The Week in Housing: Spring Statement, OBR’s concerns and exclusive TSMs tracker

Talking of repairs, our analysis of last year’s tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) results kicked off with a deep dive into the data on maintenance performance and continued with building safety checks.

The final instalment of our three-part TSMs tracker looked at compliance with the Decent Homes Standard. 

On the issue of building safety, a major intervention by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service saw it suspend the British Board of Agrément (BBA). This means the BBA currently cannot issue safety certificates to building product manufacturers.

On a more positive note, the Building Safety Regulator has nearly cleared the backlog of complex legacy cases at its Gateway 2 checkpoint. However, the regulator is still “falling short” on its remediation targets.

This week saw the celebration of International Women’s Day ahead of Sunday. To mark the occasion, Keepmoat’s Charlotte Sargeant called for more women to join the construction and planning industries, while Sustainability for Housing’s Danielle Hughes argued that women must be part of the battle for a sustainable future.

In one of our most-read stories this week, Hyde’s chief executive Andy Hulme sat down with Inside Housing’s editor Martin Hilditch to talk about the housing association’s expansion strategy in a bid to play a bigger role in its communities.

Another major landlord has been in expansion mode: Sovereign Network Group committed to building more than 500 social rent homes across two new schemes in London.

But there was a stark warning on what the cost of not building homes means, with sobering figures from the Local Government Association revealing that council spending on temporary accommodation is set to double to nearly £4bn by 2029-30.

At the same time, councils in England and Wales are sitting on £9bn in unspent developer contributions, including £700m earmarked for affordable housing, according to research by a house builder trade body.

Local authorities’ homelessness policies came under fire this week after a new report found that a number of councils in England and Wales are continuing to only offer conditional support to people experiencing homelessness, even when extreme weather forces them to seek emergency help.

Credit rating agency Fitch forecasted improved financial performance among housing associations due to government policy and reduced development plans, but pointed to greater divergence between providers in and outside London.

This outlook came after a new Value for Money report from the Regulator of Social Housing found that the sector’s average interest cover has fallen due to the impact of a small number of very large providers.

One landlord not struggling to raise capital is for-profit provider Sage Homes, which completed a £547m refinancing deal with a target of building 30,000 affordable homes by 2030.

In an effort to drive up quality and protection for consumers, the New Homes Quality Board announced enhanced affordability and sales transparency requirements in a significant update to its consumer code, introducing mandatory five-year cost projections for buyers of new build homes.

At a conference in Scotland, a housing policy expert called for the country’s national housing agency to operate “primarily” at a regional level and include members from across the housing sector rather than just civil servants.

At an event in Wales, sector leaders heard how housing associations have a key role to play in boosting political engagement and countering misinformation ahead of this year’s Senedd election.

In Northern Ireland, the communities minister launched a consultation on plans to strengthen the country’s Landlord Registration Scheme, as reliance on the private rented sector expands and compliance gaps persist.

Finally, the Housing Ombudsman launched a consultation on its 2026-27 business plan, which proposes increasing the membership fee for landlords as the service responds to rising demand for complaint investigations.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

Editor’s picks: five stories you may have missed

Dispatches from 2026 Scotland Housing Festival

Housing must partner with financial services to help domestic abuse survivors

Negotiating with nuns and new housing schemes: development director reflects on 50 years at a suffragist landlord

Social landlords find ‘major opportunity’ to employ tenants for green homes retrofit programmes

Small London provider to merge with Hyde Group