The Week in Housing: Labour’s first King’s Speech

Ahead of the King’s Speech, and in the theme of the English Devolution Bill, new housing secretary Angela Rayner offered to devolve housing to all county and unitary council leaders who currently have a devolution deal.

The plans cannot come to fruition soon enough, given the stark statistics that came out of the English Housing Survey this week. The figures showed that 512,000 households across the social and private rented sectors have experienced homelessness in the past few years. 

Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, urged the new government to use the next 100 days to establish an ‘office for ending homelessness’, “backed by the prime minister and sitting at the heart of government”. 

Activist Kwajo Tweneboa spoke to Inside Housing about his first book, out this week, Our Country in Crisis: Britain’s Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild. The book is a call to action to fix social housing (and, while he is at it, fix the rest of the housing market).

Lloyds Banking Group unveiled a new investment model that proposes to repurpose government funding towards building new social housing, while reducing the cost of providing housing benefits.

The Social Housing Contract would provide a payment to landlords, additional to their rental payment, linked to homes being made available for social rent. The model was detailed in a white paper released as part of the one-year anniversary of Lloyds’ social housing initiative.

Lloyds also revealed plans to redevelop parts of its estate and announced an additional £200m of investment into the housing sector.

Elsewhere, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) published a review of its consumer regulation work in 2023-24, warning landlords that they “must take their responsibilities seriously and provide safe and decent homes for their tenants”. The review, which covers the year up to when the new, more stringent consumer regulation regime came into effect on 1 April, included nine case studies of social landlords breaching standards, all of which were councils.

The English regulator said the report provided “important learnings” for both councils and housing associations, which they can use to “strengthen their approach to delivering the outcomes” in its consumer standards.

It also emerged that the RSH is investigating small Merseyside landlord Ravenscroft Re-build Co-operative for potential “serious failings” in governance and financial viability.

The Housing Ombudsman highlighted 14 landlords which failed to comply with complaint-handling orders in the last quarter. The watchdog urged landlords to adopt a more “ethical complaint culture” as it reported the highest rate of non-compliance ever recorded.

We reported on the inquest into the death of a five-year-old autistic girl who died after falling into a canal by her Peabody-owned home in Islington. The coroner said she will issue a prevention of future deaths report to the housing association, raising concerns about its culture, after it emerged it knew the barriers were unsafe. 

Inside Housing was in Cardiff for the first day of a court case expected to clarify Welsh housing associations’ duties under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act. The issue centres on whether tenants should be refunded rent because of the landlords’ failure to provide them with a physical confirmation of electrical safety certificates.

The case could be significant as landlords may have to pay back rent to tenants for the period in which certificates were not issued, potentially costing the sector tens of millions of pounds. Justin Bates of Landmark Chambers, acting on behalf of four landlords, said: “Can a rational legislature really have intended that consequence? We say the answer is no.”

The Chartered Institute of Housing called for a £17bn debt write-down to help councils invest in housing. The housing body said central government should take on 61% of local authorities’ current housing debt to account for lost rental income and increased costs over recent years.

The co-chair of the housing directors’ group at London Councils called for an increase in the Public Works Loan Board interest rate to help deliver more homes.

Clarion reported a 10% drop in annual surplus, as it spent £418m on improving and maintaining its current stock. Chief executive Clare Miller said it had been a year of “significant and unprecedented challenge”. 

A potential merger was announced, with Longhurst and Grand Union Housing revealing they are in talks to form a 37,000-home landlord.

We learned that Avant Homes made “material errors” and overstated its assets by £43.4m in 2021, ahead of its acquisition by fund manager Elliott Advisors and developer Berkeley DeVeer. The errors came to light in a filing made by Viva Midco, its parent company, which was incorporated in early 2021 and is headed up by Jeff Fairburn, the former chief executive of Persimmon who also leads Berkeley DeVeer.

In Wales, a revolt in government saw Julie James, cabinet secretary for housing, local government and planning, resign and withdraw her support for first minister Vaughan Gething alongside three other ministers.

Mr Gething had faced significant pressure over donations to his leadership campaign and his handling of leaks from a WhatsApp group chat. In June, he lost a vote of no confidence in the Senedd, vowing to stay on regardless. However, he stood down after the ministers quit. 

The Welsh government also published a heat strategy this week, which highlighted its aim to decarbonise how homes are heated as part of its net zero by 2050 commitments. The roadmap sets out plans to move away from fossil fuel use in homes, businesses and industry by 2050, reiterating commitments to invest in the social housing sector through initiatives such as the Optimised Retrofit Programme.

In Scotland, the Scottish Housing Regulator published research which found that a fifth of social housing tenants said they are struggling financially. According to the annual survey of the National Panel of Tenants and Service Users, almost a third of tenants said they often have to delay or miss paying a bill.

Have a good weekend.

Gráinne Cuffe, deputy news editor, Inside Housing

Say hello: grainne.cuffe@oceanmedia.co.uk

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