Affordable homes to raise housing benefit bill

Costs and benefits

Scrapping Audit Commission was ‘missed opportunity’

The sudden abolition of the Audit Commission was a ‘missed opportunity’ to reassess how the performance of local authorities is monitored, a committee of MPs has found.

Trapped in their own home

Delays to home adaptations are leaving older and disabled tenants living in unsuitable and often degrading conditions for years at a time. So is the disabled facilities grant failing vulnerable people? Martin Hilditch investigates.

ECO subsidy threat to low-income tenants

Money raised from energy bills to subsidise the government’s national retrofit programme could exacerbate fuel poverty for thousands of low-income households, an independent report has warned.

SALE! (while stocks last)

The government hopes a renewed push on the right to buy will trigger a building boom. Gavriel Hollander examines the latest proposals and asks whether they can deliver

Pie in the sky?

Is cloud computing a ray of light or a gathering storm? Alison Deighton, data protection expert at law firm TLT, takes up the case

Where next for the green deal?

As the government ponders its response to the green deal consultation, Bill Hull, from law firm TLT, examines the key areas of interest for registered providers

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

Pause for thought

Consider the drawbacks before becoming a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, warns Anne Swarbrick, head of charities at Anderson Strathern Solicitors

Going spare

The government’s contentious ‘bedroom tax’ on under-occupying tenants is set to become law this month. Alex Turner looks at the disproportionate effect it’s likely to have in the north