/2009

    First-time buyers are to be given a boost with the launch of a joint investment fund targeting residential property in London and the south east.

  • A decent legacy

    06/11/2009

    The year 2010 will mark many things: the end of the first decade of the new millennium; the end of the current Labour government; and the culmination of work to meet the decent homes standard.

  • Aldwyck seeks BME peers’ help on equality

    06/11/2009

    Landlord found guilty of race discrimination asks for advice and prepares for greater TSA scrutiny

  • Belcher quits Anchor Trust

    06/11/2009

    Anchor Trust’s chief executive has left the organisation.

  • Birmingham would refuse HRA debt

    10/11/2009

    Birmingham City Council has said it would refuse any additional debt as part of reforms to the housing revenue account.

  • Builders must mass produce green homes

    10/11/2009

    Builders must translate research into sustainable housing into large scale developments, a report has found.

  • Chicken welfare MPs urged to help children

    12/11/2009

    MPs should care as much about children in overcrowded accommodation as they do about chickens, according to the London mayor and Shelter.

  • CIH: Europe has the right ideas on debt

    06/11/2009

    The Chartered Institute of Housing has called for the government to adopt European debt rules to enable councils and arm’s-length management organisations to borrow money.

  • Councils’ sales receipts fall 66%

    06/11/2009

    Local authority capital receipts have plummeted 66 per cent in the past year.

  • Court blocks L&Q's public bodies appeal

    06/11/2009

    The Supreme Court has rejected an application by London & Quadrant to appeal against a ruling that housing associations are public bodies.

  • Demand rises for deposit protection scheme

    12/11/2009

    The organisation that handles disputes between private landlords and tenants over deposits is changing the way it operates, in response to increasing demand.

  • Development teams hit by staff cuts

    06/11/2009

    England’s biggest housing associations cut their development staff by up to 40 per cent last year.

  • Don’t delay

    06/11/2009

    The Committee on Climate Change’s recent report on meeting carbon targets contained some interesting recommendations for homes, which still account for a major part of total carbon emissions.

  • Dow: small landlords will be unregulated

    06/11/2009

    Small housing associations must prepare themselves for the ‘absence of regulation’, the chief executive of Guinness Trust warned this week.

  • Drug dealer evicted from Glasgow home

    10/11/2009

    A housing association in Glasgow has evicted a drug dealer from one of its properties.

  • Fed chief to lead Tory mobility panel

    10/11/2009

    The head of the National Housing Federation is to lead a Conservative panel on social housing mobility.

  • Galliford Try upbeat after successful rights issue

    06/11/2009

    House builder Galliford Try has issued a positive trading statement after successfully raising £119 million in a rights issue.

  • Getting credit flowing

    10/11/2009

    Does increased lending bode well for the property market? Justin Sumner takes his monthly look at how wider economic forces are coming to bear on housing

  • Good as new?

    06/11/2009

    When it comes to housing, this government will be remembered for decent homes - its landmark programme aiming to refurbish social stock on a scale never before attempted. In the first of a three-part series on the scheme’s legacy, and kicking off this week’s refurbishment special, Neil Merrick examines stock transfer’s role in meeting the standard by the 2010 deadline

  • Government tells associations to drop rents

    11/11/2009

    The government has told housing associations they should cut their rents by 0.9 per cent next year.

  • Harman backs our safety campaign

    06/11/2009

    Leader of the Commons and Camberwell MP says demanded changes would improve tenants’ lives

  • HCA hit with £542m charge as land values fall

    10/11/2009

    The Homes and Communities Agency incurred a £542 million impairment charge last year as the value of its assets fell by £1.1 billion.

  • HCA shelves task force

    06/11/2009

    The Homes and Communities Agency has suspended a task force set up in London to help arm’s-length management organisations improve their performance, after a disagreement about £150 million of funding led to a legal challenge.

  • Healey seeks advice of housing award winner

    12/11/2009

    John Healey has invited the winner of one of the UK Housing Awards to spend a day in the Communities and Local Government department.

  • Housing 21 trailblazes dementia advice deal

    06/11/2009

    A housing association has won a £144,000 contract to provide dementia advice in central London.

  • Improve tax breaks to encourage lettings

    10/11/2009

    Shelter has called for tax breaks for people who want to rent out rooms.

  • In good health?

    06/11/2009

    Now is a good time to give leasehold service charge systems the once over

  • Kier may appeal over £17.9m OFT fine

    09/11/2009

    Repairs and construction group Kier has indicated it is considering appealing against a decision to fine it £17.9 million following an Office of Fair Trading investigation into cover pricing.

  • Landlords broker deals to dodge cuts

    06/11/2009

    Tenant groups across England are meeting social landlords to discuss deals that would avoid rent cuts.

  • Lenders cut forecast for repossessions

    12/11/2009

    The Council of Mortgage Lenders has cut its prediction for the number of homes to be repossessed this year.

  • Lib Dem councils ‘disappoint’ Healey

    06/11/2009

    Housing minister John Healey has expressed disappointment at the failure of a number of flagship Liberal Democrat-run authorities to apply for funding to build new council homes.

  • Love them or hate them

    06/11/2009

    In times of economic hardship is it better for a manager to be feared or loved by their staff?

  • Mayor turns his back on tenants

    06/11/2009

    I am sorry to report that the Mayor’s Housing Forum has declared that London mayor Boris Johnson has no use for the forum’s Community Engagement Sub-group.

  • Meet our backers

    06/11/2009

    Support for our Safe as Houses campaign to stop preventable deaths from gas or fire is growing daily. Once 100 landlords have backed us, Inside Housing will take the campaign demands to 10 Downing Street. Here are 50 key figures who have already signed up. Join them at www.insidehousing.co.uk/safeashouses

  • Movers & shakers

    06/11/2009

    Paul Hodgkinson has been appointed chair of the board of Notting Hill Housing Trust. He is also chair and chief executive of the Simons Group.

  • New dawn

    06/11/2009

    A year on from the near meltdown of the financial markets, social housing has survived the credit crunch relatively unscathed compared to other businesses.

  • NI associations could take on all social stock

    06/11/2009

    Housing associations could take responsibility for all social housing stock in Northern Ireland, a commission into the future of the sector has suggested.

  • North west landlords consider merger

    12/11/2009

    Two of the north west’s largest housing associations are in talks about a possible merger.

  • Not everyone wants to own

    06/11/2009

    Tony Soares should explain in what way owner-occupation means that people are ‘standing on their own two feet’ (Inside Housing, 23 October) any more than someone who rents their home.

  • Planning changes to make homes greener

    11/11/2009

    John Healey has promised to amend planning rules to make it easier to make homes more environmentally friendly.

  • Publicity helps to make a difference

    06/11/2009

    I just wanted to thank Inside Housing on behalf of the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust for publishing the excellent article Bouncing back (Inside Housing, 4 September) about the Reach In refugee volunteering programme.

  • Red tape cut as Marsh opts for local liability

    12/11/2009

    The Tenant Services Authority plans to axe more than 50 diktats and good practice notes in a bonfire of red tape.

  • Refurbishment

    06/11/2009

    As the decent homes deadline looms, we look back on the impact of the programme, examine how refurbishement is assessed, and look at a best practice example from Liverpool

  • Regulator finds its work saves £525m

    09/11/2009

    The Tenant Services Authority has released its accounts and annual report, which claims the regulator’s work makes annual savings of up to £525 million for the sector.

  • Rival claims SNP has admitted failure

    11/11/2009

    The Scottish National Party has admitted its housing policy is ‘failing’, a rival politician has claimed.

  • Seat of learning

    06/11/2009

    Sponsorship of an academy has a lot to offer housing associations, says Richard Freeth

  • Subsidies exist in private sector too

    06/11/2009

    There were so many holes in Origin Housing Group chief executive Karen Wilson’s tirade against subsidised social housing tenancies (Inside Housing, 30 October) that it’s difficult to know where to start.

  • Supply rise fails to halt house price surge

    10/11/2009

    House prices are continuing to rise despite more homes coming onto the market, the professional body for surveyors has said.

  • Taking down Mardyke

    10/11/2009

    As work starts on the £80 million regeneration of the Mardyke estate in the London Borough of Havering, residents and developers give their thoughts on the project.

  • That’ll do nicely

    06/11/2009

    There’s one sure way to give tenants what they really want from a refurbishment and that is to put them in charge of the procurement process. Lydia Stockdale finds out what happened when a Liverpool housing association tried it

  • The good, the bad & the ugly

    06/11/2009

    Scoring top marks for repairs and renovations in an Audit Commission inspection can be a devil of a job. Here, chief inspector Roy Irwin reveals the best - and worst- his team has assessed

  • The making of the man

    06/11/2009

    From self-confessed humble beginnings, Tim Campbell found success as Alan Sugar’s first apprentice. Now, he tells Lydia Stockdale, he’s going back to his social housing roots to help unemployed young people start their own businesses.

  • Three arrests after mother dies in firework blaze

    11/11/2009

    Police have arrested three people as they investigate murder after a woman died in a fire at her Cornwall council home.

  • Time to make a date

    06/11/2009

    Friday 13th and April Fool’s Day. They are not exactly auspicious dates but Peter Marsh, chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority, is clearly not superstitious.

  • Tories unveil social housing swap plan

    09/11/2009

    The Conservative Party is to unveil details of a scheme that would allow social tenants to move around the country.

  • TSA opens board meetings to public

    09/11/2009

    The social housing regulator will hold its first ever open board meeting next week.

  • UK Housing Award winners unveiled

    11/11/2009

    The winners of the UK Housing Awards have been announced at a ceremony in London.

  • UKHA 2009 photo gallery

    12/11/2009

    Achievement across the sector was recognised at the UK Housing Awards. Here you can find pictures of winners, speakers and attendees at the event, as well as a full list of the successful entrants. Photography by Sira Studio

  • Union calls for curbs on executive pay

    09/11/2009

    A culture of excessive pay is seeping into the remuneration packages of charity bosses and should be curbed, England’s largest union has warned.

  • Unsung hero

    06/11/2009

    The measure of a good landlord is not always in performance indicators and standards, says Tim Leunig

  • Youth gangs block access to services

    06/11/2009

    Some homelessness services are becoming associated with specific gangs, according to a new report by charity Railway Children.