Inside Housing
Stuart Macdonald Editorial
I am the editor of Inside Housing - the leading source of news, information and best practice for social housing professionals. Follow me on Twitter @InsideHousingEd
Stories by this author.
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Crunch time for Wales
25/05/2012
Wales has set out its ambitions for housing, now it has to deliver
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Who will pick up the bill?
25/05/2012
The scale of the deficit at the Social Housing Pension Scheme means tough choices will have to be made
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Fit for the future
18/05/2012
Housing providers are pushing boundaries to address the challenges facing the sector, but they must tread carefully
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Scissor strategy
18/05/2012
Northern Ireland’s long-awaited housing strategy must deliver more homes
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A few more hurdles
04/05/2012
Tenants are eager to take advantage of the revamped right to buy, but problems for councils remain
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Government defends new heat incentive
04/05/2012
The government insists the delayed roll-out of its scheme to incentivise the use of renewable heat will not suffer from the setbacks to its controversial feed-in tariff scheme for solar power.
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Terrible error
04/05/2012
Lessons can be learnt from even the most unfortunate mistakes
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Boom of the builders
27/04/2012
The government must turn to house building as it seeks to battle back out of recession.
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Barratt CEO: 'Public sector must deliver more land'
26/04/2012
The chief executive of Barratt has called on the public sector to bring more land forward for housing development to prevent the ‘overwhelming’ housing crisis getting worse.
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More support needed
20/04/2012
Examining the impact of the bedroom tax makes depressing reading.
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A good plan
13/04/2012
Forty-five new homes a year for the next 20 years might not sound like much, but their construction in Dawlish, in Devon, will be hugely significant for the rest of England.
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More work to be done
13/04/2012
We are not yet proclaiming victory in our Green Light campaign to allow social landlords full access to £1.3 billion in annual funding to help tackle fuel poverty, but this week marks a big step forward.
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Victims of the system
05/04/2012
Councils and other housing providers must ensure they are identifying victims of domestic violence
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White paper for Wales
05/04/2012
The Welsh Government’s housing white paper is an opportunity for the country to explore new models of investment.
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A new dawn for housing
30/03/2012
Another week, another seminal moment for social housing in the UK. At least that is what it feels like at present.
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A way forward
30/03/2012
The riots which swept many parts of England last August shook the country to the core and rightly so.
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More cuts to come
23/03/2012
Hidden in the Budget was the threat of more pain for the social housing sector
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Tenant woes
23/03/2012
Tenant panels will have to step in as the regulator’s remit is cut back
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All about the money
16/03/2012
The Budget must support an economic environment where councils can use their new financial freedom to build homes
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New model
16/03/2012
The COCO model could be the future for arm’s-length management organisations
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A heavy price to pay
09/03/2012
Social landlords must adapt to benefit reforms if they are to continue to deliver effective services
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A poor excuse
09/03/2012
The Department for Work and Pensions must rethink its policy on rehousing sex offenders
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Right to buy is no panacea
02/03/2012
The government must take care with the reintroduction of the right to buy if it wants to prove its critics wrong
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Stay strong
24/02/2012
Uncertainty remains despite the announcement of the members of the Homes and Communities Agency regulatory committee
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Healey admits central build targets were a failure
21/02/2012
Former housing minister John Healey has admitted the approach of the last Labour government to building more homes through central targets was a failure and that the party ‘turned over’ too many housing ministers.
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FIT for success
17/02/2012
Last Thursday Inside Housing’s Green Light campaign enjoyed its biggest success since launching in November.
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The truth will out
17/02/2012
On 11 January David Cameron told MPs in response to a question on housing benefit that ‘[private] rent levels have come down, so we have stopped ripping off the taxpayer’.
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Bright ideas
10/02/2012
The Riot Report is just the beginning for work to highlight the positive role played by social landlords.
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MP seeks slice of £9bn EU regeneration fund
08/02/2012
Social landlords should pressure the government to spend some of the annual £9 billion which is allocated to European Union projects on regeneration in the UK instead.
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Keep it local
03/02/2012
England’s housing minister Grant Shapps has gotten himself into something of a mess.
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Size doesn’t matter
03/02/2012
Efficiency is key to getting through the years ahead, regardless of scale.
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Failing to cash in
27/01/2012
Our investigation into how more than 300 English councils are using £200 million of new homes bonus makes for sobering reading.
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Freedom fighters
27/01/2012
The debate over housing association transparency sheds light on the relationship the sector has with politicians, says Stuart Macdonald
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Reaching critical mass
20/01/2012
Next week is a big one for social landlords across the UK and also for two Inside Housing campaigns.
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Rising too high
20/01/2012
Social housing rents for the majority of tenants in England are set to increase by at least 6.1 per cent from April - and in some cases much more.
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Crossing the line
13/01/2012
The government should be putting its money into homes, not high-speed vanity projects, argues Stuart Macdonald
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The fight against fraud
13/01/2012
Grant Shapps is not the first housing minister to take aim at unlawful sub-letters in social housing.
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The year ahead
06/01/2012
Stuart Macdonald takes a look at what 2012 could bring for the housing sector
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Looking ahead
16/12/2011
There have been many stories for which 2011 will be remembered by housing professionals, but one issue which has really dominated the headlines is welfare reform.
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Show your support
25/11/2011
One of the key aims of the Green Deal consultation, announced on Wednesday by energy secretary Chris Huhne, is to cut fuel poverty.
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Broader horizons
04/11/2011
Given the turmoil engulfing the Eurozone, this week might seem an odd time to predict the set up of a cross-border social landlord, but that is what happened at the International Housing Summit in Rotterdam.
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Fight fuel poverty
04/11/2011
The number of social tenants in fuel poverty could rise to 2.5 million across Britain if expected government sustainability reforms proceed.
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CIH reveals ‘radical’ new board
28/10/2011
The Chartered Institute of Housing has announced a ‘radical’ new 11-strong governing board which it hopes will enable it to better engage with members.
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The write stuff
28/10/2011
Figures published on Monday by the Ministry of Justice showed three-quarters of those charged with offences related to the summer’s riots were under 25.
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Armed for the future
21/10/2011
There were many topics of conversation buzzing round our inaugural parliamentary reception at the House of Lords on Monday, but a recurring theme was the future of arm’s-length management organisations.
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Worries on the rise
21/10/2011
I wrote last week of grim economic news and, unfortunately, this week has seen more of the same.
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A big deal
14/10/2011
It has been yet another week of grim economic news. Unemployment is at its highest level since 1994 and even if you are in work the flagging economy means real incomes are set to have fallen by 7 per cent by 2013.
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Value for money
14/10/2011
At a time when every penny of public money spent has to stand up to fierce scrutiny, ‘family intervention projects’ present a particularly strong case.
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Altered images
07/10/2011
‘Social housing, once a support for families working hard to give their children something better, has too often become a place of inter-generational worklessness, hopelessness and dependency.’
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Minister 'not for turning' on planning reforms
06/10/2011
Housebuilders are ‘crap’ at communicating their development plans to local communities and must show greater ‘maturity and restraint’ in where they build, according to a government minister.
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Council attacks benefit cap homelessness fears
06/10/2011
A central London council has hit out at claims that changes to housing benefit will force people onto the streets.
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IDS attacks social housing role in 'damaging' culture
03/10/2011
Social housing ‘too often’ plays a role in the creation of a ‘broken, damaging culture’ which led to this summer’s riots, according to the work and pensions secretary of state.
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Freud 'cynical' over landlords' direct payment plea
03/10/2011
The minister in charge of reforming the welfare system has poured cold water on hopes that social tenants could have the choice of paying their housing benefit direct to their landlord.
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Shapps pledges no net loss of homes with right to buy
03/10/2011
The housing minister has pledged that there will be no net loss of housing under the government’s revamped right to buy scheme announced at the Conservative party conference yesterday.
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A bad bargain
30/09/2011
‘Our first duty should be to help the person who shows responsibility.’ So said Labour Party leader Ed Miliband in his speech at his party’s conference in Liverpool this week.
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Circle 33 under watchdog’s eye
30/09/2011
The social housing regulator is monitoring a subsidiary of one of England’s largest housing associations after a major overspend on repairs and maintenance.
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Green team
23/09/2011
Empty homes, housing revenue account reform and evictions were the headline housing issues at this week’s Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham.
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Northern approach
23/09/2011
For a long time now it has been the policy of the Scottish National Party-led Scottish Government to claim it is taking the moral high road of investment in the country’s economy, while its English counterparts try to drag it down the low road of cuts and stagnation.
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Don’t bank it
16/09/2011
The feed-in tariff has been perhaps the most successful ‘green’ government initiative ever.
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Test the benefits
16/09/2011
The announcement by work and pensions minister Lord Freud this week at the National Housing Federation’s annual conference that he is launching six pilots to test the introduction of direct payment of housing benefit to tenants was a definite plus.
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DWP wants more landlords in work programme
14/09/2011
The Department for Work and Pensions has called for more housing associations to get involved in its £5 billion programme to help people off benefits and into employment.
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Most tenants want housing benefit paid direct to landlord
14/09/2011
Nine out of ten social housing tenants want their housing benefit to continue to be paid directly to their landlord a new study has shown.
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Join the debate
02/09/2011
As is now tradition, this week’s English bank holiday came complete with a housing scare story.
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Treasury asks housing sector for help
02/09/2011
Ministers are exploring whether the affordable house building programme can be used to boost the flagging economy, as part of an English housing strategy due to be published by Christmas.
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Be part of the solution
26/08/2011
After months of public climb-downs over ‘red line’ policy areas (student loans, health reforms, empty homes) it is good to see deputy prime minister Nick Clegg taking a stand over Supporting People funding.
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Swap shop danger
26/08/2011
Seasonal cheer was in short supply for a number of housing associations in the run-up to Christmas 2008. Shockwaves from the collapse of Lehman Brothers that September had finally reached the UK social housing sector, resulting in a series of sudden calls from lenders for more security against a type of loan known as a ‘stand alone swap’.
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Housing sector launches inquiry into English riots
19/08/2011
Social landlords and their communities are being asked to devise solutions that will help prevent a repeat of last week’s riots in England, as part of a major new study.
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Power to the people
19/08/2011
David Cameron this week pledged to lead a ‘social fightback’ against the rioters and looters that brought chaos to many parts of England.
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End this violence
12/08/2011
At the time of writing it is unclear when, but the rioting and looting that has blighted many parts of England this week will end.
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Unsung heroes
12/08/2011
Police and fire officers are rightly in the spotlight this week as they battle the rioters.
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Keep it real
05/08/2011
Sir Humphrey from TV’s Yes, Minister had a word which he would doubtless have used had he been a protagonist in this week’s front page story.
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Work it out
05/08/2011
On the face of it, the £5 billion work programme sounds as though it should be tailor-made for social landlords.
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DIY danger
15/07/2011
One of the key concerns highlighted in our ‘tenant cashback’ webinar on Wednesday was the impact on health and safety of the plan to pay tenants to carry out some of their own repairs.
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Fairer funding
08/07/2011
Confusing, unfair and unsustainable. This is the verdict from economist Andrew Dilnot of England’s adult social care system in his eponymous review published on Monday.
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Looming deadline
08/07/2011
Overhauling the way England pays to build affordable housing was never going to be straightforward, even with a spending pot half the size of previous years.
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Direct solution
24/06/2011
There have been a few tears shed this week as the annual Chartered Institute of Housing conference and exhibition bids farewell to Harrogate after 29 years and moves to Manchester in 2012.
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Jump on board
24/06/2011
‘Get on our land!’ may not seem the most likely rallying cry for the housing industry, but we at Inside Housing believe that it is the most important.
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People power
17/06/2011
In one sense, the headline finding from our exclusive poll with Ipsos Mori this week that three in five people oppose housing benefit cuts if the result is increased homelessness is good news.
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Déjà vu
10/06/2011
One of the successes of the housing sector during this economic slump has been that far fewer households have been made homeless than in the last recession in the early 1990s.
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Tales of the inspected
10/06/2011
In his speech in June last year to the Chartered Institute of Housing’s annual conference, the housing minister pledged to ‘cut out unnecessary inspection’ and instead promote ‘tenant empowerment’ through tenant scrutiny panels.
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Take care
03/06/2011
The travails of private residential care home provider Southern Cross have hit the business headlines in recent weeks.
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Glowing examples
27/05/2011
Three reasons to be cheerful this past week: the Housing Heroes Awards last Friday; the announcement of the final five in the Rising Stars competition we are helping the Chartered Institute of Housing to run; and a possible end to so-called ‘suicide bidding’ by repairs and maintenance contractors.
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Selling out
27/05/2011
In July 2008, the scale of the mess that many developing housing associations had gotten into was becoming horribly apparent.
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Take a stand
13/05/2011
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg this week called on his party to ‘take a long hard look at ourselves’ and deliver a more ‘muscular liberalism’ following the ‘bloody nose’ given by voters.
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Court off guard
28/04/2011
The stated aim of the current Home Office consultation document on anti-social behaviour is to ‘…help professionals and, where necessary the courts, stop anti-social behaviour earlier, and better protect victims and communities’.