The Week in Housing: build, baby, building an unaffordable city with declining nightlife

A song about declining music venues in Los Angeles. In London, one in five bars and clubs have shut since 2020. Build, baby, build.

For the lower affordable figure, the leaked memo said “the key test is that developers welcome the package strongly on the day”.

There is a problem with the housing market. Build costs up, buyer demand, building safety delays. Housebuilding is less profitable. But the top 10 house builders still made a combined profit of around £3.5bn last year.

This is around £700m more than English councils are spending on temporary accommodation. The leaked memo came out a day before the latest homelessness figures revealed that the total number of children in temporary accommodation in England has risen to more than 172,000.

As increasing numbers of families turn to councils for help, the pressure is leaving them facing unsustainable costs. In London alone, research this week revealed a £740m temporary accommodation shortfall.

Councils are at risk of going bankrupt. The country’s biggest developers are not. So they may welcome the affordable target being cut, but the real test will be in construction starts and homelessness statistics.

London is the worst affected area in the country. More than 97,000 children in the city are homeless in temporary accommodation, around one child in every classroom, and nearly half (46%) of all households are housed out of their local area.

Just 347 new affordable homes have been started in the capital since April. So it will take 280 years at this rate to find all those children a permanent affordable home. Let’s also not forget that Sadiq Khan was elected with a promise of a 50% affordable housing target. 

No amount of planning reform or speeding up the buying process, despite what the government appears to think, will do anything to address the fact that an average London home now costs 11.5 times the typical household income, and the average rent in the capital is more than £2,500.

This cost of living crisis is why leaders of 40 groups across the housing sector have called on the government to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance rates for the next year to help reduce homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation.

Councils are not the only organisations under pressure. New research has found that people experiencing homelessness in London are increasingly turning to hospitals for help due to the limited number of councils offering walk-in services.

Inside Housing also sifted through the responses to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s inquiry into housing conditions across the social, private and temporary accommodation tenures.

These revealed support for backing the extension of “decency requirements” for temporary accommodation, and charities stressing “appalling” conditions in the sub-sector.

The National Audit Office published its report digging into the failures of a government-backed energy efficiency scheme which saw 23,000 homes fitted with external wall insulation.

Staggeringly, 98% of the homes retrofitted under the programme have major defects, with “widespread quality failings” and possible fraud also uncovered.

Meanwhile, at a conference by charity Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, Paula Barker, a Labour MP and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness, called on the government to provide furnished tenancies in social homes for domestic abuse survivors.

Speaking to Inside Housing afterwards, Ms Barker said she hoped the government would update guidance for social housing providers to let 10% of homes as furnished, to ensure that tenants across all housing tenures have access to “basic furniture they need to thrive”.

As mergers continue, there were some reminders that joining forces can prove tricky. Speaking at a National Housing Federation panel discussion in London, Vimal Gaglani, director of treasury and financial planning at Abri, discussed taking on non-compliant landlord Octavia.

Mr Gaglani highlighted that the organisation represented less than 10% of the group, but took “probably about 90% of our time”, because of the issues Octavia had. It followed news that Abri had taken a hit to its operating margin of nearly a third after the merger.

At the panel, the Regulator of Social Housing encouraged associations to get in touch about potential tie-ups, while housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway also had some words of warning.

He told a parliamentary inquiry that the impact of devolution on local councils and how the model used to merge by some associations could lead to future housing issues.

Regular contributor Jules Birch also tackled “merger mania” in his column this week, arguing that while there are benefits to being a bigger, stronger landlord, it is important not to lose sight of what can get lost in the process.

On the regulatory front, Canterbury City Council was handed a non-compliant grade by the English regulator, alongside four landlords that were judged to be compliant with the consumer standards.

In Wales, housing bodies have called for above-inflation funding uplifts for housing amid uncertainty about allocations in the government Budget for next year. 

There were several senior appointments, as well as news that the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland is searching for a new national director after the incumbent will be leaving the organisation at the end of the year to take up a new opportunity outside the housing sector.

Large retirement developer McCarthy Stone announced that its chief executive John Tonkiss will step down at the end of November.

And the Wirral’s largest social landlord revealed a new permanent chief executive officer.

Inside Housing also attended the annual Housing Diversity Network conference, and rounded up the key talking points here.

To mark this Black History Month, Inside Housing looked back at the Race Relations Act to consider the legacy of the first anti-racism law in England.

We also asked: Why are hundreds of existing buildings stuck waiting for approval to make them safe?

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk

Editor’s picks – five stories you may have missed:

Uptick in build-to-rent deals as investors buy up existing flats

Hyde applies to register four new for-profit providers

For-profit buys homes in high-rise London tower

Scottish landlord steps up housebuilding activity with £43m investment programme

London council proposes pause on student housing developments