The Week in Housing: planning reforms, resetting homelessness, and ombudsman calls for national tenant body

There was also news from the New Towns Taskforce, with a report identifying Milton Keynes and Leeds as the locations best suited to this development.

The Welsh government announced the release of £24m in recyclable loan funding to enable land acquisition for housing.

And the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations has been in campaigning mode. It called for multi-year housing funding and action on infrastructure, as statistics showed landlords meeting annual housebuilding targets. 

Inside Housing has been in campaigning mode, too. Throughout the year, in partnership with Homeless Link, our Reset Homelessness campaign has been calling for the government to carry out a systemic review of homelessness funding, taking back control of spending and creating a new settlement for providers.

This week we took an in-depth look at the issue with: an investigation into the carousel of homelessness funding; an interview with Dame Siobhain McDonagh, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation, including details on her idea for an Ofsted-style regulator; a look at how Labour previously funded supported housing properly and ideas for how it could do so again; and an update on the campaign so far in an interview with Sophie Boobis, head of policy and research at Homeless Link.

With the Spending Review so close, we will soon find out what the future holds for the sector. Sign up to our webinar about what it means for housing (to be held the day after the Spending Review), here.

Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway was talking funding as well this week, arguing in a comment piece that “a flawed national funding settlement for social landlords should be reviewed, which balances fair rents with long-term certainty to deliver a new, more ambitious Decent Homes Standard”.

It followed the publication of Repairing Trust, the ombudsman’s new Spotlight report. It backs the establishment of a national body to strengthen tenant voice (something Inside Housing, with many others in the sector, has long called for).

The report came out a day after news emerged that a coroner had opened an inquest into the death of a baby in a Notting Hill Genesis property in Camden. No determination has been made about the cause, but his family was quoted as saying they believe damp and mould was a contributing factor.

In regulatory news, Brent Council was handed a non-compliant C3 consumer grade as part of three new judgements published this week. Mosscare St Vincent’s received the top C1 grade and Metropolitan Thames Valley got a C2 grading.

In Scotland, councils have been raising concerns about the decrease in social housing budgets. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities flagged the need for “sustainable funding” to provide good-quality affordable housing and reduce numbers on social housing waiting lists. And a new £1m cash payments scheme aims to “break the cycle” of repeat homelessness in Scotland.

Elsewhere, more than a dozen charities have warned that homelessness will rise if planned restrictions to welfare are enacted. A vote on the proposals is due to take place in parliament in the next few weeks.

In sustainability news, the latest Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing report found that, across 1.9 million social homes, more than 75.6% achieved an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of Band C or better, with 16.2% at EPC B.

Have a great weekend.

Martin Hilditch, editor, Inside Housing

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