The Week in Housing: more funding axed as starts in London fall off cliff

The news that more than £0.5bn was axed from the HIF came as the G15 called on the government to launch an Affordable Housing Commission as new figures reveal development in the capital is “grinding to a halt”.

Among London’s biggest social landlords, starts of affordable homes in the current financial year are expected to have fallen by 76%, to 1,769, in the capital, compared with 7,363 the previous year.

The latest figures emerged in a letter to housing secretary Michael Gove from thinktank Centre for London and Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chair of the G15 and chief executive of L&Q.

The letter was a response to Mr Gove’s latest plans to tackle the housing crisis, which include increasing development on brownfield sites.

But in an attack on the government’s approach, the letter said: “Despite the crisis facing Londoners, the government has failed to step up and invest in the delivery of social housing.

“Insufficient sustainable funding, among many structural issues, is a critical reason why housing is in crisis in our capital city.”

Landlords continue to face a perfect storm of financial challenges, including high interest rates, inflation and tackling building safety and decarbonisation. A heightened focus on housing conditions has also caused organisations to ramp up their spending on existing stock.

For example, Platform has warned that Awaab’s Law is expected to add “further costs” as the government’s consultation on the proposed legislation goes beyond damp and mould.

Birmingham City Council, which is effectively bankrupt, was reprimanded by the Housing Ombudsman after six findings of severe maladministration against the local authority for how it handled leaks, damp and mould, as well as its complaint-handling.

In London, Newham Council said it will spend £63.5m on making the 87 high-rise blocks it owns comply with new building safety legislation by 2029.

The scale of the challenge facing the sector on fire safety remediation was laid bare by the English regulator, which revealed that more than 500 buildings owned by housing associations and councils with “life-critical” fire safety defects still have “unclear or incomplete” plans to fix them.

The Regulator of Social Housing’s second fire safety survey found 1,952 blocks that are 11 metres or taller have been identified by landlords with life-critical fire safety defects related to the external wall system.

Of these, 29% have remediation plans that are “unclear or incomplete”, the report said. This equates to 566 buildings.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has said it is aware of “concerns” over the fast-approaching new building control regime, but has not indicated it will delay implementation, despite warnings of an impending crisis.

The BSR said it recognised the “challenges faced” as the 6 April deadline approaches for building inspectors to get certified under the new system.

Under the post-Grenfell Building Safety Act, building control is becoming a regulated profession, which means building inspectors have to prove their competence and register with the BSR by the April deadline.

However, Local Authority Building Control, a membership organisation representing council building-control inspectors, has warned that a “significant number” will miss the registration deadline.

Any drop-off in inspectors will obviously impact the speed of remediation work, and Inside Housing also discovered another issue with how affected buildings are insured.

The government warned insurers to offer “affordable” premiums on buildings covered by PAS 9980, as reports have emerged of owners seeing hikes of up to 400%, or being unable to get cover.

The warning has come after lawyers told Inside Housing that the government-backed PAS 9980 system is having an “unintended, but significant, impact” on insurance and lending on affected blocks.

The PAS 9980 guidance, which was introduced in 2022, allows fire engineers to identify a building’s risk factors through a five-step assessment process.

“Reasons for this include landlords being in negotiations with developers over covering the costs of necessary remediations and working with consultants to complete these assessments,” the regulator’s report said.

A council has committed to a series of actions to tackle homelessness in an interactive theatre event during which policies are co-created with the community.

Medway Council’s ‘legislative theatre’ event in Chatham, part of which involved people with lived experience of homelessness and frontline council staff acting out problems with the homelessness system in a play, senior Medway staff committed to improving the verification system for rough sleepers.

They also created a project plan to take forward a council letting service, and looked at creating a joined-up services hub. The policies will inform the council’s new homelessness and rough sleeping strategy.

Finally this week, Inside Housing asks: how should the social housing sector prepare for a wetter world? Find out here.

Have a good weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

@StephenD_

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