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Morning Briefing: Khan considers compulsory green space for new homes
Sadiq Khan outlines green space plan, Wales plots increased council housebuilding over the coming decades, and all your other major housing stories
In the news
Mr Khan is considering forcing developers to provide all future homes with green space.
The Independent reports this morning that the London mayor has given support to a Fabian Society report calling for housing estates with poor access to nature to be given more green space.
It claims he will seek to make the change if re-elected next May.
Meanwhile, The Guardian runs a story on a report by energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, which warns that the UK risks trailing behind Europe in home battery installations because of a VAT increase for solar-battery packs coming into effect from October.
Elsewhere, the BBC has produced a detailed guide to the Welsh government’s new National Development Framework, which sets out ministers’ vision for the next 20 years on housing, energy and industry.
Part of the ambitions include thousands of new council homes in Wales by 2040, the BBC reports.
Inside Housing spoke to Welsh housing minister Julie James about the plans yesterday.
The government is facing yet another legal challenge over Universal Credit, the Liverpool Echo reports, which focuses on the rules for people switching onto the new system who require disability benefits.
Together Housing has been ordered by the Housing Ombudsman to pay residents of a Darwen sheltered housing scheme £250 each for failing to consult them properly before removing support services in April 2017, per the Lancashire Telegraph.
Lambeth Council, in south London, has agreed to borrow another £20m for its Right to Buy buy-back scheme as its seeks to claw back homes on six estates set for demolition, according to the Wandsworth Times.
Meanwhile, Northumberland County Council has approved proposals to build 1,000 new council homes over the next five years, Chronicle Live reports.
In Swindon, a cabinet member has said the council does not intend to use the site of the Honda car plant for housing when the company pulls out in 2021 and instead wants to keep it for industrial use, per the BBC.
And in Fife, The Courier reports on a new project aimed at supporting domestic abuse survivors and reducing their chances of becoming homeless.
Finally, the Liverpool Echo runs a piece on the street featured in Channel 4’s The £1 Houses: Britain’s Cheapest Street programme, which attracted criticism from city mayor Joe Anderson.
On social media
London Tenants Federation has called for a new approach to delivering social housing in the capital:
We need a serious challenge to social rented homes being delivered on the back of market development when only 35% of the homes needed in London are for market homes.
— London Tenants Federation (@LondonTenants)
We need all public land used exclusively for social rented homes + social infrastructure. t.co/AqQnBDXbfnWe need a serious challenge to social rented homes being delivered on the back of market development when only 35% of the homes needed in London are for market homes.
— London Tenants Federation (@LondonTenants) August 7, 2019
We need all public land used exclusively for social rented homes + social infrastructure. https://t.co/AqQnBDXbfn
While new homelessness minister Luke Hall has been getting in some photo opps in north London:
Homelessness Minister @LukeHall joined an outreach walk early this morning with @CamdenRTS to see how they support work being done in the area to help reduce #roughsleeping and homelessness pic.twitter.com/FrZqMFXQmh
— Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg)Homelessness Minister @LukeHall joined an outreach walk early this morning with @CamdenRTS to see how they support work being done in the area to help reduce #roughsleeping and homelessness pic.twitter.com/FrZqMFXQmh
— Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg) August 7, 2019
