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What has the housing sector been tweeting about this month? Inside Housing’s latest round-up by Jess McCabe
The future of Croydon Council’s troubled housebuilding company Brick by Brick is unclear. But the council looks set to buy some 104 flats developed by the business it set up for £30m. This prompted an enlightening debate on Twitter about how and why this deal is occurring, and whether Croydon taxpayers are getting value for money.
Queen Mary economics lecturer @Penny_Dropping asked why Croydon had to buy back flats financed by council loans and “built on council owned land”.
Croydon Council are proposing to spend £30m buying 104 flats from their local housing company brick by brick. These flats were financed by loans taken on by the council and built on council owned land\uD83D\uDE27@InsideCroydon https://t.co/SRtSoNzaE5
— Joe Penny (@Penny_Dropping) May 18, 2021
@CroydonSean (Labour councillor Sean Fitzsimons) responded: “It’s a good deal and will help provide secure council homes for over 100 Croydon families, and save taxpayers from paying out higher costs to private landlords who provide temporary accommodation. Plus the rents the new council tenants pay covers the interest cost of purchase.”
All councils with building arms will have to buy homes from themselves under rules relating to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Mr Fitzsimons noted, although he did acknowledge that Croydon could and probably should have reviewed its arrangement with Brick by Brick when changes to HRA rules came in. The questioning wasn’t over though, as @wheatley_martin (Martin Wheatley, board member at Greatwell Homes) chimed in to note: “Accepting that HRA has to pay a fair price, £290k a pop seems a lot when (Rightmove) leasehold properties in Croydon council blocks available for £150-£250k. If HRA can afford £30m why not buy those up instead?”
Mr Fitzsimons was able to come back and explain that Croydon has bought similar ex-council homes up separately, many of the homes are adapted for disabled people, and should have lower maintenance costs. Whether you’re convinced or not, this was an example of Twitter at its best, allowing a thorough and open discussion of a council’s policy in a forum where all can learn more and engage.
In another example of ‘helpful Twitter’, Sam Bowman (@s8mb), director of competition policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, posted a lengthy but informative thread about where and how the government’s policy has gone wrong on reforming English planning.
1/ The govt's planning reforms are doomed.
— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) May 13, 2021
They're already crap, and they're probably going to get worse. And they've been done so naively that what the govt is doing now is probably going to set back the cause of housing reform by another ten years.
Thread:
He analysed the political naivety of attempting to allow more building on the green belt and increasing housing targets (“Even MPs who are normally pro-development & pro-reform opposed these proposals. They were DOA,” he noted), leaving only zoning on the table.
And, in a third example of useful Twitter, a plan by Lord Willie Haughey to build affordable housing in Glasgow celebrated in the local press and on Twitter came under informed scrutiny over the rents to be charged.
@DavidGWSF, or David Bookbinder, director of Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing queried this given it is “roughly double current rents”.
In Cardiff, the Welsh government has appointed @JulieJamesMS as climate change minister – to head up a new ministry that includes housing in its remit. This is a bit of a gift for Twitter’s followers of housing politics, as Ms James has not only her personal Twitter handle (pictured), but @WG_Communities as an official account as well. The name hasn’t been updated at the time of writing to account for the name of the new ministry.
The Housing Quality Network (HQN) announced the shortlist to its Next Generation competition, but @LaraOyedele drew attention to the fact that all 20 finalists appeared to be white, by tweeting, “There is obviously a shortage of young Black professionals in #ukhousing,” prompting many replies and discussions of how it happened. Ultimately the social media scrutiny bore fruit, as HQN posted an apology and reopened entries to the competition.
Baby, above, is owned by South Yorkshire Housing Association’s (@SYorksHA) volunteering manager James Smith (@JamesSmith1107),and hit housing Twitter because of a side hustle as a therapy dog visiting residents during Mental Health Awareness Week.
@humans_of_theCS – new account which is gathering individual stories of the impact of the cladding scandal
@LucyMPowell – Labour’s new shadow housing secretary, already tweeting often about the cladding scandal
@adequatehousing – Balakrishnan Rajagopal, United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing – for an international perspective on affordable housing issues
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