Construction and development

Going Dutch

Self build groups in line for £30m of funding

Grant Shapps has announced a £30 million pot to promote self-build will go to groups building homes at the same time.

Faulty towers?

A year ago two firefighters died in a blaze in a Southampton tower block. Nick Duxbury finds out if anything more could have been done to prevent their deaths.

One in a million

Each year thousands of high-risk offenders are released onto London’s streets to complete their sentences. Here, Lydia Stockdale talks to the man whose work to settle them back into the community won him last year’s Butler Bursary

Grand Designs presenter attacks green deal row

Celebrity green architect and TV presenter Kevin McCloud has waded into the row over reports the government will scrap plans to link building regulations with the government’s flagship energy efficiency programme, the green deal.

Casting the net for a home

A website aimed solely at local housing allowance claimants is helping people find homes. Lydia Stockdale logs on

Doing it themselves

Help is at hand for low-income tenants keen to follow the Highland tradition of self-building. Clare Harris reports

Open-door policy

Allowing private landlords to validate local housing allowance claims can help councils simplify their procedures and cut their housing waiting lists. Neil Merrick heads to Derbyshire to find out how

Welcome flexibility

Two landlords have been named top employers for working families. Lydia Stockdale talks to one about how flexible time-keeping benefits managers and employees alike

The other side of the story

Dale Farm has dominated the headlines in recent months. But as Alex Turner finds, there are plenty of examples of landlords and Travellers working together successfully