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Morning Briefing: plans to convert prison sites into housing abandoned
Government plans to shut Victorian-era prisons and sell them to build housing have been abandoned – and the rest of today’s news.
Ministers were hoping to build more than 3,000 city centre homes after closing the “most dilapidated” prisons.
However, Lucy Frazer, the prisons minister, has told MPs that the cells are still required for an increasing numbers of offenders, the BBC reports.
Among the prisons thought to be avoiding closure are Dartmoor in Devon and Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubs in London, the BBC said.
Elsewhere, the Evening Standard reports that fraudsters have been convicted of falsely claiming £775,000 by pretending to be among those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. The amount was shared between 16 people, who made claims to the victims’ fund following the fire in 2017. The Standard said police have so far recovered £24,000.
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Meanwhile, the problems over Universal Credit continue. Somerset West and Taunton Council has partly blamed the roll-out of the controversial benefits system for an increase in arrears among tenants, the Somerset County Gazette reports.
A Freedom of Information Act request by the Gazette revealed 1,740 of Somerset West and Taunton Council’s 5,593 tenancies – roughly a third – are in arrears.
In other local news, a maintenance company owned by Hull City Council has plans to become a housing development firm.
Kingston Works also intends to act as a private landlord to manage a portfolio of rented properties in the city.
It will initially develop a limited number of new-build schemes, while buying a small number of empty properties, the Hull Daily Mail reported.
A column in The Guardian from the paper’s public services editor warns that reform of adult social care is long overdue. David Brindle notes that it is now 1,000 days since the government promised a green paper reviewing the UK’s social care policy.
Across the Atlantic, tech giant Facebook is hoping for a ‘like’ after pledging to tackle California’s housing crisis. The New York Times reports that it will give $1bn in grants, loans and land to create 20,000 housing units for middle- and lower-income households.
On social media
New housing secretary Robert Jenrick is a busy man – fresh from an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme and a grilling from our news editor, this morning, he is speaking at an event hosted by centre-right think tank Policy Exchange.
@RobertJenrick Sec of State for @mhclg speaking this morning about the quality of home building and #placemaking - to enable people to lead happy and successful live. #ukhousing pic.twitter.com/AiDpHC5Bvu
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10)@RobertJenrick Sec of State for @mhclg speaking this morning about the quality of home building and #placemaking - to enable people to lead happy and successful live. #ukhousing pic.twitter.com/AiDpHC5Bvu
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10) October 23, 2019
