The Week in Housing: Fraud, regulatory judgements, and new guidance on sustainability and financial reporting
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The Week in Housing: Fraud, regulatory judgements, and new guidance on sustainability and financial reporting #UKhousingGood afternoon.
Among Inside Housing’s most-read stories of the week were reports of regulatory and governance issues, and instances of fraud.
First, a woman was ordered to pay £14,470 for illegally subletting her Bedfordshire social home for more than a year while living elsewhere.
This came before government confirmation that cases relating to contracts awarded on two major government retrofit schemes have been referred to the Serious Fraud Office.
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) awarded two landlords the highest consumer grade in its latest round of judgements.
The RSH release also showed that a council in South Essex has become the seventh local authority to receive the lowest consumer standards grade.
Fiona MacGregor, chief executive of the RSH, spoke to Inside Housing about her decision to step down after a decade leading the organisation, and shared her thoughts on the consumer standards, the impact of Grenfell, and new development.
Read more
An updated Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) was published following a consultation on the proposed amendments.
This SORP update aims to mark changes to national accounting rules, principally FRS 102, as well as a range of accounting issues that have emerged for housing associations in recent years.
It came alongside an updated version of the Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) for Social Housing, published by Sustainability for Housing (SfH).
SfH said the new version of the standard, SRS v2.1, includes “relatively minor” changes to the reporting process, which are designed to enhance the effectiveness of the voluntary framework and strengthen the sector’s ability to report on its environmental, social and governance performance.
On procurement, Inside Housing took a deep dive into five years of procurement data from the country’s biggest framework providers to show how the market has changed, and what is in the pipeline. You can read our ‘3 things we learned’ here.
The new chair of the Scottish Procurement Alliance’s advisory committee warned this week that a lack of skilled procurement workers is a “major challenge” for the country’s public sector.
New research by a law firm found that more than 85,000 homelessness applications across England and Wales were linked to relationship breakdown in the past five years.
Homeless households face long stays in temporary accommodation, but the government has not always been tracking the make-up of these homes.
It has now published new data that reveals a hidden population of children in temporary B&B accommodation, following an Inside Housing investigation.
Shelter has called on the government to remove £29bn of historic housing debt from council books, as it believes this is preventing social homes from being built.
This ask comes ahead of a national demonstration tomorrow, which will see dozens of organisations march across the capital to call for rent controls and more investment in council housing.
It is being led by renters and trade unions, plus campaign groups including Grenfell United, Defend Council Housing and Generation Rent.
In Wales, Housing Futures Cymru wants better housing options for young people, and Senedd members are being urged to pass stronger measures to challenge unfair rent hikes, including a tribunal system to stop increases that are higher than market levels.
The housing minister faced calls from MPs to expand a scheme that helps young people leaving care to cover rental deposits, alongside the introduction of a Rent to Buy programme.
It comes as new research found that the previous government’s Help to Buy scheme had “limited impact” on social mobility and mostly helped higher-income households.
Members of the House of Lords have demanded justice for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and a new law for corporate crimes as a bill to allow public spending on a memorial at the site passed through its second reading.
Have a great weekend.
Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk
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