You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Short on time? Friday’s housing news in five minutes
A round-up of the top stories this morning from Inside Housing and elsewhere
Top story: English Housing Survey: government welcomes homeownership rise but overcrowding hits record levels
It is that time of the year again when the government publishes its annual English Housing Survey.
The mammoth report, which considers the conditions and tenures residents across the country are living in, has a number of interesting take aways.
The headline figure was that the number of young people (aged between 25 and 34) was up, with 41.2% of this age bracket being owner-occupiers, compared with 37.6% in 2017/18. However, the report revealed a spike in the number of residents living in overcrowded housing.
This was particularly present in the social rented sector, which saw 8% of all tenants of that tenure living in overcrowded homes.
West London council to assess 171 estates for regeneration in major borough-wide plan
Hounslow Council is embarking on a major review of all of its housing stock as part of a new borough-wide plan to upgrade and regenerate its homes. The west London council is assessing the state of 171 of its estates to prepare a programme of wide-scale regeneration that will last over the next two decades. The plan will also see the council build 5,000 new affordable homes by 2022.
Lunchtime long read
Today sees the fifth and final instalment of deputy editor Peter Apps’ Grenfell Inquiry phase two preview. In this instalment he looks at the warnings the local community made to those managing the block and how so many of these concerns fell on deaf ears.
Quote of the day
“One may doubt the wisdom of mounting a costly judicial review over a regulatory judgement, but others may sympathise with the association’s frustrations, too.”
Inside Housing’s deputy news editor, Nathaniel Barker, gives his account of what was an enlightening two days at the High Court, which saw housing association Inclusion take on the regulator in a bid to have a non-compliant rating quashed.
In the papers
Picture: Getty
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has followed up on its investigation from last year looking into the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) freeze with an explainer as to why the government’s recent announcement around unfreezing the LHA rate for housing benefit will not make much difference.
The organisation applied the new rate to a list of 62,000 two-bed rental adverts and found that only 900 properties under the new rate are affordable.
Local news
Picture: Getty
Almost 7,000 households on Greenwich Council’s housing waiting list have been on it for more than five years, according to a report in South London Press.
Meanwhile, the East London and West Essex Guardian reports that the mayor of London has reduced Waltham Forest Council’s 10-year housing target by almost 6,000 homes after a report revealed smaller sites were being overestimated.
The big issues that impact the regeneration and delivery of social housingSPONSORED ARTICLE
