Morning Briefing: councils sitting on money for affordable housing

In the news

Huff Post reports that councils are sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds set aside for affordable homes.

The website said £375m of Section 106 payments is sitting in councils’ bank accounts, and two-thirds of the cash is being held by just 14 councils. Councils can struggle to spend Section 106 payments because they are used by developers to compensate for not building affordable housing on a site. Instead, councils are expected to use the payments for affordable housing elsewhere, which can be difficult if land is limited.

Labour has promised to restore legal aid for housing advice, reversing government cuts made five years ago, The Guardian reports.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire there has been growing concern over the problems faced by tenants in obtaining advice on housing safety concerns.

A third of landlords with just one buy-to-let home are considering selling their properties following the government’s stamp duty changes, This is Money reports.

But landlords with a clutch of homes want to invest more. Research by Simple Landlord Insurance found 38% of those who own two or more properties said they are planning to buy at least one more in the coming year.

Kensington and Chelsea Council built fewer affordable homes in recent years than any other London council, the Independent reports.

The borough in which the Grenfell Tower is located has started building just 244 affordable homes since 2014, which the paper said is less than a fifth of the total built by the average London borough.

The analysis, released by Labour, found that across the capital Conservative councils built close to half as many homes as Labour boroughs.