In February 2001 we were reporting:
The Government announced the allocation of £4.8 million, to provide 36 further communities with dedicated wardens to help improve community safety and combat deprivation. This allocation was the second to be made from the £13.5 million budgeted for neighbourhood warden schemes, which was announced in March 2000...
The Government announced its consultation paper, Fuel Poverty Strategy. Around three million households are set to benefit from the proposals, which aim to ensure that by 2010 no vulnerable household (older people, families with young children, the disabled and those suffering long term illnesses) in the UK need risk ill health due to a cold home...
Housing Minister Nick Raynsford announced that the Government is to make additional resources available to local authorities as part of the new Supporting People Grant, enabling them to keep down charges local authority sheltered housing tenants pay for their warden services, community alarms, and other support services. The new measures will also apply to former local authority sheltered housing that has been transferred to a new landlord as part of a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer...
The Government invited first round bids from registered social landlords, local authorities, and other interested organisations in the public and private sectors to participate in the Starter Home Initiative (SHI). Proposals for the SHI were set out in the Housing Green Paper earlier in 2001. It aims to build on existing grant-aided home ownership schemes, to provide assistance for the purchase of homes by key workers who need to live within a reasonable distance of their employment...
The Housing Corporation acted to alert registered social landlords (RSLs) to a potential problem, which could lead to rent increases being deemed invalid. In a letter to chief executives of all RSLs that may have granted assured periodic tenancies, Deputy Chief Executive Simon Dow said: "The Corporation has become aware that some RSLs, which do not have a contractual mechanism for increasing rents, may not be using the correct form of Notice to notify assured tenants of their new rents.
It was feared that the issue might also affect stock transfers where new tenancy agreements have been offered on transfer, but have not been signed.
The letter advised RSLs of the need to check that Notices of rent increases, which took effect on 1 April, comply with the prescribed format as required under Section 13(2) of the Housing Act 1988...
The DETR wrote to local authorities to highlight a judgement from a High Court judicial review case, which raised important questions about the compatibility of the Introductory Tenancies regime with the European Convention on Human Rights. The case was brought against Bracknell Forest DC by two of its tenants. The Department was joined as an interested party.
The claimants' application that the Introductory Tenancy regime was incompatible with several of the Articles under the European Convention was dismissed in its entirety, with the Judge ruling that there was no case for making a declaration of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998...
The Government announced that councils would be given the opportunity to set up as e-government pathfinder authorities, with the objective of showing the way forward on the delivery of services electronically. In 2001-02, £25 million is to be made available for around 15-20 pathfinders. Proposed funding allocations in 2002/03, and 2003/04 are £135 and £190 million respectively.
e-Government offers the prospect of better and more accessible local services, such as the availability of services outside standard working hours...
In February 2005 we were reporting:
New estimates published by the Government showed that Housing Benefit fraud and error has been cut by about £60 million. About £600 million of Housing Benefit was overpaid from April 2003 to March 2004, which was 4.9% of the total expenditure. In 2002/03 around £700 million was overpaid. These figures were rounded to the nearest £50 million, so the actual difference between the two figures was around £60 million...
The Association of British Insurers published its recommendation to ensure that plans for an extra 200,000 homes in the South East by 2016 take into account the increasing risks from flooding and climate change. One-third of the new developments across the growth areas are located in the floodplain.
According to the report, Making Communities Sustainable, these new homes could increase annual costs of flooding in these areas by 74%, adding £55 million to the annual flood bill, unless effective steps are taken to manage the risk. Up to 10,000 new properties could potentially be located in areas at significant risk of flooding without proper planning...
The first so called flat pack homes to be built on a large scale in the UK looked likely to come from a joint venture between Ikea and the Hyde Group. The homes will be within the Government's £70,000 target cost and will aim to meet the needs of those who have difficulty in affording the considerable step on to the first rung of the housing ladder.
The Company successfully builds cheap housing in its native Sweden and other parts of Europe. Its last efforts to launch the system in the UK, known as BoKlok (smart living), foundered in 2001 because of the price of land.
Proposals under discussion would see flats built in blocks of six with key worker schemes being target markets. It was reported that the Company was actively looking around Liverpool, Leeds, and Manchester for suitable sites...
The Local Government Ombudsmen published a special report on neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
Over the years, the Ombudsmen have received an increasing number of complaints about nuisance and anti-social behaviour. Councils now have new powers to address such problems, but the experience of the Ombudsmen is that straightforward administrative failures continue to undermine the actions taken when dealing with complaints.
In their report, the Ombudsmen identify a number of fundamental principles of good practice, which should be followed when dealing with complaints of neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour...
Having lost the first round battle of the transfer of Glasgow Council's housing stock to Glasgow HA, the Glasgow Save Our Homes Campaign switched its attention to second phase transfers. A spokesperson confirmed that the Campaign would try and persuade tenants to vote against secondary transfer to local housing organisations. The first ballots for second stage transfer were scheduled for later in 2005...