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The Week in Housing: time for change
A weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals
A weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals #UKhousingGood afternoon.
Over the past few months, sector leaders have been under the microscope as MPs on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Select Committee grilled them on the condition of their homes.
The committee launched an inquiry into the regulation of social housing in November last year, sparked largely by the ITV investigation into the poor quality of social housing.
Inside Housing has been bringing you regular updates from these sessions. We’ve heard from ministers, chief executives, the regulator, tenants and journalists, all of whom provided insight into how the sector has reached this point.
Now the committee has published its first report on the inquiry. It contains a number of key recommendations for the sector and for politicians, which our senior reporter Grainne Cuffe has analysed in detail.
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When Inside Housing spoke to people in the sector following the publication of the report, there was a general acknowledgement that things needed to change and that the sector can and will do better.
As Brian Robson from the Northern Housing Consortium put it, the document makes for “difficult reading”, but should be read by everyone with an interest in social housing in this country.
This week also saw the Grenfell Tower Inquiry hold its last day of oral evidence. Inside Housing has covered every day of the inquiry, which has sat for almost 400 days over a period of four years. Our weekly diaries into phase two of the inquiry can be found here.
The inquiry panel, led by chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick, will now take time to review everything that we have heard over phase two of the inquiry before meeting later this year to discuss the recommendations it will make. Following this, a final report will be published.
Finally, this week also saw the Conservative leadership battle whittled down to the final two. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will now spend the summer on the road campaigning, before Conservative Party members choose our next prime minister in September. Inside Housing is regularly updating its piece that outlines where the two stand on housing.
Quote of the week
“The former suggests incompetence, the latter suggests indifference – but our view is that both constitute systemic failure.”
As part of this week’s report, MPs on the LUHC Select Committee also criticised the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for failing to find that Clarion had breached its standards over the conditions on the Regina Road Estate, which featured in ITV’s investigation. They compared the RSH’s findings on Clarion to its findings on Croydon Council, which was found to have breached its standards after it appeared on ITV News.
Stat of the week
Homes England’s annual report revealed this week that it missed its affordable housing completions target by 21.5%.
The government agency, which missed all of its housing delivery targets in 2021-22, blamed factors including labour and material shortages and “challenges in the planning system”.
Lucie Heath, deputy news editor
Editor’s picks: five must-read stories
Homes England misses all of its housing delivery targets
Bond costs double as inflation and war in Ukraine affect debt markets
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The housing policy debate in the Tory leadership race has been beyond depressing
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