Thursday, 09 February 2012

Inside Housing
15/01/2010

View all stories from this issue.

  • 2012 deadline extended

    15/01/2010

    The Welsh Assembly has given a number of landlords significant extensions to the 2012 deadline it set for them to bring their homes up to its housing quality standard.

  • Be loud and proud!

    15/01/2010

    In October last year Inside Housing fired the starting gun on the general election by running the sector’s first ‘hustings’ event in the countdown to May’s expected polling day.

  • Bolton executive starts stock transfer process

    19/01/2010

    Bolton council’s executive has given the green light to ballot tenants over the stock transfer of 18,200 homes.

  • Build, build, build

    15/01/2010

    The only way to make homeownership more affordable in 2010 is to relax development of greenfield sites, says Tim Leunig

  • Building leeway

    15/01/2010

    Efforts to broaden section 73’s remit on planning rumble on, says Rupert Wilson

  • Building slump hits affordable homes

    18/01/2010

    Trading statements from leading builders have revealed sharp drops in the number of affordable homes built during 2008.

  • Capital fears decent homes backlash

    15/01/2010

    A paper, by London Councils’ Decent Homes Group, said that heads of housing in some boroughs fear angry residents could vote for ‘non-mainstream’ political parties in spring’s local and general elections in protest.

  • Carr-Gomm merger call

    15/01/2010

    A national supported housing organisation is looking for a merger partner after posting an operating deficit of more than £2 million for two successive years.

  • Charity sets up cheap homes fund

    15/01/2010

    Hundreds of people could pick up cut price homes thanks to a new fund masterminded by the Empty Homes Agency.

  • Christmas sees surge in illegal lending

    18/01/2010

    The number of households in Britain borrowing money from loan sharks has risen from 165,000 in 2006 to 200,000 in 2009.

  • CIH to set up anti-social behaviour team

    19/01/2010

    The Chartered Institute of Housing has been commissioned by the Tenant Services Authority to set up a team to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

  • Circle staff face job cuts

    15/01/2010

    Circle Anglia is considering cutting back its development and sales and marketing teams.

  • CLG acknowledges threat to support services

    18/01/2010

    The government has acknowledged pressure on local authority budgets could harm Supporting People services once ring fencing is removed.

  • Collision course

    15/01/2010

    As Whitehall speeds up the convergence of social rents, it finds itself taking on landlords which say acceleration is throwing them dangerously off balance. Neil Merrick reports.

  • Community spirit is in decline

    18/01/2010

    The number of community-spirited tenants who play an active role in their local area is dwindling, according to a report by a major housing association.

  • Compare the landlord

    15/01/2010

    We use comparison websites to make sure we get the best deal for everything from car insurance to holidays and now a new website means social housing tenants can scrutinise their landlords in the same way. Isabel Hardman reports

  • Contractor secures 85 per cent of revenue

    15/08/2011

    A contractor has revealed that it has secured 85 per cent of budgeted revenues for the financial year.

  • Council tax plan could cost £2.3bn

    15/01/2010

    Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps has moved to allay fears that Conservative plans to match council tax on new builds could cost £2.3 billion in the first three years alone.

  • Councils given fresh guidance on garden grabbing

    19/01/2010

    Planning guidance is to be strengthened to make it clear there is no presumption that land can be built on just because it has previously been developed.

  • Detecting the sub-letters

    15/01/2010

    If they take the right measures, landlords can crack down on sub-letting

  • Development pilot to bypass planning process

    18/01/2010

    Councils can wave through developments without a planning application if the plans meet locally agreed criteria under a pilot scheme.

  • Dragon joins Shelter tower run

    19/01/2010

    Duncan Bannatyne, the entrepreneur famous for his appearances on TV show Dragon’s Den, is joining homelessness charity Shelter to race up 42 floors of the tallest building in the City of London.

  • East Riding nets new build cash

    15/01/2010

    East Riding of Yorkshire has emerged as the biggest winner of a government bid to get more councils building homes.

  • Errors see benefit overpayments double

    09/02/2010

    Overpayment of benefits has doubled to £800 million in the past decade, MPs have discovered.

  • Fashion designer inspired by homeless

    20/01/2010

    For any lucky homeless person who can get their hands on it, Vivienne Westwood has come up with a collection just for the ‘roving vagrant’.

  • Fight against fuel poverty is 'failing'

    19/01/2010

    Government attempts to tackle fuel poverty have failed, and new measures are urgently needed, according to a leading think tank.

  • Green light for £100m Cataylst plan

    15/01/2010

    A joint venture between Catalyst Housing Group and contractor Willmott Dixon Homes has been given the go-ahead to begin the regeneration of the Dee Park estate in Tilehurst, west Reading.

  • HCA signs up associations

    15/01/2010

    The Homes and Communities Agency has included three housing associations among the firms selected on its new house building framework aimed at speeding up development on publicly owned land.

  • Healey attacks ‘lack of ambition’ in Boris’ London Plan

    20/01/2010

    The housing minister has voiced ‘serious concerns’ over the Conservative mayor of London’s plans for the city.

  • Healey puts £500k into regional allocations schemes

    21/01/2010

    Housing minister John Healey has allocated more than £500,000 to set up regional and sub-regional choice based lettings schemes.

  • IH launches new campaign

    15/01/2010

    Inside Housing is this week launching a campaign to take housing to the top of the political agenda as we enter a general election year.

  • Inaction hampers fight against violent extremism

    21/01/2010

    The government’s £45 million drive to combat violent extremism has been hampered by a lack of action from councils, ministers have said.

  • Keeping healthy

    15/01/2010

    Sickness absence is a thorny subject, but there are things you can do to stop it being exploited

  • Keeping time

    15/01/2010

    Not enough hours in the day? Anita Pati quizzes a time-management expert who works with not-for-profit sector employees

  • L&Q raises £300m through bond issue

    20/01/2010

    London & Quadrant has raised £300 million in private finance to fund its future development programme with the largest ever bond issued by a housing association.

  • Landlords invited to bid for £3m eco-heating cash

    15/08/2011

    Social landlords can bid for thousands of pounds to help them install eco-heaters in the homes of tenants.

  • Landlords lambast rent subsidy cuts

    15/01/2010

    More local authority landlords have said they will face cash flow problems following changes to the council housing subsidy regime.

  • Landlords lauded for gay-friendly measures

    15/01/2010

    Housing organisations have improved their standing on a high-profile chart of good places to work for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees.

  • Leeds ALMO launches benefits campaign

    19/01/2010

    A Leeds arm’s-length management organisation has launched an awareness drive to encourage struggling families to claim benefits they entitled to following a rule change.

  • Let's hear from the sector's female FDs

    15/01/2010

    I was intrigued by your article ‘Money talks’ (Inside Housing (18 December) - and wanted to know why you didn’t manage to find a single female finance director to join the debate among ‘nine of the sector’s leading finance directors’.

  • London Plan will not meet demand

    18/01/2010

    House building targets for London are not high enough to meet demand for affordable housing, a London Assembly committee has warned.

  • Make the case for housing

    15/01/2010

    Housing is society’s unsung hero - and it’s time to change that. As election campaigns begin, it’s crucial we up our influence by shouting about the massive benefits our sector delivers year in, year out. Today Inside Housing and the Chartered Institute of Housing launch House Proud, a new campaign to help you do just that

  • Mayor celebrates 20,000 home milestone

    15/01/2010

    More than 20,000 extra affordable homes have been built in London from March 2008 to September 2009, the capital’s mayor has said.

  • Minister investigates co-operative housing

    22/01/2010

    Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has visited a co-operative housing scheme in Lambeth to assess the potential of the model.

  • More funding needed to complete Decent Homes

    21/01/2010

    The government risks undermining the achievements of the Decent Homes programme if it fails to address a second backlog of repairs, the National Audit Office has warned.

  • Movers & shakers

    15/01/2010

    Greg Taylor has joined Moat as executive director of finance. He worked previously at Cert Octavian as finance and commercial director.

  • New York hostel idea to be replicated in UK

    15/01/2010

    One Housing Group is planning the first scheme in the UK to combine a homeless hostel with intermediate rented housing for low paid workers.

  • Notting Hill staff consider strike action

    21/01/2010

    Staff at a London housing association are deciding whether to go on strike over proposed changes to their terms and conditions.

  • Off the radar

    15/01/2010

    Official rough sleeper counts don’t always reflect the truth

  • Pensioner grounded for housing officer assault

    20/01/2010

    A 67-year-old man who assaulted a housing officer has been banned from leaving his home between 12 noon and 6pm.

  • Record year for Mears

    15/01/2010

    Social housing service provider Mears has revealed that its social housing and domiciliary care activities now account for roughly 90 per cent of its group’s revenues.

  • Regeneration body to be merged with HCA

    15/01/2010

    One of three regional regeneration bodies set up by the government is to be incorporated into a national agency, and the others also face changes.

  • Rent should not be linked to income

    15/01/2010

    I was amazed to read Chartered Insitute of Housing president Howard Farrand suggest (Inside Housing, 8 January) that rents should be linked to incomes and that higher earners should pay more rent.

  • Rough sleepers flock to charities in big chill

    15/01/2010

    Homelessness charities have housed record numbers of rough sleepers since the beginning of December, in the face of the longest cold snap for 30 years.

  • Scottish housing bill will end right to buy

    14/01/2010

    The Scottish government has published its plans to abolish the right to buy for new tenants.

  • Sector rushes to help Haiti

    21/01/2010

    Social landlords across the country are organising fundraising events to support the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

  • Southwark boosts stock sales

    15/01/2010

    Southwark attempted to sell more of its social housing stock than any other social landlord last month, according to the latest monthly figures from Essential Information Group.

  • Southwark fire risk assessors lacked adequate training

    19/01/2010

    A leaked email from a London fire chief has revealed housing officers in Southwark who conducted fire risk checks on tower blocks had not received appropriate training.

  • Support needed to help elderly stay in their homes

    20/01/2010

    The National Housing Federation is calling for more support to help elderly people remain in their homes.

  • Tories target rules on work

    15/01/2010

    The Conservatives have pledged to rewrite the rule book to allow social tenants to work from home.

  • UK nations should learn from each other

    20/01/2010

    Work to tackle homelessness should combine the best elements of strategies from each UK nation, a study has found.

  • United strikes £18m of deals

    15/01/2010

    Specialist housing contractor United House has won three new contracts worth more than £18 million for decent homes refurbishment work.

  • We need answers

    15/01/2010

    It may be a new year but there is one question hanging over from 2009 that refuses to go away: are housing associations public or private bodies for the purposes of the Human Rights Act?

  • Weaver battle looms

    15/01/2010

    The controversy over whether housing associations are public bodies is set to drag on throughout 2010 after a new court case ducked the issue.

  • Web helped us beat lift charge

    15/01/2010

    Your website reported that the Homes and Communities Agency handed out billions in housing grants in 2009 (How the HCA spent £2.8 billion in four months, www.insidehousing.co.uk). Our new landlord, Southern Housing, was reported as receiving £38.4 million.

  • Welsh homelessness shows annual decline

    18/01/2010

    The number of households accepted as homeless in Wales was 3 per cent lower between July and September 2009 than it was during the same period in 2008.

  • Working in tandem

    15/01/2010

    Community Land Trusts can help foster cohesive and supportive communities. Now is the time to invest in them