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From the archive – ASB tsar hits out at associations

Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week five, 15 and 25 years ago

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25 years ago this week: Housing welfare services thought to be under threat as government trailed potential changes to guidance on Housing Revenue Account expenditure #ukhousing

15 years ago this week: Government’s ASB tsar said councils were outperforming housing associations when it came to tackling nuisance neighbours #ukhousing

Five years ago this week: English councils slashed funding for support services for single homeless people by more than a quarter since the previous general election #ukhousing

25 years ago

Housing welfare services were thought to be under threat as the government trailed potential changes to its guidance on Housing Revenue Account (HRA) expenditure.

A draft circular from the Department of Environment appeared to reverse previous advice to councils by suggesting that care services could only be charged to the HRA if they were “incidental” to a housing manager’s work.

However, the Association of District Councils claimed that this new interpretation misunderstood local authorities’ housing welfare role.

The draft guidance also proposed that the HRA should bear the costs of large-scale voluntary transfer preparation if the transfer failed.

The Chartered Institute of Housing said that councils’ general funds “should bear at least part of any abortive costs”.

15 years ago

The government’s anti-social behaviour (ASB) ‘tsar’ told Inside Housing that councils were outperforming housing associations when it came to tackling nuisance neighbours.

Louise Casey, the head of the Home Office’s ASB unit, blamed the “culture” at housing associations for their inaction, and warned them that they needed to match the performance of local authorities.

“It is mainly because local authority housing departments have had years to deal with nuisance neighbours,” she said. “It’s the culture of many local authorities to deal with neighbour nuisance. There’s not the same culture at housing associations.”

Tom Manion, chief executive of Irwell Valley Homes, rejected Ms Casey’s claims, saying he saw no evidence of a gap between housing associations and councils on the issue. “She should produce the evidence to prove it,” he added.

Ms Casey was speaking as the government unveiled a range of new ASB measures, including the power to demote anti-social tenants to less secure tenancies and to remove the Right to Buy.

Picture: Getty

Five years ago

An Inside Housing investigation found that English councils had slashed funding for support services for single homeless people by more than a quarter since the previous general election four years earlier.

Responses to a Freedom of Information Act request showed that 77 authorities cut a total of £34m from their housing-related support budgets for homeless individuals between 2010/11 and 2013/14 – a drop of 26%. The findings added to fears that councils were slashing non-statutory services to shore up their budgets in the face of funding cuts.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, head of policy and campaigns at Crisis, said: “Single homeless people don’t do well most of the time [regarding funding]. They are not a politically popular group.”

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