The Housing Corporation has released a new report into whether the needs for support and guidance of small housing association are being met. Small housing associations (those owning or managing up to 1,000 homes) make up 78 per cent of all providers of social housing and over 1,300 of them are registered with the Corporation. Key recommendations in the report focus on strengthening governance by ensure a ‘strong and experienced board’; providing better access to support and guidance; and developing greater partnership working.
In the meantime, many developers are flocking to the affordable housing market in a bid to protect their businesses from the credit crunch, while those who are already Housing Corporation partners have said they are looking to increase their social and affordable housing output.
Most first-time buyers say they expect they will be purchasing their homes a bit at a time in the future. Nearly 75 per cent of those questioned think the part rent, part buy scheme (known as New Build HomeBuy) would soon by the only viable option available to them.
Lack of leisure amenities could hamper plans to regenerate areas of England and Wales. Research looked at the number of cultural facilities such as theatres, restaurants, national heritage sites, the proportion of people employed in hotels and tourism, and number of sports arenas, and found that Fenland, Norfolk; Torfaen, south Wales and Corby in Northamptonshire had the worst facilities, compared to Manchester and many central London boroughs. While the data was ‘crude’, councils use it to consider what they can do to make an area more attractive.
More than a third of adults could survive financially for only 11 days if they were to lose their job or be too ill to work, although overall a typical person could survive 52 days before hitting financial disaster. The research from the Yorkshire Building Society found that most people have monthly outgoings of £1,445 (including council tax, luxuries. debt repayments) but savings of only £2,474, excluding money tied up in a pension fund, and few have insurance to protect themselves.
Housing associations could earn a lump sum for every tenant they help find a job, as part of the package to reform worklessness set out during the week. Work and Pensions secretary James Purnell said he wanted to devolve responsibility for providing employment advice from central government to providers working in the community. Several housing associations have bid for contracts, and the department for Communities and Local Government believes that social landlords’ relationships with their tenants put them in an ‘excellent position’ to help cut unemployment in their areas.
The housebuilding slump hit economic growth in the second quarter of the year according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The economy expanded 0.2 per cent between April and June, the slowest rate of growth since the first three months of 2005. Construction output dropped by 0.7 per cent due to a ‘particularly large’ fall in housebuilding.
And finally, a house seller has announced he is cutting £1,000 a week from his asking price until the house is sold. The four-bedroom home started at £149,950 but is now down to £120,950, but the estate agent dealing with the sale expects the property to be snapped up shortly.