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Tower block residents in south London are “ill with stress” after the owner of their building and its developer refused to pay to remove the combustible cladding covering it, and other housing news
In the news
The Guardian reports on the woes of leaseholders at the Northpoint building in Bromley, who are facing bills of £70,000 each.
According to the paper, many are facing possible bankruptcy because of their inability to cover collectively the £4m cost of making their homes safe.
Inside Housing covered the same story last week. We obtained an email from the block owner that showed he had dismissed the government’s attempts to make building owners pay as a “hollow threat”.
The BBC says students in Newcastle are still at risk, with work to remove dangerous cladding from one student block having not yet started.
Fire safety improvements were supposed to start last year, but now work will not begin until July and will not be completed until August next year.
The public broadcaster also reports that hundreds of fire doors being used in council homes in Poole are of the same kind as those that have failed safety tests.
Poole Housing Partnership told the BBC it is working to organise replacements after more than 800 were found to be of a type withdrawn from sale.
Meanwhile, black newspaper The Voice carries an interview with former Spurs footballer Eartha Pond, in which she describes her work helping to raise money for Grenfell survivors.
In the interview, Ms Pond urges the government to act on recommendations “to avoid anything similar happening again in the UK”.
The Times followed up Inside Housing’s report about house builders selling discounted homes to housing associations over the weekend. The paper quoted the same sources as Inside Housing, but includes industry sources talking down the link to Brexit. You can read our original report here.
Elsewhere, the reaction continues to the recent report from Shelter calling for 3.1 million new social homes and a new regulator.
Letters to The Guardian on Friday afternoon touched on it, with social housing architect Kate Macintosh arguing that new homes alone will not be sufficient and that other measures such as land value taxation should be implemented.
Others, too, put forward policy ideas that they thought should be considered alongside an increase in the building of social housing.
Yesterday evening, The Guardian published an editorial supporting the report and arguing in favour of shifting the balance of power between tenants and landlords.
At the same time, the BBC has published an analysis showing that the number of affordable homes built across the North West of England since 2015 is less than a third of what is needed.
It found that 14,000 affordable homes had been built across the region in the period, with council forecasts suggesting that more than 42,600 were required.
At the sharp end, as always, are rough sleepers, and Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman has written a piece describing how many she now sees on her 15-minute walk to work.
On social media
Ongoing debate over the Earl’s Court regeneration:
Went to the Earl’s Court development site yesterday, it is huge, just enormous, with *ZERO social homes* included on the Kensington & Chelsea side. Planning application being decided soon. Really important we back @saveEarlsCourt make sure we support their campaign
— Pilgrim Tucker 💚 (@PilgrimTucker)Went to the Earl’s Court development site yesterday, it is huge, just enormous, with *ZERO social homes* included on the Kensington & Chelsea side. Planning application being decided soon. Really important we back @saveEarlsCourt make sure we support their campaign
— Pilgrim Tucker \uD83D\uDC9A (@PilgrimTucker) January 13, 2019
G15 chair Paul Hackett notes the inequality in the rise in property values:
The value of all the homes in the UK has risen by more than third in the past decade, to £7.3 trillion, with older homeowners and landlords winning the biggest share of the new wealth as young people continue to be priced out of the market. #ukhousing
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10)
t.co/GGavqb8UWEThe value of all the homes in the UK has risen by more than third in the past decade, to £7.3 trillion, with older homeowners and landlords winning the biggest share of the new wealth as young people continue to be priced out of the market. #ukhousing
— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10) January 14, 2019
https://t.co/GGavqb8UWE
What’s on
At 3.45pm today, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee will take evidence on leasehold reform.