The Week in Housing: homes for salmon farm workers, and Welsh legal dispute rumbles on

In Scotland, a salmon farming business has taken development into its own hands. It plans to build 56 temporary housing units near its hatcheries due to a lack of local homes for staff.

Plus, a new survey by the regulator in Scotland revealed one-third of Scottish social housing tenants lack confidence that their landlord will fix damp and mould problems.

There was a lot to take in on the legal and regulatory front, after several judgements and prosecutions.

A developer and its director were sentenced in court following serious breaches of fire safety law at a luxury office-to-homes conversion in East Anglia.

This followed the case of a man who lied to get a council home and then tried to upgrade to a bigger property. He was sentenced after a successful prosecution by a north London council.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) rated five local authorities non-compliant because of “serious failings” on issues from repairs to data. The RSH handed down regulatory judgements for 18 further landlords, related to their governance, financial viability and consumer standards.

The RSH also appointed three board members to non-compliant landlord Ash-Shahada Housing Association (ASHA). ASHA, which provides social housing in London and supported exempt accommodation in Birmingham, was found non-compliant with the RSH’s Governance and Financial Viability Standard in 2021.

At the same time, a government-backed advice service warned that leaseholders were still being hit with spiralling bills for major building works, without proper warning or input.

Inside Housing delved into the scale of the not-so-temporary accommodation crisis, after newly published government figures shed light on the number of households living in this type of housing for five or more years.

One regular commentator asked what the rise in ‘nightly paid’ temporary accommodation really meant, and what Labour was doing to stop it.

We spoke to the head of delivery at Peabody about getting into a development career, and how to attract more women and girls into the construction sector.

This came alongside a deep dive into the later-living sector. Estimates suggest the UK needs between 30,000 and 50,000 new later-living homes a year, but is currently building just 7,000. Inside Housing spoke to CBRE’s head of senior living and healthcare to find out what is holding the sector back.

For co-living, an interesting report identified why the market faces investment barriers and reputational concerns.

One major landlord revealed that it had brought in £20m from disposing of its market rent properties as it moves to leave the sector and focus on social and affordable housing.

Large retirement developer McCarthy Stone said it wanted to remove “friction and complexity” around selling its homes, after MPs asked for data on resale values.

In Northern Ireland, it was revealed that housing associations plan to start 8,000 social homes over the next three years, and new data shows which landlords have the biggest pipelines and where homes will be built.

Building safety problems continue to cause huge remediation bills for developers and displace residents so work can begin.

More than 550 households will have to leave their homes after Brighton and Hove councillors agreed to demolish eight tower blocks because of safety concerns.

At the same time, Bristol City Council is launching an inquiry into its evacuation of hundreds of people from a tower block in 2023, following strong criticism from residents and campaigners.

And major house builder Taylor Wimpey slumped to a pre-tax loss of £92m after setting aside £222m to fix fire safety defects that were recently discovered in its buildings.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

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