The Week in Housing: we built, baby, built this city on rock and roll

On Monday evening, Inside Housing attended a rally of the Labour YIMBY group at a cavernous room at the M&S Bank Arena. It had all the presentation of a MAGA-style Trump rally, complete with red hats and t-shirts emblazoned with the new housing secretary’s “build, baby, build” slogan.

Steve Reed skipped into the room only once the well-orchestrated chanting by his party faithful was deemed loud enough to the tune of We Built This City by Starship. He then took to the stage and proceeded to throw more signed and branded merchandise into the crowd, before cracking open a bottle of alcohol because “all builders need a beer”. 

One sector professional’s response to the proceedings was “dear, God”.

While Mr Reed was concerning himself with slogans and style over substance, his colleague Matthew Pennycook was providing the sector with a dose of realism.

The housing minister challenged housing associations over development, saying he does not believe they have the capacity to build 90,000 social homes in one year.

Mr Pennycook also indicated there may be some tweaks to improve the shared ownership model.

Sir Keir Starmer’s former economic advisor told delegates that he believes Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party will move towards a pro-social housing agenda because so many social renters are considering voting for the party.

In response to new study by the Home Builders Federation that estimated 8,500 Section 106 homes either being built now or due to start within the next year still have no registered provider contracted to take them on, Mr Reed’s department said this was “not good enough”.

However, the National Housing Federation was quick to point out that many have been built to the wrong specification, design or standards.

The government has said mandatory qualifications for social housing staff are an “important step in professionalising the sector”, as it formally directed the English regulator to bring in the new competency standard.

The government also directed to Regulator of Social Housing to launch a consultation on the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements.

With Mr Pennycook mulling over changes to shared ownership, one for-profit provider reported a 53% fall in its turnover due to low shared ownership sales.

Plus, Inside Housing exclusively revealed that investment giant M&G has widened its focus from shared ownership to all affordable housing tenures.

In Scotland, a slew of new measures will be rolled out after MSPs voted through the Housing (Scotland) Bill this week. You can read the sector’s response here.

The bill came after Scottish housing associations called for urgent action as the latest official statistics showed social housing starts have fallen to the lowest level since records began in the late 1990s.

Around a dozen landlords published their latest annual accounts. Hyde has seen its annual surplus nearly triple after a boost in turnover from acquiring property management firm Pinnacle.

Great Places recorded a 13% rise in turnover in its full-year results, which was driven by higher rental income and the addition of nearly 1,000 homes to its books.

Notting Hill Genesis revealed a widening of its annual deficit to £130m after fire safety provisions and a revaluation of its build-to-rent assets took their toll.

A2Dominion made a surplus of £116.4m that was assisted by the sale of temporary accommodation to Westminster City Council.

On building safety, housing experts warned that local authorities in Wales could end up “marking their own homework” when they take on additional regulatory roles under the new building safety regime.

Plus, a completed build-to-rent development of 487 homes in west London, which sat empty for months waiting for Gateway 3 approval, has finally been signed off by the Building Safety Regulator.

GreenSquareAccord revealed it is looking for a buyer for its Walsall-based offsite manufacturing business LoCaL Homes.

Bromford Flagship and LiveWest could become Bromford Flagship LiveWest if the landlords’ merger talks are successful.

Inside Housing published several long reads this week, including exclusive data that revealed that the number of homes built to Energy Performance Certificate Band A has soared by 69% in one year.

There was a visit to an estate regeneration project in west London that highlights a new approach to resident engagement in placemaking.

We also asked: what will the formula for the Fair Funding Review mean for council homes?

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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

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