Inside Housing
Martin Hilditch Editorial
Stories by this author.
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Danger signs
11/05/2012
Social landlords have improved fire safety since the Lakanal House tragedy, but there is still more work to be done
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National disgrace
11/05/2012
Councils must take note of the housing minister’s concerns about their use of bed and breakfasts
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Social landlords handed one fire notice every week
11/05/2012
Social landlords are being served with an average of one enforcement notice a week by fire brigades across England.
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It’s time to pull together
20/04/2012
Politicians may be focused on the upcoming elections, but the housing sector should take a longer view.
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Ministerial mission
13/04/2012
Keith Brown has been in charge of Scottish social housing for less than 12 months but in that time he has helped shape the sector for years to come. Martin Hilditch finds out how
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Landlords: cuts will affect service standards
23/03/2012
More than a fifth of social landlords think they will be forced to lower service standards as a result of government spending cuts.
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Sex offenders forced into shared houses
09/03/2012
Paedophiles and rapists who used to receive payments enabling them to live on their own could be moved into shared homes with women and children, due to housing benefit reforms.
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Scotch toast
02/03/2012
The new Scottish Housing Regulator revealed its final plans for keeping a watch on housing providers this week.
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Ken Loach: Government is 'cleansing' London
22/02/2012
One of England’s leading film directors has accused the government of using benefit reform to ‘cleanse’ central London of poor people because it feels they disfigure the capital.
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Landlords urged to pay £2m to fund new forum
10/02/2012
Tenants are set to push councils and housing associations to pay them up to £2 million to enable them to have a stronger voice on the national stage.
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Rough sleeping figures rocket across England
10/02/2012
Significant numbers of councils saw their rough sleeping figures rise by more than 100 per cent last year.
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Homelessness charity chief stepping down
09/12/2011
The boss of the UK’s homelessness umbrella organisation has stepped down from her role after more than seven years in charge.
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Must work harder
09/12/2011
The Tenant Services Authority is bucking the trend for job shortages, but its vacancies must be filled, says Martin Hilditch
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Danger zone
18/11/2011
Landlords reveal this week how they are getting their businesses in shape as part of our refurbishment and retrofit special.
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Rise in serious work injuries since recession
18/11/2011
The number of housing officers seriously injured at work has jumped by 17 per cent since the start of the economic downturn.
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Camp beds
11/11/2011
The protest camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral has already attracted the attention of the world’s media - but now it has emerged that it is also a draw for homeless people.
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Budding journalists asked to write about their lives
28/10/2011
Young people are being asked how they think the communities they live in have affected their chances in life, as part of a competition launched by Inside Housing following August’s riots.
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Charity to form subsidiary of Thames Reach
28/10/2011
Homelessness charities Thames Reach and Groundswell have entered into a partnership to tackle rough sleeping.
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Knock down prices
28/10/2011
Thousands of residents across England have had a surprise over the past few months.
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Shapps attacks 'ludicrous' council over homeless
13/10/2011
The housing minister has accused England’s largest council of being ‘ludicrous’ for reporting just nine rough sleepers in its annual street count.
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Council planning to invest pensions in private rented homes
30/09/2011
Ealing Council is looking to use its pension fund to invest in homes in the private rented sector.
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Shadow ministers seek to delay planning reforms
27/09/2011
Shadow ministers have called on the government to extend its consultation on planning reforms.
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Landlord to use affordable rent homes for people on benefits
26/09/2011
The shadow housing minister has revealed that a housing association won over a council that was sceptical about affordable rent by promising it would only use the scheme to house people on benefits.
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Flint: Public opinion makes housing 'complicated'
26/09/2011
Shadow communities secretary Caroline Flint has stated that making housing policy is complicated because public opinion is widely divided on the issue.
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Delegates condemn riot evictions at Labour conference
26/09/2011
Grass roots Labour campaigners are pushing for the party to condemn the eviction of rioters who live in social housing.
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42% of reviews overturned
23/09/2011
Councils across England are overturning significant proportions of their homelessness decisions if they are challenged by unhappy applicants.
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Minister says affordable housing is a one-off
13/09/2011
The government’s controversial affordable housing programme is a one-off that will not be `repeated and repeated’, communities minister Andrew Stunell has stated.
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Ombudsman concerned by direct complaint ban
09/09/2011
The housing ombudsman has admitted he is worried by government plans to bar tenants from complaining to him directly.
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Sarah's legacy
09/09/2011
The housing sector lost one of its leading lights this week when Sarah Webb died.
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The search for answers
26/08/2011
It’s two weeks since riots ravaged England and much of the violence has been blamed on gangs. Martin Hilditch visits Manchester to discover how the housing sector can help ministers tackle the problem
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Westminster tenants told to stay indoors
09/08/2011
Westminster’s arm’s-length management organisation has told its tenants to stay inside their homes if possible this evening.
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TSA chief has been using wrong job title
29/07/2011
Claer Lloyd-Jones has been calling herself the chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority since December despite having another job title behind the scenes.
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Call for new law after gas death
29/07/2011
A coroner has called on the government to change health and safety legislation after a social housing tenant died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a newly built block of flats.
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TSA forks out £370,000 on two chief execs
28/07/2011
The social housing regulator shelled out more than £370,000 to pay for two chief executives last year.
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Associations win battle over sex offender data
22/07/2011
Scotland’s largest police force has been ordered to tell three housing associations where convicted paedophiles and sex offenders are living.
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Supported housing investigation launched
22/07/2011
The government has launched an investigation into the level of service charges levied by supported housing providers, after becoming concerned that some were inflating costs.
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Supported housing benefit changes proposed
20/07/2011
The government has launched radical plans to change the way it pays housing benefit to people living in supported housing.
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Homeless granted shared room rate exemption
20/07/2011
The government has granted some homeless people an exemption from controversial housing benefit changes.
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Landlords admit high-rise fire risk
01/07/2011
Three quarters of housing providers do not think their tower blocks have been assessed correctly
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The firing line
01/07/2011
News that social landlords do not think the fire risk assessments of their tower blocks are up to scratch should concern us all.
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Seabeck warns of future damage of affordable rent
24/06/2011
Low income families will not be able to live in new housing association homes in the future, the shadow housing minister has warned.
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CIH head attacks government housing reforms
21/06/2011
The government’s housing reforms are likely to be based on a ‘flawed and unsustainable’ model, the Chartered Institute of Housing’s president has warned.
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Staff facing pay cuts at prince's youth charity
17/06/2011
Front line staff at one of the Duke of Cambridge’s favourite charities are facing redundancies and pay cuts, as it struggles with the fallout from Whitehall spending curbs.
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Rise in number of homeless people asking councils for help
03/06/2011
Some of England’s largest councils have seen huge jumps in the number of homeless people asking them for help.
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A third of social landlords expect a double dip recession
20/05/2011
More than a third of social landlords think government spending cuts will cause a double dip recession, an auditor has warned.
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Charity hits out at rough sleeping laws
05/05/2011
An international federation of homelessness organisations has warned that London has joined a ‘worrying’ Europe-wide trend to criminalise homeless people.
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Former CIH president awarded biggest bonus of the year
12/11/2010
A former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing picked up a bigger bonus than any other housing association chief executive last year.