Section: Yesterday's News
Five Years Ago
In April 2000 we were reporting:
- The Housing Corporation announced that it was developing
proposals to promote greater use of prefabrication techniques in new housing developed by registered social landlords (RSLs). It is to ring-fence a
proportion of the Approved Development Programme (ADP) over a two-year period to fund a special programme for schemes which use these techniques. The
proposals will contribute to the Corporation's strategy for implementing the recommendations of the Construction Task Force report - Rethinking
Construction. This report specifically highlighted developments in pre-assembly and in the design and manufacture of prefabricated units as
opportunities for achieving improvements...
- The Housing Corporation's regulation overhaul saw the number of performance indicators
cut from 60 to 22 for assessing the performance of registered social landlords in 2000/01 and onwards…
- Peter Law, Assembly Secretary for
Housing and Local Government, announced that all new social housing in Wales will be built to Lifetime Homes standards from 1 April 2001. As well as
ensuring that new homes are capable of adapting and meeting peoples' changing circumstances, the Lifetime Homes standard provides longer term
benefits to the community by allowing people with temporary disabilities, or who are in need of convalescence, to be treated in their home and so
relieving pressure on hospital beds...
- Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, used the launch of a new report from the Social Exclusion
Unit (SEU) to reveal the Government's proposals under its National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. The main building blocks of the National
Strategy are the reports of the 18 Policy Action Teams, PATs, as well as lessons drawn from other new programmes such as the New Deal for
Communities...
- Views on how to ensure that water consumers can enjoy better services and lower prices through greater competition were
invited in a joint consultation paper from the DETR and the National Assembly for Wales. Following a recommendation from Ian Byatt, the Director
General of Water Services (Ofwat), the right to change suppliers was being extended to all customers of English water companies who use at least 100
megalitres (100 million litres) of water per year...
- A series of measures to tackle rural homelessness, including setting up emergency
accommodation in remote areas and helping young people sustain tenancies were recommended by a new study, jointly commissioned by Scottish Homes and
Shelter Scotland. The study found that one third of all homeless Scottish households were in rural areas. It also found anecdotal evidence that
homeless people in rural areas are less likely to register with their local authority because of concerns that they would not be housed
locally...
- The call for a more systematic and evidence-based approach to tackling single homelessness and rough sleeping came in research
commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and CRASH. It found that attempts to explain single homelessness as purely a housing problem were
giving way to more complex analyses that take account of social, economic, and personal risk factors...
- The Government publishes its
long-awaited Housing Green Paper…
- The initial results from research commissioned by the Housing Corporation showed that 73% of RSLs have
a formal tenant participation strategy in place. Of those RSLs who do not have a strategy, 79% are planning to develop
one…
One Year Ago
In April 2004 we were reporting:
- A consultation exercise was launched
with social landlords in England on proposed guidance for producing policies and procedures for tackling anti-social behaviour. The consultation was
seeking comments on how useful and usable the guidance is in helping landlords to ensure their tenants have a clear understanding of what action would
be taken to deal with anti-social behaviour...
- An independent evaluation published by the ODPM showed that in areas where neighbourhood
wardens schemes were first introduced, there had been a fall in overall crime rates of 28%. The Neighbourhood Wardens Evaluation Report
examined progress in the first 84 areas to benefit from Neighbourhood Wardens under the ODPM scheme. It also showed a 10% decline in fear of mugging
and street robberies in those areas...
- The Northern Ireland Housing Executive launched its Lock Out Crime Scheme in one of its
selected five pilot areas – the Collon Terrace District. The scheme provided additional security measures to the homes of approximately 10,000
people aged 75 and over, in receipt of Housing Benefit or Rate Rebate. It operated across Northern Ireland and was available free to all
householders, whether living in public or private sector housing...
- Amendments were made to the rules on access to council housing and
homelessness assistance in England by nationals from countries within the European Economic Area (EEA). The Allocation of Housing and
Homelessness (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2004 took effect on 1st May 2004, being the date of accession of ten additional States to the
European Union - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Regulations supported a
policy of opening up the UK labour market immediately to workers from all ten of the new Accession States, while ensuring that this does not lead to
additional inappropriate demands on the social welfare system...
- The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, and Health Secretary, John Reid
jointly announced a deal to deliver thousands more affordable homes, growth, and regeneration. The agreement leads to the transfer of over 100
surplus National Health Service (NHS) sites to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The sites are for housing provision and for promoting the
regeneration of priority areas, as part of the £22 billion Sustainable Communities Plan...
- The first group of eight Arms Length
Management Organisations (ALMOs), which were set up in April 2002, received second stage funding of £473 million. The ALMOs, which were set up
in Ashfield, Derby, Hounslow, Kirklees, Rochdale, Stockton-on-Tees, Westminster, and Wigan, will gain from the extra funding in 2004/05 and 2005/06.
Initial allocations in November 2001 were for the first two years - 2002/03 and 2003/04 - with expectation that future funding would be available for
the ALMOs' Decent Homes programmes if progress was satisfactory and funding was available...
- Dame Shirley Porter agreed to a record
settlement of £12 million with Westminster City Council, which aimed to bring to an end the 15-year legal battle over the so called Homes for
Votes scandal. The settlement was just over one third of the original surcharge and subsequent interest of £42 million, levied following a
charge of gerrymandering in the 1980s...
