Glossary
Inside Housing's glossary aims to cut through housing jargon, but at times new phrases get made up faster than we can decipher them. If you've come across an expression you want added, or think one of our definitions can be improved, let us know. You can supply a definition yourself, or just send us the phrase or word and we'll find someone who can explain it.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
A
Acceptable behaviour contract (ABC): Intervention designed to stop antisocial behaviour by getting an individual to agree not to behave in an agreed manner. Not legally binding, but can be used as evidence if an antisocial behaviour order is later sought.
Antisocial behaviour order (Asbo): Court orders that restrict individuals from engaging in defined antisocial activities. Can be sought by housing associations, police forces or local authorities. Breach of an order is a criminal offence that can be punished by a fine or imprisonment.
Arm's-length management organisations (Almos): Organisations set up by local authorities to manage their housing stock, primarily to gain access to additional government funding for the decent homes programme.
Assured shorthold tenancy: Form of assured tenancy with limited security of tenure, as landlords can end it by seeking a section 21 notice.
Assured tenancy: Type of tenancy agreement usually offered by housing associations. Tenants can continue to live in the property for as long as they wish, as long as they do not break certain conditions set out in the Housing Act 1988.
Audit commission: Independent body that scrutinises local authorities and housing associations to ensure public money is spent effectively.
Back to topBeacon scheme: Government programme that recognises best practice in local government. Local authorities can apply for Beacon Status for different aspects of their work in each round of the scheme.
Basis point: One hundredth of 1 per cent.
Brownfield: Term generally used to describe land that has been previously developed, and may be available for re-use.
Bond: Bonds are essentially tradable IOUs issued by companies, governments, housing associations, or others, in order to borrow money on the capital markets. The ‘coupon’ on a bond is the interest rate that the issuer pays annually on the face value of the bond.
For example: If company A sells investor B £100 million of 30-year bonds with a coupon of 6 per cent, it will pay the investor 6 per cent of £100 million annually for 30 years, and redeem the £100 million at the end of that period.
Some housing associations are large enough to issue bonds in their own names. Smaller associations raise money on the capital markets through the Housing Finance Corporation, which issues bonds on behalf of groups of associations, each seeking to borrow relatively small sums.
Cash call/security call: Unlike a loan agreement, a housing association entering into an interest rate swap does not put up collateral in advance.
Instead, both parties to the contract will normally seek to cover their exposure by reserving the right to call for the other to put up security under specific circumstances.
For example: housing association A has bought a 30-year swap from bank B, converting LIBOR to a fixed rate of 5 per cent. If the market rate for an equivalent swap then drops to 3 per cent, the value of the contract with housing association A goes up for the bank. In other words, the bank’s exposure to housing association A has increased.
If this exposure rises above an agreed threshold - say £5 million - the bank can call on the association to put up security, in the form of cash or collateral, at short notice. This practice, known as a cash call or a security call, is to protect the bank against the risk that the association might default.
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH): Professional body for people working in housing and communities. Has affiliated organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Choice based lettings: System where applicants for social housing and existing tenants who want to move apply for available properties, rather than being allocated them by housing officers. The government wants all English local authorities to have a scheme in place by 2010, and is considering regional or sub-regional programmes.
Commission for architecture and the built environment (Cabe): Body that advises the government on architecture, urban design and public space.
Communities and Local Government: Government department responsible for housing, planning, communities, and local government.
Community empowerment: The term ‘community empowerment’ usually means people and organisations having the ability to influence the factors that affect them but operating within or alongside existing authorities. Although community empowerment has long been in use as part of the rhetoric about progressive social objectives, the phrase has only been a subject of government policy since 2006.The government defines empowerment as: ‘The giving of confidence, skills and power to communities to shape and influence what public bodies do for or with them.’This is coupled with community engagement, which it defines as: ‘The process whereby public bodies reach out to communities to create empowerment opportunities.’This can be described as a ‘top down’ approach, in which a higher authority gives power to communities.A Scottish community empowerment action plan published in March takes a ‘bottom up’ approach. It says: ‘Empowerment cannot be given to communities by others. Communities must decide the level of empowerment they want and how to get there themselves.’ The Scottish working party defines community empowerment as: ‘A process where people work together to make change happen in their communities by having more power and influence over what matters to them.’
Comprehensive spending review (CSR): Periodic reviews of spending on public services that is carried out by the Treasury. They determine how much departments will have to spend, what their priorities will be, and what they are expected to achieve through public service agreements.
Compulsory purchase order (CPO): Legal order that allows certain bodies to take over land or property against the wishes of the owner, who generally receives compensation.
Decanting: Process of moving residents from their homes while improvements are carried out.
Decent Homes: Government scheme to get housing to reach certain standards in terms of being warm, weatherproof and having reasonable modern facilities. The current aim is for 95 per cent of social housing to reach the Decent Homes Standard by 2010.
Drug action team (DAT): Partnerships of local organisations responsible for delivering the drug strategy for the area.
Employment and Support Allowance: Benefit for people who are unable to work due to illness or disability. Replaced incapacity benefit, for new claimants, on 27 October 2008
Empowerment: Process of increasing the confidence and abilities of individuals and communities, often with the aim of giving them more influence in how decisions that affect them are made.
Empty Dwelling Management Order: Order introduced in 2006 that allows a council to take over the management of an empty property, under certain circumstances. There are two types, interim EDMOs, which can last a year, and final EDMOs, which can last up to seven years.
Empty Homes Agency: Charity that exists to highlight issues relating to empty homes and encourage them to be brought back into use.
English Partnerships: Former national regeneration agency for England. It was a non-departmental public body responsible for funding and directing large-scale regeneration work. On 1 December 2008 it closed and its powers passed to the Homes and Communities Agency.
Equity loan: Loan given to help buy a home. The loan is only repaid when the home is sold, and its value relates to the value of a home. So if a home rises in value, the amount to be repaid increases proportionally.
Estate management board: Group of residents that oversees the running of an estate.
European social fund: European fund worth £4.6 billion between 2007 and 2013. Its aim is to improve employment, and give people better skills and job prospects.
Flexible tenure: Form of shared ownership that allows homeowners to increase or decrease their share in the property according to their circumstances, and ability to pay.
Foyers: Accommodation for homeless young people, which is geared towards helping them address problems that may be at the root of their homelessness.
Freehold: Opposite of leasehold. Gives the owner the right to occupy a property indefinitely.
Gatekeeping: Term used to describe criteria applied by councils to bar applicants from accessing homelessness services or temporary accommodation that they would otherwise be entitled to.
Grant: Funding normally given to a charity or not for profit organisation for a specific purpose or project.
Green belt: Area of land around towns and cities where development is not permitted.
Greenfield: Type of land where there has been no previous development.
Green paper: Document setting out policy proposals, usually for consultation. Often issued by government departments, and can lead to a white paper, and then a bill that is presented to Parliament.
Ground rent: Regular payment leaseholders may make to the owner of the freehold.
Growth areas: Four areas of south east England designated by the government in 2003 as being suitable for development to increase housing supply. The four areas, Ashford, London-Stanstead-Cambridge-Peterborough, Milton Keynes and south midlands, and Thames Gateway are supposed to produce 200,000 extra homes on top of planned developments by 2016, with London.
Growth points: Initiative to support areas that want to drive housing development outside the growth areas. 29 were announced in October 2006 across the south and midlands, with a further 21 announced in July 2007 to take the scheme into the north.
Homebuy: Range of government schemes designed to help people buy houses through devices such as shared equity, shared ownership, and other forms of low cost homeownership.
Homes and Communities Agency: Government agency responsible for housing and regeneration. Formed in 2008 as a successor to the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships, alongside the Tenant Services Authority.
Home Improvement Agency: Normally locally based, not for profit organisations that help elderly or disabled people to remain in their home by offering advice on modifications, and carrying out home improvements.
Houses in multiple occupation: Property with multiple occupants from multiple households, although the exact criteria vary according to the type of property. Landlords letting HMOs must meet licensing criteria set by the government.
Housing association: Not-for-profit organisation set up to provide low cost housing, although the types vary widely. Range from small community-led groups, to larger operations involved in house building and development, often accessing funding through the Homes and Communities Agency, or private backers. Are also involved in helping tenants through initiatives such as Supporting People.
Housing benefit: Social security payment designed to help eligible parties with their rent
Housing Corporation: Body responsible for funding affordable housing development and regulating housing associations. It closed on 1 December 2008 and its functions passed to the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority.
Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders: Partnerships charged with rebuilding housing markets in areas of weak demand across the north of England and parts of the midlands. Nine areas were originally chosen in 2002, and three low demand areas were identified in 2005. Between 2002 and 2008 the government invested £1.2 billion in the Housing Market Renewal scheme, and a further £1 billion has been set aside for 2008 to 2011.
Housing revenue account: Record of income from housing and expenditure kept by local authority housing departments. The system is controversial because the Treasury gathers money from the account and redistributes it according to a set of rules, causing some authorities to argue that they lose out.
Impairment write-downs: If there are reasons to question the listed value of an asset on the association’s balance sheet, the asset is said to be potentially impaired and the listed value is compared with, and written down to if necessary, the higher of the net realisable (often market) value and the value in use. The write-down will usually be shown as a loss on the association’s income and expenditure account.
Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA): Best practice body for local government, designed to help councils serve their communities better.
Incapacity benefit: Payment for people who are unable to work because of illness or disability. Replaced on 27 October 2008 by the Employment and Support Allowance, but can still be claimed if the illness or disability started before this date.
Independent housing ombudsman: Service that allows tenants of landlords who belong to the scheme to refer any complaints to the ombudsman. All housing associations in England are members, as are some private landlords.
Inflation/deflation: Inflation is the rate at which prices for goods and services are rising across the economy, decreasing the purchasing power of currency. Deflation is the opposite process - a general decline in prices. These processes have a specific significance to councils’ and housing associations’ finances, because the rents they charge are index-linked to the retail price index, the most commonly used measure of inflation. This means social rents rise or fall in line with inflation. Inflation/deflation is expressed as a percentage.
Interest rate swaps: There are various types of swaps, but those most commonly used by housing associations are interest rate swaps - these protect against steep increases in interest payments on variable-rate loans.
For example: housing association A has secured a 30-year loan facility of £250 million from bank B, at a margin of 100 basis points over LIBOR. But the association does not want the risks associated with paying variable rates on the entire loan. It wants to convert the payments it makes on £125 million of the debt to a fixed rate, to build some certainty into its business plan.
To do this it can enter into a swap contract, where it agrees to pay a counterparty (normally a bank) a fixed interest rate - say 5 per cent - on a nominal sum of £125 million, over the 30-year term of the loan. In return, the counterparty agrees to pay the association LIBOR on the same nominal sum.
In effect, this agreement ‘fixes’ the interest rate the association is paying on £125 million of its loan at 5 per cent.
Institutional investors: These are companies that pool the cash savings of large numbers of individuals and invest them on their customers’ behalf. They include pension funds and life insurance companies. These institutions are the main investors in housing association bonds.
Intermediate housing: Housing aimed at people who do not quality for social housing, but cannot afford full market rents. Can include shared ownership and key worker schemes.
Intermediate rent: Rent charged for intermediate housing, set above social rent but below market level.
Jobcentre Plus: Government agency that helps people to find work.
Joint working: Partnerships between different local authority departments and external agencies designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services.
Key workers: Public sector workers such as teachers, nurses and police. Are often entitled to forms of affordable housing such as intermediate housing and schemes such as Homebuy.
Land bank: Land held by developers, such as house builders and developing housing associations, for building at a later date. Often held in expectation of more favourable conditions in the market.
Large scale voluntary transfer: Transfer of local authority homes to a housing association. Has to be approved through a ballot of tenants.
Leasehold: Type of tenure where the homeowner does not own the freehold, but instead has a long term lease – often for 99 years – for which they may pay a ground rent.
LIBOR: The London inter-bank offered rate. This is the rate at which banks will lend each other wholesale funds, and is used as the benchmark interest rate. This is important to housing associations because the variable rates on the loans they borrow are normally tied to LIBOR. If LIBOR goes up, so do their interest payments. If it goes down, they pay less.
LOBOs: LOBO stands for Lender Option Borrower Option. This is a specific kind of loan product. The borrower is typically offered a long-term loan (say 30 to 40 years) at an initial low fixed rate. But at set periods through the term of the loan (say 5-year intervals) the lender has the option to raise the rate. The borrower must then either accept the new rate, or repay the loan.
Local Government Association: Campaigning organisation promoting the interests of English and Welsh local authorities.
Local government finance settlement: Annual settlement determining how much money local authorities will receive from government to run services. Does not cover council housing.
Local housing company: Model designed to allow local authorities to involve private companies in developing affordable housing. Councils put forward land and approve plans, and developers put forward capital for the building work.
Low cost homeownership: Range of schemes intended to help those who cannot afford to buy a home get onto the housing ladder, normally by buying a part share in a property through initiatives such as Homebuy.
Low demand: Area where there is little demand for housing, meaning it becomes difficult to sell or rent properties, and there is a risk that large numbers may be left empty.
Margin: In the context of social housing finance, this term usually refers to the rate charged to a borrower on top of a benchmark interest rate. This is usually expressed in basis points. For example, housing association A might borrow £100 million from bank B at 100 basis points over LIBOR.
Mortgage-backed securities: These are created by a mortgage lender pooling large numbers of individual mortgage debts and repackaging them as bonds or other securities which can be sold on.
Move on accommodation: Homes that people who have been in hostels for homeless people or temporary accommodation can move to on a more permanent basis.
National Affordable Housing Programme: Government fund to support the development of affordable housing. Distributed through the Homes and Communities Agency, and worth £8.4 billion in the current round, which runs from 2008 to 2011.
National Housing Federation: Umbrella body representing housing associations in England.
Negative equity: Financial term used to describe a situation where a loan becomes worth more than the asset it is secured against. In housing it typically applies to mortgages where the value of the property falls below the amount borrowed to buy it.
Nimby: Acronym for Not in My Backyard. Used to describe people or groups who recognise the need for certain facilities or developments – for example affordable housing – but don't want them near where they live.
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Former government department that was responsible for housing, planning and local government. In 2006 it became the Communities and Local Government department, which has similar responsibilities.
Possession order: Court order that allows a landlord, or lender in the case of homeowners, to take possession of a property.
Planning Policy Statements: Range of government documents that provide guidance to local authorities on handling planning applications for different types of development.
Priority need: Range of circumstances that mean a council has to provide accommodation if an individual or family is homeless or threatened with homelessness. Examples include being pregnant, having dependent children, and being 16 or 17.
Private finance initiative: Method of securing private investment in schemes that are for public benefit by allowing private companies to get involved in delivering public services. The state pays them for these services, allowing the private business to recoup the cost of its investment, with interest.
Public private partnership: Catch all term describing any partnership between a public body and a private company to deliver a project or service.
Public service agreements: Targets government departments are expected to achieve with the funding they have been allocated by the Treasury. Performance against these targets is tracked, and departments are assessed on whether they are on course to achieve them or not. Also used to describe Local Public Service Agreements, which operate on a similar basis, but are set for local authorities by government departments.
Quango: Acronym for Quasi Non-Governmental Organisation. Often used to describe non-departmental public bodies that are funded by the government to carry out an aspect of its work, but are technically independent.
Registered social landlord: Organisation registered with the social housing regulator, the Tenant Services Authority, under the Housing Act 1996. Most are housing associations, although housing cooperatives and local housing companies are also registered.
Retail price index: The most commonly used measure of inflation. Based on the prices of a ‘basket’ of goods and services intended to reflect a typical family’s spending.
Rent guarantee: Guarantee given to tenants on future rent rises, often when stock transfer is being considered.
Rent Service: See The Rent Service.
Right to buy: Policy introduced under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government that gave council tenants the right to buy their homes from the local authority at a discounted rate.
Ring fencing: Practice of requiring a specific pot of money to be spent on one project or area of work, for example helping vulnerable people, rather than giving the organisation spending the money freedom to decide how best to allocate it.
Secure tenancy: Type of tenancy that allows tenants to remain in a property for life, and in some circumstances pass it on to a relative. Generally used by local authorities. Tenants can only be evicted by a court order if they have broken criteria such as paying rent.
Service charge: Charge paid to landlords or, in the case of leaseholders to the owner of the freehold, in exchange for maintaining communal areas of a development.
Shared ownership: Scheme that allows people to buy a part share in a home, if they are unwilling or unable to buy the whole property, with another party – often a housing association – retaining the remainder. Shared owners can often increase or decrease their stake in the home, thorough a process known as staircasing.
Sheltered housing: Housing for elderly people that includes some form of support service.
Short life housing: Housing provided on a short-term basis for people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or in some other form of housing need. The properties are often due for demolition, or awaiting improvements, and would otherwise be empty.
Social exclusion: General term used to describe a range of social problems that leave people or areas excluded from wider society, ranging from poverty and unemployment to drug addiction.
Staircasing: Process where people who have bought a partial stake in their home through a shared ownership scheme increase or decrease that stake.
Supported housing: Term used to describe any housing for vulnerable people that includes some form of support service.
Supporting People: Government programme that gives funding to local authorities to provide housing-related services to vulnerable people.
Sustainable development: Any type of development that aims to meet current needs without depleting resources or damaging the environment for future generations.
The Rent Service: Agency that was responsible for assessing whether housing benefit recipients were being charged the correct rents by their landlords. On 1 April 2009 its functions transferred to the Valuation Office Agency.
Tupe: Acconym used for The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, which state how employees' terms and conditions must be retained if they are moved to another employer.
Unison: Trade union representing members who work in many areas of the public sector.
Valuation Office Agency: Arm of HM Revenue and Customs responsible for assessing whether housing benefit recipients are being charged the correct amount by landlords, among other functions.
Volunteer: Person who chooses to spend some of their time helping in the work of an organisation, often a charity, without being paid.
White paper: Government document setting out policy proposals, which are often intended to become law. If this is the case, a bill will then be laid before Parliament, and if this is approved it becomes a legal document known as an act.
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