The Week in Housing: research reveals child deaths from window falls as ombudsman raises concern over landlords’ approach to repairs

There were a number of other regulatory and legal judgments this week. One court ruling set out how a London council could lose more than a dozen affordable homes agreed under Section 106 after a legal battle over the sale of these units by a lender, who had borrowed money, to a now de-registered provider.

Another London council successfully argued that its database of homeless applicants was not a deferral list or a means to delay acting on its housing duty and does not indirectly discriminate against women.

Plus, the Regulator of Social Housing downgraded a London housing association after a planned inspection found serious governance and consumer concerns.

Homes England was forced to apologise for its handling of a failed IT project after a review found that it lacked leadership and oversight, and was unachievable in its aims. Spending on the project has topped £117m, which is money that could have been spent on thousands of new homes.

The failed admission from Homes England comes as the agency is expected to deliver the government’s flagship £39bn Affordable Homes Programme over the next decade, alongside a new National Housing Bank with a £16bn investment and a 500,000-home target.

A number of sector experts have explained to Inside Housing why they think the new bank must address the sector’s “lack of cheap funding” if it is going to be effective.

They shared their views after a credit agency recently warned that the UK government’s additional funding for social and affordable housing may not prevent around half the ratings in its portfolio from being put under pressure.

Ensuring the effectiveness of the National Housing Bank will be high up on the to-do list of Homes England’s new chief executive. Amy Rees, former boss of the UK’s prison service, has been appointed to lead the agency.

The sooner the bank can ramp up engagement with the sector, the better, after the latest figures from the Greater London Authority showed that just 347 new affordable homes have been started in the capital since April.

By any measure, delivery targets are still not heading in the right direction for the government to realise its ambition of 1.5 million homes.

To help reach this target, several cross-party MPs, including former housing and shadow housing ministers, have backed a report that calls for the building of 100,000 council homes a year.

A separate report set out how vacant local authority properties could be turned into 25,000 new homes.

In Northern Ireland, the Housing Executive has launched a research project on the demand for social and affordable housing in the Mid Ulster area.

One area of the sector that is predicted to grow is build-to-rent schemes for older people, as new research found that investors are moving away from leasehold-based retirement homes.

The housing market is also grappling with a lack of demand at the moment. This was evident in a new stock market update from L&Q as it reported £100m in unsold stock alongside an increase in starts and completions in the first quarter of 2025.

An analysis has made the case for stock rationalisation deals between regions across the sector, which it found help landlords boost development pipelines and improve financial capacity.

In Wales, newly formed landlord Hedyn welcomed an interim regulatory judgement from the Welsh government.

There was also news of a unique approach to sustainability, as a housing association in North Wales revealed it is using sheep to trim the grass on one of its development sites.

On building safety, the fall-out from Tri Fire rumbles on. Three high-rise buildings in Worcester failed to meet fire safety standards after the housing association ordered another assessment following concerns about the firm’s previous assessment.

Tri Fire was one of the firms most commonly used by housing associations to carry out external wall assessments of their buildings. The firm is understood to have reviewed systems on thousands of blocks in the sector since 2020. But in August last year, Adam Kiziak, director of Tri Fire, was sanctioned by the Institution of Fire Engineers. He was found to have failed to work with professional competence and breached the organisation’s principle of “accuracy and vigour”.

In Scotland, social landlords will be able to access public funding for cladding remediation work for the first time.

In big recruitment news, the boss of Platform Housing Group has been appointed chief executive of Sage Homes, the largest for-profit housing provider in England.

Inside Housing published two important features this week. The first looked at prisoners on day release helping to make modular homes that will be erected as social housing and temporary accommodation.

The second looked at how social landlords can tackle domestic abuse by going beyond just having a policy in place.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

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