In a report, Localis called on the government to make it easier for councils to re-designate green belt land to encourage more housing, start work on new towns in the South East, build housing factories and use public land more directly.
The thinktank said local authorities should be allowed to re-designate green belt land through creating “yellowfield registers”, where land suitable for housing developments could be listed “where green belt protection is unwarranted”.
Here is the report:
A thinktank found that if the new Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap was introduced today, the number of social tenants whose rents are not covered by housing benefit would rise from 2.3 million to 2.5 million.
Currently the LHA cap, which limits the amount of housing benefit that a tenant can receive according to a locally-determined rate, applies only in the private rented sector. From April 2019, it will be extended to social tenants.
Here is the report:
The report suggests that tenants on lower incomes tend to spend a higher proportion of their income on rent, even discounting housing benefit. Nearly half of low-income private renters – 43% – receive housing benefit, with 10% receiving enough to cover their rent fully.
The cuts to housing benefit since 2011, the IFS calculated, have saved the government £3bn a year, with this cost passed on to low-income renters.
The latest report from the Smith Institute makes a case for more investment in Local Housing Companies.
They say
“This report attempts to capture the rapid rise in local housing companies (LHCs), which has occurred among councils of all types throughout England. This growth in council owned companies providing a mix of housing tenures has been acknowledged by the local government and housing communities, but largely over-looked by Whitehall and Westminster. Indeed, as we mention, there is still no official register or chronicle of LHCs. Yet, councillors and council officers are busy establishing and running housing companies, many in district councils as well as the major cities. On the current trend, up to half of all councils in England may have a LHC by 2020, most building on council land.This report attempts to capture the rapid rise in local housing companies (LHCs), which has occurred among councils of all types throughout England. This growth in council owned companies providing a mix of housing tenures has been acknowledged by the local government and housing communities, but largely over-looked by Whitehall and Westminster. Indeed, as we mention, there is still no official register or chronicle of LHCs. Yet, councillors and council officers are busy establishing and running housing companies, many in district councils as well as the major cities. On the current trend, up to half of all councils in England may have a LHC by 2020, most building on council land”.
Here is the report:
Here is the latest risk profile form the HCA.
It picks up some issues following Grenfell on H&S in the consumer standard, but also rounds up the most common risks from the HCA perspective in the sector and those which boards should be aware of and consider for their own risk maps and risk profiling and mitigation and stress testing.
It is a useful round up and supports good governance
The ‘full service’ version of universal credit is on its way – so what do social landlords need to be doing differently to support tenants.
The following advice is helpful from the CIH:
( A blog from CIH policy and practice officer Priya Thethi).
“Universal credit is probably the biggest change to the welfare system in 40 years. Landlords in every council area will now have experienced the “live service” version of it – but a different “full service” is now on its way, and indeed has already arrived in several areas.
The live form has already presented some significant challenges for tenants, and for landlords. Emerging evidence suggests that full service is going to be more challenging again, with a much wider group of claimants, and fundamentally different systems and processes.
If full service isn’t done right, it could mean serious hardship for tenants, and serious risks for your business. This means there are some lessons to re-learn, and some important factors to keep in mind when you’re supporting your tenants through universal credit.
Informing your tenants
Claimants are often caught unaware by the wait – up to six weeks – between making a claim and receiving their first payment. It’s important to make sure that your tenants know about this, and, if possible, have built up credit on their rent accounts to help them manage. This is especially important since the claims process is often delayed by administrative errors – sometimes by several weeks.
There is the option of claiming an advance payment, if claimants can show that they’re experiencing hardship because of a delayed payment. This isn’t always well-publicised, so make sure that your tenants are aware of it if needs be.
Be aware, though, that advance payments for people making new claims need to be paid back over a period of six months. If tenants are also paying back rent arrears using third party deductions, this can reduce their allowance significantly, which makes sustaining their tenancy that much harder.
Challenging errors
If you have supported a tenant with a difficult claim, you’ll know that under live service, there was the option of a dedicated helpline for landlords.
Under full service, this option has been removed, so landlords will need to use the same route of challenge as their tenants – a helpline, or an email inbox with a response time of four working days.
As always when you’re challenging a decision, knowledge is power, so make sure that your team is clued up on the regulations. Benefits calculation software can be really helpful here.
Data sharing and disclosure
You’ll now need explicit consent to get information about a tenant’s claim. This means that your tenant will need to have explicitly stated, verbally or in writing, that they’re happy for you to receive information from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in one specific instance.
Landlords in full service areas are finding that it’s now much harder to chase up on a tenant’s claim. Some are asking their tenants to list, in their online journals, the assessment periods which they’re happy to have discussed. Others are resorting to three-way phone calls with their tenants and the DWP, or meeting their tenants in person.
Relationship-building will be invaluable here – both with your tenants and with your local partnership manager and staff on the universal credit helpline.
Planning around Alternative Payment Arrangements (APAs)
With the live service, landlords who’d successfully applied for APAs would directly receive a tenant’s housing costs as and when the tenant received their payment.
Under full service, this has been replaced with batch processing of APAs, so that landlords receive payments every four weeks. Landlords are reporting that this has made processing significantly harder, and delayed rent payments by several weeks. At Halton Housing Trust, only 20% of full service claimants use APAs, compared to 42% of live service claimants.
Consider how your organisation can support your tenants to make regular rent payments without APAs, for example, by supporting them to set up direct debits.
Reviewing your tenancy support offer
Supporting your tenants will become increasingly important as a wider group of people begin claiming universal credit.
As claims are managed online in full service, digital inclusion will become especially important. Budgeting support is also a common request, particularly for claimants with variable income, and therefore variable payments.
You’ll also find that a small proportion of your tenants will have much higher support needs than the rest; at Curo, 20% of claimants need an average of seven hours of support each. A robust process, such as pre-tenancy triage, can help you make sure that all of your tenants get the support they need at the earliest possible stage.
If your organisation is looking at a digital transformation programme, make sure that welfare reform is taken into account during the requirements-gathering stage. For example, sending SMS rent reminders automatically will free up valuable resource for supporting tenants in hardship.
This blog is part of a range of resources intended to help landlords respond to the introduction of full service universal credit in their area. Find out more” – CIH members only
CIH have completed a briefing aimed at housing research.
Here is their briefing:
What you need to know about research
It is aimed at people working in housing who need to carry out research as part of their work or for a related academic qualification. While not intended to replace formal academic guidelines, it gives a basic outline of the research process and some of the things you will need to consider in a research project.
The CIH and others have done some sterling work to understand the process of this form of tenure.
Here is their briefing:
This from IPPR report presents groundbreaking new evidence on the state of the third sector in the north of England in 2017.
Here is their report:
The north of England has a rich and vibrant civil society. In the past, that strong civil society produced radical solutions to tackle social problems, including the establishment of co-operatives, mutual societies and trade unions. More recently, as the welfare state has found itself unable to tackle social issues alone, civil society has been strengthened by its voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises – which, taken together, are commonly referred to as the ‘third sector’. Reliance on the third sector to find and deliver social solutions is stronger than ever as the North is undergoing considerable change, in response to – and as part of – longstanding economic and cultural trends.
IPPR North is currently leading a programme of research on the future of civil society in the North. This will initiate and assemble a coherent evidence base to help inform and shape local, regional and national policymaking regarding the role of civil society in the north of England. As part of that programme of work, this report presents groundbreaking new evidence on the state of the third sector in the north of England in 2017.
Data was collected in 2016 by St Chad’s College, Durham University using online questionnaires across the north of England. A total of 3,594 responses were received, including 1,462 from the North West, 1,083 from Yorkshire and the Humber, and 1,012 from the North East. This represents a response rate of 12.7 per cent across the North.
This data will be analysed in depth, and a series of reports exploring key trends and relationships in detail will be published from the early summer of 2017. This report presents initial headline findings from the study from across the whole of the north of England, and explores three key areas of analysis.
The size and strength of the third sector in northern England, including:
The financial situation of the sector, including:
An examination of third sector organisations (TSOs’) expectations about and preparations for the future.”
A new generation of young women is ready and willing to participate in politics, says IPPR
They have researched and reported on the need and how this might be achieved:
“The UK general election in June 2017 saw a rise in voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-old women, with participation up from 44 to 53 per cent compared with the 2015 general election. However, so far there is little evidence to suggest that this will translate into higher levels of party membership and political representation among women. Despite making up half of the population and voting in the same numbers as men, on average only 34 per cent of women are a member of a political party, typically the first step into participating into local politics.
We argue that political parties and institutions must seize the recent increase in voter turnout among young women to dramatically increase the numbers of women going into local politics. This must be complemented by a series of radical reforms to improve the pipeline of women rising to the top in local politics, and to correct the absence of women at the top of combined authorities”.
Here is their report:
This was covered on the front page of the Independent newspaper.
The CIH are calling for government to shift some of it’s investment in housing, away from subsidising private house building and towards directly funding more new homes for those on low incomes.
Above is a summary of the review.
CIH say:
“At the moment less than a quarter of the money the government is already spending on housing is invested in building new affordable homes to rent, and very few of these will be available for social rent. There were just 1,100 new homes built for social rent last year and we are asking government to use the upcoming Autumn budget to address that, something we know is a major priority for our members.
The annual UK Housing Review briefing paper, which also provides detailed analysis in a number of other areas including:
This CIH briefing summarises the 25th year of the UK Housing Review, provides a roundup of statistics and analysis on the current state of housing in the UK, with a focus on affordability, supply, the private rented sector, homelessness, and emerging trends in the devolved nations”
