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From the archive: Macpherson report criticises housing authorities
Inside Housing takes a look at what was happening in the sector this week 10, 20 and 30 years ago
30 years ago
The government agreed to a £3m national survey of house conditions in Scotland to be carried out by 1991.
The news was seen as a major win for the sector and was greeted with cheers by delegates at the Institute of Housing’s conference in Aviemore, many of whom had campaigned for years for such a survey.
Previously, data on house conditions in Scotland had only been gathered by district councils.
The survey was set to be carried out at the same time as the next English and Welsh surveys and would allow “valid comparisons” to be made between different areas of the country, according to Scottish Office minister Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.
The survey was to be carried out by the newly established agency Scottish Homes, which would look at homes in both the public and private sectors.
20 years ago
The publication of the report into the police’s handling of the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence saw housing authorities come under fire for their “slow and bureaucratic” response when it came to handling racist incidents.
While Sir William Macpherson’s report reserved most of its criticism for the police, it said that “other agencies did not or would not realise the impact of less serious, non-crime incidents upon the minority of ethnic communities”.
The report, which offered 70 recommendations, added: “The same message was consistent and clear in relation to the complaints of minority ethnic communities in the field of housing and education.
“Too often housing departments were seen to be slow and bureaucratic in their response to racist behaviour.”
Toby Harris, chair of the Association of London Government, warned that institutional racism was not confined to the police service.
He said: “Most London councils have improved their policies to tackle racism and have made tremendous progress in recent years, but we cannot be complacent.”
Picture: Guzelian
10 years ago
Inside Housing was assessing the affect of the financial crash on the sector and that 50 associations expected to suffer from write-downs due to plunging land values in its 2008/09 accounts.
The threat of impairment was concentrated on associations with significant land banks or with unsold shared ownership homes. Figures from the regulator revealed that English housing associations had land banks valued at £1.4bn, with half of that value concentrated in London.
The Tenant Services Authority said that it feared write-downs could cause landlords to break covenants in their loan agreements.
David Montague (above), chief executive of L&Q, said that it would be making “a provision” in its accounts due to falling land values.
