Morning Briefing: Universal Credit delayed again

In the news

The BBC reports that it has seen leaked documents revealing that the government plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to reduce the negative impact on claimants.

It says that initial testing has been pushed back to allow for the changes, meaning large-scale movement onto the benefit won’t begin until November 2020.

Meanwhile, housing associations have called for funding of up to £42bn during the 2020s – a huge increase, the Financial Times reports.

The newspaper spoke to the National Housing Federation and the G15 group of London housing associations, which both agreed on the figure.

Theresa May’s much-welcomed announcement that she would scrap the cap on council borrowing to build housing is the subject of a blog for Room 151 by John Bibby, chief executive of the Association of Retained Council Housing.

Mr Bibby writes that councils must respond to the government’s challenge and deliver the increase in housing delivery they have been saying is possible.

A separate blog in CityMetric by architect Jas Bhalla argues that planning reform must still go much further.

Mr Bhalla argues that local thinking needs to be incorporated into the government’s approach on housing.

At the same time, the property market continues to slow, experiencing the slowest September house price growth for eight years, according to the Independent.

Prices grew by only 1% in the month, despite the customary bump in prices at this time of year, as the number of properties on the market falls.

Yorkshire house prices are continuing to grow, however, and in Hull the council has a plan to deliver up to 2,500 new homes in the city centre, the BBC reports.

North of the border, in Scotland, The Guardian reports that thousands of people have objected to housing estate plans by The Trump Organization.

In London, the same paper has a story on survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, who have demanded urgent meetings with ministers and senior health officials after revelations that toxins were found in soil close to the tower.

Survivors’ group Grenfell United has asked why residents were not warned of the potential risks until The Guardian revealed the results of the study.

Elsewhere in the west of the capital, Get West London has looked at the problems faced by Westminster residents having to deal with troubled ALMO CityWest Homes, before it was brought back in house.

On social media

Read an exchange between G15 chair Paul Hackett and others over his comments to the Financial Times.

Read my comments in the @FT on the level of public investment needed during the 2020s to achieve government’s affordable house building targets. #ukhousing t.co/MG1I0UcCr2

— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10)

Read my comments in the @FT on the level of public investment needed during the 2020s to achieve government’s affordable house building targets. #ukhousing https://t.co/MG1I0UcCr2

— Paul Hackett (@PaulHackett10) October 16, 2018

What’s on

• Conservative MP Neil O’Brien will at 4pm host a debate on housing and homeownership in Westminster Hall.
• The Grenfell Tower Inquiry will today hear evidence from two survivors of the fire: Omar Alhajali and Oluwaseun Talabi.