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The Week in Housing: Election results and housing, landmark court ruling on exempt housing benefits, and concern over commonhold and MEES
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The Week in Housing: Election results and housing, landmark court ruling on exempt housing benefits, and concern over commonhold and MEES #UKhousingA weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals #UKhousingGood afternoon.
It was a week with significant implications for housing, with elections in Scotland and Wales and local elections in England shaking up the political landscape.
As Labour admitted it is not going to form the next Welsh government, our interview with Stuart Ropke, chief executive of Community Housing Cymru, explores what the implications of such a historic change are likely to be for the sector.
Our election round-ups in Scotland and Wales also give a detailed rundown of the housing pledges made in the run-up to the elections and what they might now mean for the future.
We also ran an exclusive interview with Zoë Garbett, who landed one of the Green Party’s most eye-catching results of the election in England, as she was elected Hackney mayor by a landslide – a significant moment for the Green Party in London, which the BBC referred to as “nothing less than a political earthquake”.
And there was another landmark moment in England this week, when a High Court judge ruled that a non-compliant provider’s attempt to claim exempt housing benefits was “taking advantage” of the system for profit.
With leasehold reform high on the government’s agenda, the G15 group of housing associations issued a warning that the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill could restrict new supply due to increased regulatory risk.
Another G15 member also warned that meeting new energy efficiency requirements could raise building safety issues and come at a “huge cost” to leaseholders.
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The announcement of which bids to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) have been successful appears to be imminent, with Homes England’s affordable housing delivery chief revealing that its new strategic partners will be announced in the summer.
This followed an interesting idea by the Fabian Society, which called for the government to do more to help alleviate the construction skills crisis by providing “surge” funding to local authorities and housing associations via the SAHP during downturns in private housebuilding.
As the Renters’ Rights Act came into law earlier this month, we reported on another significant change this week, with non-tenants given the power to complain to the care ombudsman over social housing.
After receiving a Section 21 notice the day before the act came into effect, a housing solicitor has argued that while it delivers better legislation on paper, justice remains out of reach for most renters.
There was more news on the regulatory front in Scotland: the Scottish Housing Regulator published an updated plan aimed at strengthening the role of tenants in its processes.
In England, landlords were warned that those that perform poorly on safety indicators in the tenant satisfaction measures will face questions from the Regulator of Social Housing.
Shared ownership residents’ groups welcomed news that the Greater London Authority will explore why service charges are getting more expensive in the capital.
A new update by the Building Safety Regulator revealed it had approved over 12,000 housing units via its Gateway 2 process in the past 12 weeks, with an approval rate of 71%.
There was lots of development news, as a collective of landlords in North Yorkshire unveiled plans to build 60,000 new homes, including 25,000 described as “genuinely affordable” over the next 10 years.
Social housing starts in Northern Ireland in 2025-26 were up 17%, with 1,765 new homes started up to the end of March, although fears remain over whether the Housing Executive can meet its longer-term target.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Caledonia Housing Association set out a five-year plan to build 500 new homes and invest £30m in existing stock.
Plus, L&Q reported that its affordable home completions dropped by a fifth in the past year, while starts more than doubled.
This trading update came after new research by housing association English Rural has sought to “dismantle” the myth that rural housing costs more to run, in a bid to boost development.
Following our exclusive report on the scale of anti-immigrant misinformation in housing, the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing urged the sector to “stay focused on the evidence” when looking to find solutions for the housing crisis.
Also this week, Inside Housing exclusively revealed that more than 9,000 homes for military service personnel are lying empty.
Our sister publication, Inside Housing Living, sat down for an in-depth chat with Andy Hulme, chief executive of Hyde, and Shaun Holdcroft, head of affordable housing at Legal & General. Here are our five big takeaways.
Our big housing association interview this week was with Midland Heart’s chief executive Glenn Harris, who explained why the landlord is always looking for more scrutiny, from its tenants and the regulator alike.
And with hotter summers seemingly here to stay, we found out what social landlords are doing to beat the heat.
Inside Housing also published our monthly round-up of top-level housing sector appointments, detailing the main moves in April 2026.
Have a good weekend.
Gavriel Hollander, deputy news editor (maternity cover), Inside Housing
Say hello: gavriel.hollander@insidehousing.co.uk
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