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Morning Briefing: house builders cannot be trusted to fix leasehold scandal, say MPs
MPs have hit out at an agreement made by the government with house builders and building owners to fix the leasehold scandal currently affecting thousands of homeowners, the Daily Mail writes this morning
The article focuses on a letter from Clive Betts, chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, to housing secretary James Brokenshire, where he questions a deal the government struck with house builders and freeholders and urges Mr Brokenshire to be tougher on “rip-off” leases.
Last week, the government agreed a pledge with a number of house builders and freeholders to end “exploitative” leasehold deals but failed to agree any sanctions if the agreement was breached.
In the letter, Mr Betts said the voluntary pledge would still leave tens of thousands of leaseholders stuck paying “unreasonable fees” and that he was worried the pledge was placing trust in the same industry that created onerous leases.
Two weeks ago, the committee wrote a report calling for an end to leasehold and called on social landlords to write a code of conduct to protect leaseholders living in their blocks.
The saga revolving around segregation between private and social housing residents in developments across London continues, as councils start to plan ‘enforcement action’ on blocks that support the segregation.
Local London paper News Shopper reports that Greenwich Council is considering action after an investigation by The Guardian last week revealed shared ownership residents were being segregated at new builds in the borough.
Councillors are now visiting two of the sites in the borough that have found to have green spaces and amenities that are inaccessible to shared ownership owners and could take enforcement action if not corrected.
Place North West has news of a joint venture between Galliford Try Partnerships and Trafford Housing Trust securing planning permission for a new 600-home site on the site of a former 72-acre gas storage site in Partington.
The development will include 500 homes for private sale under Galliford Try’s Linden Homes brand and 100 for Trafford Housing Trust.
The Free Press has a piece about Monmouthshire Council planning to create its own housing company in a bid to develop more affordable homes across the region.
Trade website Property Wire looks at new figures on private home sales and finds that the number of homes being listed for sale in March fell by 1.3% across the country when compared with February, and 2% in London.
It comes despite an increase in housing supply in the month, with 42% of towns and cities seeing an increase in the number of homes being built.
On social media
A new nationwide action group visited the housing minister Kit Malthouse to discuss the current UK cladding crisis hitting thousands of residents:
Productive meeting today with @kitmalthouse at The Houses of Parliament who acknowledged there is still a lot of work to be done and agreed to continue to engage with @UKCAG #claddingscandal pic.twitter.com/abh0sueDTU
— UK Cladding Action Group (@ukcag)Productive meeting today with @kitmalthouse at The Houses of Parliament who acknowledged there is still a lot of work to be done and agreed to continue to engage with @UKCAG #claddingscandal pic.twitter.com/abh0sueDTU
— UK Cladding Action Group (@ukcag) April 3, 2019