The Week in Housing: Future Homes Standard revealed as government mulls fire safety changes

At the same time, the government is mulling changes that would see all new high-rise blocks taller than 18 metres needing at least two evacuation lifts under planned changes to building regulations.

There will also be mandatory certification for fire risk assessors, 18 months after this was recommended in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report.

These changes come as the latest report from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) showed more than 250 social housing blocks with life-critical safety defects will wait up to a decade before remediation work can take place, representing one in seven of the most at-risk buildings.

The RSH also revealed at a conference this week that it will look to refresh its economic standards over the coming months to ensure the regime is “agile and modern”.

Under the English regulator’s consumer regime, one landlord was found to be non-compliant, and a council in Surrey has become the first to return from a non-compliant grade to a C1.

Inside Housing published an interview with Sarah King, leader of Southwark Council, in which she discussed its C3 grading, regeneration and making housing an “absolute priority”.

Ms King also wrote in Inside Housing about what needs to be done to secure the future of council housing.

In Scotland, the regulator reported that social landlords experienced an improvement in their finances last year, including a combined 37% rise in operating surplus.

The National Housing Federation published a new report that takes stock of where the sector is currently on artificial intelligence.

Lord Gascoigne, chair of the Built Environment Committee, set out how a new House of Lords report investigated the human side of the New Towns Programme. The report called for national leadership to oversee new towns, including an independent body and cabinet-level minister.

It comes as the government cut its new town shortlist to seven sites and confirmed the chair and chief executive of the National Housing Bank ahead of its launch next month.

A separate report from the National Audit Office found that incomplete data from social landlords on shared ownership is hindering the government’s ability to assess the model’s affordability and performance.

Rising service charges for shared owners have had a big impact on affordability. For landlords, a new analysis found that they are facing a service charge deficit of £600m a year, as only 78% of the costs are being recovered.

In Wales, the government agreed loans worth £45m with five landlords under a low-interest funding scheme for the sector.

Concern remains in Northern Ireland that the assembly’s decision to allow housing developers to pay for much-needed improvement to the region’s wastewater infrastructure will end up as a “de facto tax” on buyers.

Some developer contributions are being suspended in London. Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan confirmed a package of emergency measures to kick-start housebuilding in the capital, including temporary relief for developers from the Community Infrastructure Levy.

For the first time, new research mapped the scale of the homelessness workforce. It found a number of challenges, including high workloads and funding uncertainty.

And a timely new report set out how student loan debt could be converted into a shared equity stake held by the government to help young people access the housing ladder.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

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