Thursday, 09 February 2012

Inside Housing
12/03/2010

View all stories from this issue.

  • ...I'll vouch for that

    12/03/2010

    In your story ‘Bond market boom attracts new player’ you quote me correctly but refer to a previous role as ‘chief executive at Willow Park Housing Trust’. Actually that is my esteemed colleague Mervyn Jones, chief executive at Yorkshire Housing.

  • A2Dominion secures £100m Lloyds loan

    12/03/2010

    A2Dominion has signed a £100 million loan deal with Lloyds Banking Group which will be used to fund 1,000 affordable homes over the next four years.

  • All change, please

    12/03/2010

    From curtailing the right to buy to setting up an investment bank, Alex Neil wants to modernise every part of Scotland’s housing. Launching our special focus on Scotland, Martin Hilditch meets a man on a serious charm offensive.

  • ALMO to bid for schools contract

    12/03/2010

    A London arm’s-length management organisation hopes to expand into refurbishing and repairing schools.

  • Alternative route

    12/03/2010

    Right to buy sales have held up better in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK, despite post-devolution efforts to discourage them. Yet Scotland’s journey may prove the best in the long run, argues Steve Wilcox

  • Auction income jumps £20m

    12/03/2010

    The amount of social housing stock sold at auction rose dramatically last month, according to the latest monthly figures from Essential Information Group.

  • Band wagon

    12/03/2010

    Travellers make easy pre-election targets, but knee-jerk reactions don’t solve anything

  • Building regs changes to cut emissions

    15/03/2010

    The housing minister has announced plans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes.

  • Council suspends housing boss after Nazi claims

    15/03/2010

    A London borough has suspended an assistant director responsible for housing after a Sunday paper claimed he leads a ‘secret life’ as a Nazi.

  • Court backs Drum in dog eviction case

    18/03/2010

    The Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of a housing association trying to evict a mentally-ill woman because she keeps a dog.

  • Denham halts £4.5bn regeneration scheme

    17/03/2010

    The communities secretary has halted a £4.5 billion development including more than 1,000 affordable homes days after it was approved by the mayor of London.

  • Don’t stop us now

    12/03/2010

    ALMOs have achieved much more than the decent homes standard and deserve to be given the green light for years to come

  • Early exit for NLH chief exec

    12/03/2010

    The chief executive of a Lincolnshire housing association has taken early retirement, eight months after she was suspended amid allegations of bullying and harassment.

  • Eighty take redundancy at GHA

    17/03/2010

    The UK’s biggest landlord has announced 80 redundancies this month as part of its restructure.

  • Eviction rates and rent arrears fall

    16/03/2010

    Eviction rates in social housing have dropped over the past four years, according to research from the Tenant Services Authority.

  • Facing the chop

    12/03/2010

    The axe has fallen on Scotland’s housing budget so how will the sector cope? Inside Housing asked a cross section of housing professionals to find out.

  • Fed calls for £11.7bn Budget investment

    16/03/2010

    The National Housing Federation has called for an £11.7 billion investment in housing, ahead of next week’s Budget.

  • Fire chief calls for checks on assessors

    18/03/2010

    Housing staff and other professionals who carry out fire risk assessments should be accredited to show they are competent, London’s top fire fighter has said.

  • Government could adopt Cobalt ASB pilot

    12/03/2010

    The government is considering a scorecard system to identify the most vulnerable victims and witnesses in anti-social behaviour cases, having been stirred into action in the wake of the Fiona Pilkington case.

  • Green industry calls for new funding model in Budget

    12/03/2010

    Developers and councils should be able to finance environmental improvements by borrowing against future tax revenues, industry figures have said

  • Green paper to set out future for housing

    16/03/2010

    The Scottish Government will publish a green paper looking for new ways to address the need for housing in the country, the housing minister has announced.

  • Haunting incentive

    12/03/2010

    There will be no avoiding the cloud hanging over next week’s Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland conference in Glasgow.

  • Healey to allocate £135m planning grant

    16/03/2010

    Housing minister John Healey is today set to announce this year’s allocation of the housing and planning delivery grant.

  • Housing associations could collect bins

    18/03/2010

    The head of a charity has said housing associations should have wider roles including rubbish collection and recycling.

  • Housing policy should help cohesion

    15/03/2010

    Policy makers should place more emphasis on community cohesion when making decisions on housing, the government has said.

  • Housing sector backs TSA standards

    17/03/2010

    The leading organisations representing social housing professionals have given their backing to regulatory standards unveiled yesterday.

  • Incentive scheme maths is wrong

    12/03/2010

    Grant Shapps is strong on rhetoric (Inside Housing, 26 February) but weak on mathematics.

  • Institutional racism ‘still present’ in public bodies

    15/03/2010

    Institutional racism still exists within public sector bodies, according to responses to a government consultation.

  • Jobs zone - Scotland

    12/03/2010

    There’s no doubt Scotland’s social housing sector has been affected by the tough economic climate, but as we move further into 2010 it’s becoming clear that homeless caseworkers, project workers and sheltered housing managers are all in demand, writes Suzanne Hamilton.

  • Johnson targets bad behaviour

    12/03/2010

    Social landlords and other agencies will have to respond to all anti-social behaviour complaints within 24 hours, the home secretary Alan Johnson has announced.

  • Landlords snub ASB scheme

    12/03/2010

    Just four social landlords have applied to a scheme launched 18 months ago to flag up best practice in tackling anti-social behaviour in Wales.

  • Last chance to join our election panel

    18/03/2010

    Inside Housing’s election panel is closing tomorrow, so if you haven’t signed up yet this is your last chance.

  • Mistaken identity...

    12/03/2010

    I would like to correct the recent story on the emerging bond market ‘Bond market boom attracts new player’ (Inside Housing, 26 February).

  • More affordable homes for London

    12/03/2010

    Nicky Gavron’s claims (Inside Housing, 26 February) about Boris Johnson’s plans to deliver more houses in London are littered with inaccuracies; unintentional or otherwise, they need to be corrected.

  • Movers & shakers

    12/03/2010

    Housing Plus has appointed Jo Grainger as head of extra care. She joins from MHA care group where she was commissioning manager.

  • OMG! Riga was just sooo much fun!

    12/03/2010

    Next time you’re tempted to post those hilarious pictures of a stag or hen weekend on the internet, just remember: employers are increasingly vetting job candidates online and they might not like what they see. Katie Puckett reports

  • On best behaviour

    12/03/2010

    The fact that the prime minister and home secretary have made speeches on anti-social behaviour in the past week is significant.

  • Our rough sleeper data is improving

    12/03/2010

    I was extremely disappointed by the gross misrepresentation of the work of the London delivery board, which is leading on the reduction of rough sleeping in the capital (Inside Housing, 19 February).

  • Parallel pathway

    12/03/2010

    Here, Jim Bauld looks at Scotland’s right to buy rules

  • Persimmon receives £20 million kick-start

    12/03/2010

    Almost a quarter of the successful bids for the second round of the government’s £975 million kick-start programme involved developer Persimmon Homes.

  • Planning bursary scheme expands

    16/03/2010

    The government has announced that it is expanding its bursary scheme for student planners taking post-graduate training.

  • Recession hits housing association business plans

    15/03/2010

    Housing associations are struggling to deliver on their business plans because of the economic slowdown, research has found.

  • Red card troublemakers

    12/03/2010

    A Glasgow case sets a useful precedent when pursuing full ASBOs

  • Report questions owner occupation

    17/03/2010

    The Scottish Government should re-think its policy of expanding owner occupation, according to a Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland report.

  • Repossessions fall 15 per cent

    17/03/2010

    The number of homes repossessed fell 15 per cent between the third and fourth quarters of 2009, according to the Financial Services Authority.

  • Riverside in talks to sell 1,200 homes

    12/03/2010

    Riverside group is to sell 1,200 homes to around 11 social landlords, in one of the biggest deals of its kind.

  • Room for improvement

    18/03/2010

    It was beaten to a top design award by a folding plug, but the Mexican concept of a half-finished social home has still attracted much attention.

  • Scotland special

    12/03/2010

    Featuring an interview with housing minister Alex Neil, a look at the likely impact of forthcoming budget cuts, and an assessment of the Scottish approach to right to buy

  • Share feedback on snap inspections

    12/03/2010

    The article on short notice inspections was well-researched and informative (Inside Housing, 26 February). I spoke to your journalist about getting the most out of SNI. Perhaps he didn’t have the room to include my main point.

  • Short notice inspection finds weaknesses

    18/03/2010

    The Audit Commission has found a London housing association has ‘more weaknesses than strengths’.

  • Should I stay or should I go?

    12/03/2010

    If housing associations really want to know how good they are, they should give tenants the option to leave, argues Tim Leunig

  • Social landlords face 'critical' tests

    18/03/2010

    Housing associations are going through a challenging period but could turn it into a catalyst for positive change, according to a Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland report.

  • Soha Housing has plenty of strengths

    12/03/2010

    ‘Surprise surprise’, indeed (Inside Housing, 26 Februaury). Placing Soha Housing in the ‘strengths outweigh weaknesses’ section of this table is rather misleading,

  • Splitting the difference

    16/03/2010

    Last month the Homes and Communities Agency introduced a new model shared ownership lease. Graham Walters, a partner at law firm TLT, explains the changes

  • Staff picket Notting Hill headquarters

    17/03/2010

    Trade union members at Notting Hill Housing group went on strike on Monday over changes to their terms and conditions.

  • Teenager charged over Peak Valley death

    15/03/2010

    A teenager has been remanded in custody after a 64-year-old man died outside his housing association home last week.

  • The green conveyor belt

    12/03/2010

    The retrofitting production line is about to go into overdrive thanks to the government’s new warm homes standard. Isabel Hardman asks if the 2020 target is feasible and if energy companies are prepared to pay

  • Thorndick to leave WKHA

    12/03/2010

    The high-profile chief executive of West Kent Housing Association is to leave her role to run a new social housing consultancy.

  • Tories attack £25m shortfall in house building funds

    15/03/2010

    The Conservatives have claimed there is a £25 million ‘black hole’ in the government’s pledge to build 110,000 new homes in two years.

  • Tower block suicides prompt inquiry calls

    12/03/2010

    Charities and MPs have called for an investigation into the amount of help given to failed asylum seekers, after three people jumped to their deaths from a Glasgow tower block.

  • Tribal: club bonds could soar sky high

    12/03/2010

    The number of housing associations working together on bond deals could jump as the result of negotiations with ratings agencies over the way the landlords are awarded a rating.

  • TSA unveils final version of regulatory standards

    16/03/2010

    The social housing watchdog has published the standards it will use to regulate housing associations, councils and co-operatives from 1 April.

  • Willmott Dixon wins £350m Scape contract

    17/03/2010

    Building firm Willmott Dixon has won a £350 million contract to carry out work through public sector procurement vehicle Scape.