You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Morning Briefing: reaction to new housing minister continues
Kit Malthouse’s moment on Theresa May’s ministerial merry-go-round makes many headlines and the rest of the day’s housing news.
In the news
The reaction to Mr Malthouse’s appointment as housing minister continues to rumble on. Politics Home runs a comment piece which is rather scathing of Mr Malthouse’s predecessor Dominic Raab, but a bit nicer about the man himself, suggesting he may finally bring some continuity to the housing brief. Estate Agent Today is not particularly impressed by the minister’s “93 word” first statement in the role, available here, which it describes as “brief and gives no indication of progress”.
MoneyWeek is similarly critical saying: “Kit Malthouse looks like a very nice man and seems to be genuinely delighted at the opportunity. [But] if this is just another wheeze to put an ally in a key position, Lord help us.”
READ MORE
The new minister is also attracting less than favourable coverage in the Daily Mirror which points out his second job sorting out private finance for people to buy Lamborghini sports cars and dental surgeries. Inside Housing’s leader on the new appointment is here, and we will have a podcast out looking back over the housing ministers of the last eight years later on today.
Elsewhere, the government published some of the granular figures from the English Housing Survey yesterday – they can be viewed here. The findings on private sector landlords have sparked wildly divergent takes, with The Canary claiming it “lays bare the perils of private renting” and the Residential Landlords Association claiming “it shows once again that the vast majority of private sector landlords do a good job and look after their properties and tenants properly”. Make your own mind up by viewing the raw data here (spoiler, they’re both a bit biased). We will have detailed analysis of some of the survey numbers over the coming days.
Also out this morning is a survey of house builders from estate agent Knight Frank which says just 1% believe the government can meet its target of 300,000 homes a year by 2022.
In less gloomy news, this week’s Office for National Statistics data showed construction output, including housebuilding, up by 2.9% in May – the fastest growth for two years.
Charity sector trade magazine Third Force News reports on an “urgent call” for more adaptions to create older people’s housing in Scotland.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation sets out three tests for the Social Housing Green Paper and Citymetric runs a report from Generation Rent about why three year tenancies don’t go far enough. You can hear a similar discussion on last week’s housing podcast here:
On social media
Tom Murtha is keen to highlight the role of campaign group SHOUT in the partial return of social housing, subject of a piece on Inside Housing today
Lets not forget the role of SHOUT in this debate. Making the case for social rent when many were silent @PeteApps @insidehousing t.co/1Pxp8urW0N
— Tom Murtha (@tomemurtha)Lets not forget the role of SHOUT in this debate. Making the case for social rent when many were silent @PeteApps @insidehousing https://t.co/1Pxp8urW0N
— Tom Murtha (@tomemurtha) July 13, 2018
And a debate about ‘land banking’
Moving the emphasis of concerns about “land banking” from the house builders and onto landowners seems wise. For more homes to be built more land needs to be induced to come onto the market. t.co/Bz1LBRyyMh
— Tom Paul (@ithomasjpaul)Moving the emphasis of concerns about “land banking” from the house builders and onto landowners seems wise. For more homes to be built more land needs to be induced to come onto the market. https://t.co/Bz1LBRyyMh
— Tom Paul (@ithomasjpaul) July 13, 2018