In February 2002 we were reporting:
The Community Housing Task Force, which was set up by the Government to assist local authorities on stock transfer, extended its remit to include advising on plans to establish arm's-length management companies. The extended remit will allow the Task Force to provide councils that are going down the arm's-length management organisation route with the same level of support as those that are involved in preparing transfer programmes...
Housing Minister, Lord Falconer, confirmed in his speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing's presidential dinner that the Government will be issuing a consultation paper on proposals for speeding up the eviction process. The Minister denied any suggestion that the Government were on an eviction crusade but emphasised the commitment to giving landlords effective powers to deal with nuisance...
The criteria for determining whether a home is decent has changed, following DTLR consultation on how best to test whether a property provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort. Instead of being based on the proportion of income a household needs to spend on fuel costs, a property must now have effective insulation and efficient heating to meet the thermal comfort criterion...
A new report from homelessness charity St Mungo's suggests that older rough sleepers are suffering at the expense of a system that prioritises the young. As an example, the report points to the number of hostels provided for young rough sleepers in London, being 15. This compares with just one hostel provided in the capital for older homeless people, despite the fact that there are more rough sleepers over the age of 50 than under 25 in London...
Housing Minister, Lord Falconer, announced that the tenancy deposit pilot scheme is to be extended for a further two years. The government funded pilot scheme, which protects private sector tenants' deposits during and after their tenancy, was introduced in March 2000. Landlords, tenants, and letting agents who have participated in the scheme, and the Independent Housing Ombudsman, believe the trial has achieved a measure of success...
A pilot scheme involving 21 housing associations will explore the potential for a national purchasing scheme. The scheme will use a co-operative procurement company to collectively purchase specific types of goods, such as electricity and telecom services. The process will involve specialist organisations to broker deals on behalf of groups of associations. The scheme is being funded by a Housing Corporation Innovation and Good Practice Grant...
In February 2006 we were reporting:
The Department for Work and Pensions published an evaluation of the progress made by the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Pathfinders.
Key findings of the report include:
The live running of the LHA continues to go smoothly in all of the nine Pathfinders, and, for many, it is now considered the normal way of working. This has been achieved against a background of other changes in regulations, significant organisational change in some Pathfinders, and a variety of IT and staffing problems ranging from the trivial to the acute.
Direct payments to claimants still remain very high, with 87% of claimants being paid their Housing Benefit direct by May this year...
A new community made up of energy efficient, flexible homes is planned for a former hospital site in Coxheath, near Maidstone, Kent, as part of the Deputy Prime Minister's Design for Manufacture competition.
The SIXTYK Consortium, led by the housebuilder Crest Nicholson Plc, with Kingspan off-site and architects Sheppard Robson, were announced as the preferred developer for the 3.9 ha site, formerly known as Linton hospital. The announcement marks the ninth out of ten sites available through the competition, and is the second to be won by the consortium...
In a speech to NACRO, Junior Housing Minister Baroness Andrews announced that new guidance is to be issued later this year, requiring a more positive attitude by local authorities in meeting their duty to accommodate ex-offenders.
Baroness Andrews was critical of any avoidance of duty to prevent homelessness of ex-offenders and signalled a tough line on those authorities that have been flouting legislation introduced in the Homelessness Act 2002. The Act was meant to improve the situation of ex-offenders who were homeless when released from prison. In reality, nationally less than 500 have been re-housed as a priority in the first year after the Act coming into force...
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive's annual review of the housing market, found the following:
The Government appear to have made a U-turn and given in to demands from the Labour Party to explore ways of increasing investment in council housing without forcing local authorities to relinquish control of their stock.
In the past, the ODPM has firmly refused to consider extra funding without stock transfer, ALMO or PFI policies adopted. This is despite motions passed at two successive Labour conferences calling for a more level playing field. The only option left available to councils not following one of these three routes is to find the extra investment out of existing funds, since they are barred from borrowing the money on the open market. Defend Council Housing campaigners oppose all three options, claiming it is tantamount to privatisation and leaves tenants vulnerable to rising rents and insecure tenure.
At the Labour Party spring conference, it became clear that the Government has had a change of heart. Following strong lobbying by a group of MPs and grassroots campaigners, a working committee was set up at the Party's policy forum to investigate ways to allow councils to retain their housing stock and still benefit from extra investment needed to improve standards...
Latest statistics show that the number of families and single people waiting to get a council or housing association home has reached a record level of 1.5 million - a rise of 450,000 in three years. Factors contributing to the problem include social housing sales, a rise in second home ownership in rural areas and the shortage of low cost private housing.
In five authorities, the numbers of families waiting to get a home outstrips the number of council and housing association homes already occupied by tenants...
The ODPM admitted it was unable to say when its new MoveUK website will be launched, due to delays in development stages. Scout Solutions Projects are spearheading the £17 million seven-year contract, to provide a website that will assist families in moving to other parts of the UK and secure employment there, as well as access other important information about health services, etc. It was originally planned to launch the service early in 2005 but software problems have introduced troublesome delays...