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The Week in Housing: more grant funding directed at social rent, and tougher regulation of temporary accommodation needed
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The Week in Housing: more grant funding directed at social rent, and tougher regulation of temporary accommodation needed #UKhousingA weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals #UKhousingGood afternoon.
The issue of how the government directs grant funding under the next Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) is a hot topic at the moment, given the expectation around the multi-year Spending Review in June, and the nearly £3bn that has been ploughed into the current AHP to keep it ticking over.
Labour has yet to set a target for social rent, but has made it clear that boosting this tenure substantially is its ambition. So it was interesting to hear the boss of Homes England confirm that around 60% of the recent top-ups are being spent on social rented homes.
It was a busy week for the government’s housing and regeneration agency, as it also announced the appointment of a new chair, an investment partnership worth £150m for SME house builders and a 10,000-home plan for Plymouth city centre.
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Increasing grant for social rent homes is vital if local authorities are to reduce their reliance on temporary accommodation (TA). MPs made a number of recommendations for TA this week, including mandatory inspections, and a notification system so that a child’s school and GP are alerted when they move into this type of housing.
This came after an analysis by the Children’s Commissioner for England revealed how children living in TA and forced to move house regularly achieve worse GCSE results.
One regular Inside Housing commentator described the current state of children in TA as “utterly shameful”.
This pressure on councils to find accommodation was laid bare by new data that showed more than 3,000 children in care in England have been moved over 100 miles from their communities.
With landlords under pressure to deliver homelessness services, Inside Housing launched a new online publication – called Inside Housing Management – aimed at housing officers and other staff in housing management, with a focus on learning and development.
Much of this shared experience was being discussed in Wales this week during the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru’s annual Tai 2025 conference.
Attendees heard how the Welsh housing workforce has “widespread concern” that the government will miss its affordable housing target.
This is in addition to Welsh local authorities facing significant workforce issues as they get ready to take on the role of building safety regulator.
Both England and Wales published new building safety guidance. The Building Safety Regulator revealed new criteria for developers of higher-risk buildings.
The Welsh government launched a consultation on the next phase of its building control regime for higher-risk buildings, with a focus on new duties for decision-makers and fresh enforcement powers for local authorities.
The new guidance comes as the management company of the former Olympic Village in London revealed it is facing a £432m fire safety bill after new defects were uncovered.
This vital work is coming at the expense of new social housing. Research this week showed how at least 91,000 new affordable homes could be built with the £3.8bn that social housing providers are spending on removing dangerous cladding.
A similar calculation could be made for the cost of retrofit. So news of the government’s National Wealth Fund and NatWest Group teaming up to launch a £500m loan portfolio to support this work will be welcome.
In Northern Ireland, regulations came into force under which private landlords will be fined if they do not ensure the electrical safety of their homes.
This law came in as one housing association in Northern Ireland appointed a new chief executive.
US president Donald Trump’s international trade war garnered many headlines this week, as its impact on global construction, material costs, living standards and investor appetite are sure to be felt across the UK.
All this at a time when homelessness charity Crisis found just 2.5% of private rented sector properties listed in England were affordable for people on housing benefit between April and October 2024.
Research by the G15 found low-income Londoners between the ages of 25 and 29 are spending 77% of wages on housing.
Even within this extremely challenging economic landscape, it’s good to see landlords launching academy programmes to drive career development for current and prospective employees.
It echoes Inside Housing’s Housing Hires campaign that aims to promote the social housing sector as a good place to work, and supports people to find and develop careers at housing associations and councils.
Many people in the sector have careers spanning decades. So when Jane Porter, chief operating officer at Southern Housing, announced that she was stepping down from her role late last year, Inside Housing uncovered a career which has done much to shape the modern affordable housing sector.
We also spoke to the chief executive of one of the first large housing associations to get a top C1 rating under the consumer standards.
Have a great weekend.
Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk
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