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Short on time? Friday’s housing news in five minutes

A round-up of the top stories this morning from Inside Housing and elsewhere

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A round-up of the top stories this morning from @insidehousing and elsewhere #ukhousing

Catch up on the latest housing stories in less than five minutes #ukhousing

Top story: Luxury hotel and property developer registers for-profit housing association

Inside Housing has this morning revealed that a London-based developer of luxury housing and hotels has set up a for-profit housing association arm.

Dholak Partnership Homes has been registered as a for-profit provider of social housing by the regulator and will become the housing association arm of large developer Westcombe Group. The group describes itself as one of “London’s foremost developers specialising in luxury refurbishments”.

It is the latest private developer to register a company as a social landlord after multibillion-pound property empire William Pears Group last year registered its MTD Housing business as a social landlord.

Click here to read the full story

Ombudsman warns councils over ‘mistakes’ with housing benefit appeals

An eye-catching new report highlights the mistakes councils have made over housing benefit that left some families homeless.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s report reveals that nearly eight out of 10 cases appealed have been upheld.

Nigel Ellis, the ombudsman’s chief executive, said: “Some of our most vulnerable families are refused a fair hearing by having their rights to appeal their council’s decision taken away.”

Click here to read the full story

Lunchtime long read

Lunchtime long read

Illustration by Jon Heal

We’ve rounded up all the biggest events in the sector from the past 10 years, from the Grenfell Tower disaster to the scrapping of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap.

Click here to read the full analysis

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

“It is the individual horror stories that really bring home the scale of the problems.”

Jules Birch writing for Inside Housing on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s report.

Click here to read the comment piece

In the papers

In the papers

Picture: Getty

Leasehold homeowners hoping to buy their freehold could be in line to save tens of thousands of pounds under proposed new reforms, The Times reports.

Plans drawn up by the Law Commission detail ways to make it cheaper and simpler to extend a lease or buy the freehold.

The commission was asked by the government to review the situation following the high-profile scandal around new builds sold as leaseholds.

However, The Guardian carries a story on the same proposals quoting campaigners who say the suggestions are “nothing more than tinkering”.

Class in the UK is now defined by housing wealth – those who make money from property and those who do not – according to an opinion piece by The i’s housing correspondent.

Local news

Local news

Picture: Getty

Plans for a new 28-storey tower close to the River Thames have been given the green light despite concerns over its height and lack of affordable housing.

The Ravensbourne Wharf project, which includes 129 flats, was approved by Greenwich Council’s planning board this week. Twenty-six of the units, on the banks of Greenwich’s Deptford Creek, will be classified as London Living Rent, the News Shopper website reports.

A council’s revised new local plan has been given the go-ahead after earlier plans for a new village were scrapped.

Bedford Borough Council’s local plan, which includes proposals for around 4,000 homes, was approved by the authority's executive, the BBC reports.

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