The Week in Housing: starts in Wales and Northern Ireland fall, and English regulator publishes new consumer judgements

The doubt around cash for homes came as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s annual expenditure on temporary accommodation increased by 16% last year to hit nearly £40m.

Getting spades in the ground is just one part of the crisis, as landlords balance development with bringing their existing homes up to scratch. But realising the government’s 1.5 million homes ambition is not helped by more than 1,000 workers going on strike at the housing department.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) issued a C4 grade to a district council because of health and safety failings and hundreds of overdue fire remediation actions. Following a planned inspection of Arun District Council, the RSH found nearly 1,000 fire risk assessment remedial actions were overdue, over 700 of which were categorised as high or very high risk and overdue for more than 12 months.

The English regulator found “serious failings” at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, as a third of its homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. The council, which was criticised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, self-referred before the RSH’s inspection, over issues around stock condition and decency.

L&Q was also downgraded for governance to G2 and handed a compliant C2 grade.

While existing landlords were being judged by the RSH, a Bradford-based domestic violence charity announced that it had successfully registered a non-profit social housing provider.

The care watchdog ordered a London council to compensate a family after their seriously ill child was placed in damp and mouldy temporary accommodation miles away from their hospital due to a “flawed policy”.

A second probe found that North Yorkshire Council was taking 50% longer to decide on funding applications for adaptations to disabled residents’ homes.

The Advertising Standards Authority reprimanded Lloyds Banking Group after it disagreed with a ruling that branded a national press advert highlighting its commercial support for social housing “misleading”.

There was some good news. The government estimates that the first year of its New Homes Accelerator has unlocked 100,000 previously stalled homes.

Meanwhile, a developer has submitted plans to Brent Council to build 368 homes, a 246-bed student block and 243-bed hotel, in Barnet in north London. Plus, over 1,700 build-to-rent and student homes in Glasgow have been given the green light despite dozens of objections.

There was big appointment news in Scotland as the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations announced its new chief executive. Also, Riverside Scotland has recruited a Glasgow-based chief executive as its new managing director.

These appointments followed exclusive research by Inside Housing and Inside Housing Management that revealed assaults against housing staff are rising year on year, and recorded numbers have almost tripled since 2020. You can read the key insights into this investigation here.

In collaboration with Social Housing, we took a deep dive into whether changes to the Treasury’s Green Book will alter the face of housing delivery in England.

Plus, several industry figures explained why they believe the government’s updated Remediation Acceleration Plan lacks focus on non-cladding fire safety defects, alongside concerns about contractor capacity and supply chains.

Inside Housing also asked: what role will co-living play in the future of housing?

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

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