Chancellor gambles on developers and buyers

£400m building fund mainly a loan

The government’s £400 million fund to unlock a wave of English house building projects is unlikely to include a significant amount of grant money, it has emerged.

Landlords reluctant to sign green deal pledge

The social housing sector is holding back from signing a pledge of support for the government’s flagship retrofit scheme because of fears it will be excluded from millions of pounds of subsidy funding.

Landlords win access to £190m fuel poverty fund

Government responds to Inside Housing’s Green Light campaign by redesigning the energy company obligation

Planning blow risks 16,000 affordable homes

Councils could be forced to sacrifice 16,000 affordable homes after the government said they should ‘reconsider’ existing planning deals.

Can they fix it?

How to...

Social landlords can play a big role in improving the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes. But they must lobby hard to ensure ministers understand that they will need support to do so, says Martin Wheatley

A problem shared

Sharing views on retrofit with a group of landlords across Europe has been invaluable, says Richard Baines

Knocking down barriers

Finance Bill reforms aim to make it easier and cheaper to invest in the housing market. James Duncan, partner at Winckworth Sherwood, explains

Getting up to speed

With little progress on calls for an exemption, developing social landlords need to be aware of new procurement rules, says Bill Hull

Foreign intervention

The threat of climate change may not be a big enough priority in most countries, but going green can help to tackle other, more pressing, socio-economic problems, as demonstrated by a retrofit project in South Africa, says Jane Henley