Housing associations are to stop building mixed estates of privately owned and social rented homes because of the credit crunch, leading to fears of a return to ‘council ghettos’ says The Times. Bob Kerslake, head of Homes and Community Agency (HCA) said that during the past 20 years housing developments had a mix of 30
Tenants First has outlined proposals for a public housing strategy to meet the housing crisis. It calls for the establishment of a £3 billion fund to be used for a ten-year regeneration programme that will include the setting up a board of representatives from government, tenants and those marginalised or excluded from housing. Tenants First
The UK’s leading arms length management organisations (ALMOs) are meeting to discuss the most effective way of progressing towards the 2012 deadline for all homes to meet the decent homes standard. ALMOs are said to be under increasing pressure from the government to become more innovative in establishing best cost prices, market competitiveness and in
The Homes and Communities Agency is in talks with groups such as Legal & General about the way for institutional investors to build social housing. Gordon Brown is keen to find ways to increase the amount of housing, and a new public-private fund with the HCA putting equity into schemes and offering rental guarantees for
Fundamental reforms in social housing are needed to tackle concentrated areas of deprivation, a report from Localis has said. The report said that councils and registered social landlords need to fix broken neighbourhoods and should be given the ‘right to manage’ their housing stock. It also wants the role of social housing to be better
However, Westminster CC has revealed plans to embark on the biggest council house building programme for a generation in May. During the next four years the council will build almost 500 homes on brownfield and under-used sites on existing estates to help ease overcrowding and homelessness. The scheme will include 104 shared ownership homes and
The London Assembly has unanimously agreed a motion calling for an increase in the supply of family homes and improvements to the quality of family housing. The Assembly agreed a target in the Mayor’s housing strategy of 42 per cent of new social rented housing should have three or more bedrooms, but it has also
Five per cent of social housing properties in inner city areas could be unlawfully sub-let, with some people making more than £12,000 a year from it, an Audit Commission inquiry has found. Local authorities or housing associations can lose up to £75,000 on a property as a result of sub-letting, which counts as an act
Gwyneth Taylor from the National Federation of ALMOs (arms length management organisations) argues that if government funding dries up for ALMOs, which manage council housing on behalf of local authorities, one million council tenants would be affected. The federation has put together a paper providing examples of activities ALMOs can undertake to deliver social housing,
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) said that housing associations have made a promising start clearing the backlog of unsold low cost homes. During the past quarter (January – March 2009) the number of unsold properties fell 16 per cent, and the number of homes unsold for more than six months dropped 19 per cent. TSA