Section: Yesterday's News
Five Years Ago
In October 2002 we were reporting:
- The Government announced details of a £20 million pilot scheme, that aims to encourages Housing Benefit claimants to look for homes with low rents. Under the new proposed system, a flat rate of Housing Benefit will be paid to private tenants. This will be set by the local Rent Officer at a rate estimated to be the medium for that area. Only the flat rate will be paid and tenants with higher rents will have to make up the difference themselves. Tenants with lower rents will be allowed to keep the difference......
- In their response to the Government's consultation paper The Way Forward for Housing Capital Finance, the Chartered Institute of Housing, National Housing Federation and Local Government Association all concluded that abolishing local authority Social Housing Grant would damage efforts to tackle the housing crisis. In particular, the responses argue that excluding local authority involvement will mean that local needs may be ignored......
- In this case with a difference, a registered disabled lady complained that Plymouth City Council failed since 1996 to take appropriate action to require her neighbour to remove his chipmunk cages from her garden. The cages block a short cut to the local shop via the complainant's garden and a rear lane. The Ombudsman recommended that the Council should take the necessary actions to resolve matters, apologise to the complainant and pay her £1,500 in compensation......
- A new Housing Corporation consultation paper supports payments for housing association board members - but only if a strong argument in favour can be presented. Currently, associations cannot pay their board members more than £50 a year - except for out of pocket expenses......
- Part funding from the Department of Trade and Industry will support a new pilot project, which will examine the benefits of turning hydrogen into electricity to provide heat and power to some of Black Country HG's housing stock. The fuel cell system provides hot water and electricity by combining hydrogen with electricity. It produces no harmful emissions and can be introduced to individual dwellings as required. The project will also consider the possibility of delivering hydrogen through the national grid system......
- Brent Council took consultation a step further with a 49 metre message projected on the side of high-rise Craik Court in Kilburn. The exercise was intended to stimulate community interest in the Council's regeneration plans for the area, which has attracted New Deal for Communities funding......
- Private tenants held a demonstration outside the Old Bailey, calling for the introduction of licensing for shared houses and for measures that ensure that all private landlords are fit and proper to manage. Measures called for include a change in the law to require all those who manage private rented housing to show they are fit and proper to do so......
- The Government extended its Gypsy Sites Refurbishment Grant to provide new transit sites and emergency stopping places. The grant is aimed at refurbishing the existing network of local authority Gypsy sites. The funding will help councils to tackle unauthorised encampments by providing transit sites for short stays, as well as improving facilities such as clean water supply and waste collection on permanent sites......
One Year Ago
In October 2006 we were reporting:
- New research published by the Department for Work and Pensions looks at the introduction, implementation, and delivery of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), as experienced and influenced by those organisations centrally involved in the nine Pathfinder areas over the two-year evaluation period. The main question addressed in this stream of the evaluation is whether the LHA offers substantial administrative advantages in the delivery of HB in the Pathfinders......
- Housing associations have pulled out all the stops to meet government targets, having upgraded three times as many properties to a decent homes standard than was expected. Some 60,000 affordable homes achieved the decent mark last year, a figure well over the target of 20,000 homes. Housing associations are on course to meet the 2010 deadline to upgrade all stock to the decent standard......
- The Housing Corporation launched its Neighbourhoods and Communities Strategy, with the message that housing associations need to work harder with the communities they serve. The strategy aims to build on the achievements of housing associations through working with local communities and delivering added value activities. It aims to encourage more associations to become further involved in activities beyond simply housing......
- New research from national homelessness charity Crisis claims that learning and skills are the key routes out of homelessness. Over half of homeless people want to participate in such activities, but only one fifth do. In their recent research report, Missed Opportunities, Crisis points out that a third of homeless people have no qualifications. Crisis says that adult learning provision is not reaching this vulnerable group......
- Housing Minister Yvette Cooper confirmed 45 towns and cities as New Growth Points, with the potential to deliver up to 100,000 extra new homes and many more new jobs than previously planned over the next ten years. The proposals will deliver a substantial number of new homes to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder and enable towns and cities to grow their economies by creating new jobs and encouraging business development......
- Angus Council's housing division became Scotland's first and only local authority to be awarded self-assessment status by Communities Scotland. To achieve this status, the Council had to show that at least 75% of its housing stock met the recently introduced Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and was on target for 100% compliance across all council owned housing by 2015......
- Look Ahead Housing and Care produced a good practice guide to help supported housing providers plan for risk management. Look Ahead hopes that the guide will help supporting people providers improve their working practices, as well as meet the standards stipulated in the Quality Assessment Framework. Entitled Positive Risk Taking, the good practice guide uses snapshots of a recent research project to contextualise the importance of risk assessment and highlight the problems organisations are currently facing in trying to manage this imperfect science......
- The Housing Corporation announced it intends to direct Black Roof Community Housing Association (BRCHA) to transfer its land to another registered social landlord, in accordance with paragraph 27 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1996. The Corporation also intends to make an order removing three members of the board of BRCHA in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 24 (2) (a) of Schedule 1 to the 1996 Act......
- Five years on from the launch of the Government's Choice Based Lettings (CBL) programme, new research highlights the positive impact of such schemes, which are a way of allocating social housing by giving tenants a greater say over where they live. Monitoring the Longer Term Impacts of Choice-based Lettings was carried out for the Department for Communities and Local Government by Heriot Watt University and the British Market Research Bureau......
- The Housing Corporation announced a new major research initiative, aimed at piloting new approaches to regulation based on accountability to tenants. The research will focus on how associations can develop self-regulation regimes based on their tenants' views and how these might fit with existing and future approaches to regulation and inspection......
