From the archive - week of 8 May

25 years ago

South Shropshire District Council was in the headlines for becoming the first local authority to transfer management of its housing to a council-formed housing association.

It had also won approval for the transfer of ownership of homes to the association as they became vacant.

The new landlord, South Shropshire Housing Association, was expected to acquire up to 40 council homes over 10 years as part of the transfer. It had also signed a contract to manage the local authority’s 1,750 homes.

Chief executive Martin Holland said it could be a precursor to the transfer of the council’s entire stock.

“The council felt it would not want to go for a full voluntary transfer at this stage without giving residents experience of housing association management,” he said.

15 years ago

In his role as housing minister, Lord Falconer was floating the idea of a new national body to ensure the delivery of affordable housing in England. His comments were seen as a reaction to a growing perception that existing organisations were failing to meet the day’s challenges.

The same week, Lord Falconer launched measures to ensure landlords pay more than lip service to tenants’ participation while the government listened to their views.

Initiatives included a ‘sounding board’ for direct communication between tenants and ministers, a review of the national framework for tenant compacts, and new guidance on resolving disputes between councils and tenants.

Meanwhile, the government was rejecting a call from the Transport, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee to suspend the Right to Buy in low-demand areas to stop speculative bids in regeneration areas. The proposal was part of a committee report on empty homes.

The response said: “It would be unfair to tenants if a council introduced such a restriction before a clearance scheme had been properly planned and costed.”

Five years ago

Housing minister Grant Shapps warned 20 councils to improve the way they dealt with homeless people after he became concerned about the amount of time families were left in bed and breakfast accommodation.

He wrote to the local authorities after becoming worried they were breaching rules barring them from placing families in B&Bs for more than six weeks.

Nigel Minto, head of housing at London Councils, said welfare reforms including Local Housing Allowance caps had led to a drop in affordable private rented stock.

Department for Communities and Local Government figures showed a 37% increase in B&B placements, from 2,310 households in the last quarter of 2010 to 3,170 in the same period in 2011.