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From the archive - homelessness hits a record high

Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week 10, 20 and 30 years ago

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From the archive - homelessness hits a record high #ukhousing

This week 30 years ago, homelessness was in the headlines #ukhousing

From the archive - a shortage of family homes

30 years ago

1987 was a record-breaking year for negative homelessness statistics, and Inside Housing started the New Year by warning that worse was to come.

A total of 8,500 homeless families were in London B&Bs and 19,000 in all forms of temporary housing. Readers will note that these statistics would be viewed differently 20 years later, as in 2017 54,660 homeless London families were in temporary accommodation. But the drivers of homelessness will be more familiar.

A report by the London Housing Unit predicted that rents would become so high that benefit payments wouldn’t cover them; that Londoners on low and moderate incomes would have to spend more of their income on housing; that large groups would be too poor to live in parts of London; and that housing benefit would only allow people to rent poor-quality housing.

20 years ago

Gay couples were expected to gain the right of tenancy succession for the first time, Inside Housing reported, after the Law Commission began a review of the Rent Act.

The government had promised to change the law following a case in which a tenant called Martin Fitzpatrick had been told by Sterling Housing Association that he could not inherit the assured tenancy of his partner’s flat after his death. Mr Fitzpatrick, who was a former Royal Navy serviceman, had lived with his partner for 20 years. The Court of Appeal case had been lost in 1997 but three appeals court judges had demanded reform of the Rent Act 1997 to update the law.

Solicitor Will Rolt, who represented Mr Fitzpatrick, hoped the Law Commission’s review was likely to be the vehicle for the change. However, it ultimately took a further appeal to the House of Lords the next year to gain redress. In 1999 the Law Lords ruled 3-2 that Mr Fitzpatrick was a member of his partner’s family for the purposes of the Rent Act. Lord Nicholls said “there can be no rational or other basis” for discrimination against same-sex couples.

Inside Housing's front page in January 2008
Inside Housing's front page in January 2008

10 years ago

A shortage of family homes was being made worse as the vast majority of new homes being built were one and two-bedroom flats, Inside Housing revealed after a survey of 33 English councils.

Most new build affordable and private housing was small flats, and the problem was worse in overcrowded councils. Tower Hamlets, at the time called “the most overcrowded borough in the most overcrowded city” by London Councils, added 923 affordable one and two-bedroom homes, but 124 family-sized homes. The figures for private sale homes were even more striking, with 1,615 one or two-bed homes and 68 family-sized homes.

No family-sized housing of any tenure was built in two out of the previous three years in Watford.

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