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Morning Briefing: Manchester City Council eyes ambitious housebuilding plans
Manchester City Council’s ambitious housing plans, the private cladding fiasco and all today’s other big stories from the housing sector.
In the news
Manchester City Council is looking to “significantly increase” council housebuilding, with plans to build 3,000 in the next decade, the Manchester Evening News reports.
The plans will be unveiled in a paper due to go before the council’s executive next week, with a third of homes planned for the social rent market and some social rent homes being built in the city centre for the first time.
The building of these homes would mark a drastic increase from the council’s current housebuilding output, which is made up of 60 units under construction, 40 for affordable rent and 20 for shared ownership.
The paper also says the council is also officially calling for the government to devolve the Right to Buy, meaning the authority would be able to suspend it.
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There are still a number of questions surrounding the effectiveness of the government’s work in ensuring dangerous cladding is removed from the country’s private blocks.
The Guardian runs a story revealing that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government task force charged with overseeing cladding removal is still not ready, despite it being announced in June.
The government, which revealed it would be setting up the group to support councils five months ago, says the group will not begin work until January.
Inside Housing’s own take on the private cladding issue today reveals that leaseholders could still be forced to pay tens of thousands of pounds for recladding work, despite the government giving councils powers to strip the cladding.
The Evening Standard looks at Japan’s approach to its own unique housing crisis.
The country’s government has started giving away homes for free or at large discounts to try and get young people to fill the millions of homes left empty across the country.
The homes, which are situated predominantly in countryside towns, have been left empty by those who move into the city.
Stroud District Council has overspent its temporary accommodation budget by 240% already this year, reports Gloucestershire Live.
The figures have been met with concern by councillors in the West Country town, who have said the current regime of “relying on Travelodges” is unsustainable.
On social media
Homes England chief executive shows his love for the brown stuff:
#WorldSoilDay ! t.co/5dU4WQ8NOw
— Nick Walkley (@HomesNickW)#WorldSoilDay ! https://t.co/5dU4WQ8NOw
— Nick Walkley (@HomesNickW) December 6, 2018
Shadow housing secretary John Healey reflects on the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower fire 18 months on:
18 months ago, @theresa_may promised to do "whatever it takes" to keep people safe after the Grenfell Tower fire. Today we learn that only 1/7 of the 441 buildings with Grenfell-style flammable cladding have had it replaced. Shame on you, Prime Minister. t.co/kvuxmoNTQn
— John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP)18 months ago, @theresa_may promised to do "whatever it takes" to keep people safe after the Grenfell Tower fire. Today we learn that only 1/7 of the 441 buildings with Grenfell-style flammable cladding have had it replaced. Shame on you, Prime Minister. https://t.co/kvuxmoNTQn
— John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP) December 6, 2018
