Damian Green said the flagship welfare reform would be fully rolled out by March 2022, nine years after it started being implemented.

Earlier this year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was forecasting for the roll-out to be complete by March 2021. It was originally planned to be fully operational by 2017, however, the project has been beset by delays and increasing costs.

In 2013, local authorities began piloting the reform. There were 279,315 Universal Credit claimants in June, and the DWP admitted in its latest statistical release that the “rate of increase has slowed over the last couple of months”.

The benefit has been put under further pressure by the need to implement changes announced in last year’s summer Budget, such as limiting the child element of tax credits to two children.

In the written statement, Mr Green also revealed that the department would be making changes to the programme, following criticism from the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

For the first time since Universal Credit was announced in 2010, the department is putting “specific contingency” into the plan from September 2018 to June 2019. Universal Credit is now available to all new single jobseekers in every job centre around the UK.

The English social housing regulator is probing housing associations that are particularly exposed to a housing market downturn following the Brexit vote.

In the wake of the European Union referendum and resulting predictions of a fall in house prices, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is seeking assurances from landlords that they can manage their exposure.

According to Inside Housing:

“Jonathan Walters, deputy director of strategy and performance at the HCA, told Inside Housing that the regulator was speaking to a “small number of associations” that would have large cash shortfalls if they experienced a drop in sales. The HCA idenitifed these landlords by looking at data returns.

Mr Walters said: “We’ve looked at those associations that have significant sales exposure or refinancing needs, and then we’ve looked at what happens if they don’t make the sales or they can’t make the refinancing that they expected, and who has particularly got cash shortfalls.”

The regulator is asking for additional information from these landlords about how they manage and mitigate exposures, and how their boards are providing oversight.

In the global accounts earlier this year, the HCA warned associations should have “mitigation strategies” in place to cope with a market downturn. The accounts revealed substantial growth in the associations’ surplus from for-sale activity, from £324m in 2014 to £501m in 2014/15.

Following the Brexit vote last month, Adam Challis, head of residential research at JLL, predicted a “modest down-tick in prices”, while PWC this week predicted house price growth will slow to 1% in 2017.

Steve Douglas, partner at Altair, said: “The most vulnerable are those that are still getting to grips with minus 1% [rent reduction], haven’t done their detailed stress testing, have made optimistic assumptions and have ramped up their sales programmes.”

IN NUMBERS: Sector market exposure

£501m surplus from for-sale activity in 2014/15

55% annual increase in for-sale surplus

£3bn total surplus

£2.1 billion turnover from asset sales

Source: HCA global accounts 2014/15″.

The proportion of social housing tenants with rent arrears spiked following the introduction of the bedroom tax, new data reveals.

According to Inside Housing:

“Figures from the English Housing Survey show that the proportion of social tenants in rent arrears rose from 12.2% to 15.2% between 2012/13 and 2013/14. By 2014/15, the proportion of people living in social housing in rent arrears had dropped to 14.1% – still higher than pre-bedroom tax levels.

The bedroom tax, which limits the amount of housing benefit that tenants receive if they have a spare bedroom, was introduced in April 2013.

According to the survey, of those social renters that blamed problems or delays with housing benefit for their arrears, 37% said it was due to the bedroom tax.

Another welfare reform, the £26,000 cap on total household benefits, was also introduced in some areas in 2013, however the effect has so far been minimal in lower rent areas, especially outside London.”

Associations could lessen the impact of the government’s ‘Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap’ by leasing their supported housing to a non-registered subsidiary.

Sector experts, including a senior civil servant suggest that under the policy as currently envisaged, landlords could take action to exempt some of their tenants from the government’s plan to cap housing benefit for social tenants in line with private sector rates. This is because supported housing units leased to a non-registered subsidiary would be classed as private instead of social housing.

The issue has been raised by the National Housing Federation with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

According to Inside Housing:

“The government has not yet published any regulations and could if it wanted to close the ‘loophole’, although a senior source at the DWP said ministers would be unlikely to do this as they wish to ensure the new cap only captures housing which is social and not private.

It is not yet clear whether there would be a lot of appetite in the sector for seeking to exempt supported housing units from the ‘LHA cap’ in this way. Sam Lister, policy and practice officer at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said transferring properties would be a “risky thing to rely on” because of the uncertainty over future regulations. James Tickell, partner at Campbell Tickell, said landlords may face a number of risks in leasing properties to a subsidiary, such as having to bail out a loss-making subsidiary if rents did not rise as expected.

The exemption would apply to supported housing provided by private landlords classified as ‘exempt accommodation’ providers. Exempt accommodation must comply with certain criteria, such as being non-profit and support being provided.

If a private provider not registered with the Homes and Communities Agency meets exempt accommodation criteria, the government’s new LHA rates would not apply. Existing private LHA rates would also not apply as long as they met the criteria. The government is carrying out a review of the funding of supported housing. A DWP spokesperson said details would be announced in “due course”.

‘LHA CAP’ EXPLAINED

The government announced last autumn it would cap housing benefit for social tenants in line with Local Housing Allowance rates from 2018
The cap has sparked widespread concern that if applied to supported housing – which is costlier to provide than general needs – schemes would have to close
The government is now carrying out a review of supported housing costs”

Councils and arm’s-length management organisations are calling on ministers to delay the introduction of Pay to Stay to avoid a ‘tight’ timetable, after the government failed to publish regulations before the parliamentary recess.

Local authorities were expecting draft regulations on Pay to Stay to be published before the end of the parliamentary term last Thursday. However, the regulations, which need to go before both houses of parliament, are not now expected until September at the earliest, when parliament returns.

This has caused concern that without draft regulations to work with over the summer, local authority landlords may struggle to implement Pay to Stay – under which higher-earning tenants pay up to market rent – from next April as intended.

Councils need to come up with a method of identifying higher earners, to develop a system of communicating with HM Revenue & Customs about income changes, and to devise an appeals process for tenants.

Homes for Cathy, which now numbers 20 housing associations, is planning a range of initiatives to mark the November anniversary of Ken Loach’s seminal film, which focused on the plight of a fictional homeless family.

An education pack is planned to help teachers “involve teenagers in discussions about the problem of homelessness”.

The group, with the help of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, hopes to organise a showing of the film in Westminster for politicians and organise a parliamentary dinner and reception.

The landlords are also encouraging tenants to speak about their own experiences of social housing on camera, with videos posted online.

Some of the landlords in the group have commissioned the Cardboard Citizens theatre group to perform their play Cathy, which is inspired by Cathy Come Home, later in the year. The group is open to new members joining.

According to Inside Housing research:

“found 60% of 322 English councils are still in the process of updating their Local Plans as required. The government has previously warned councils to have a plan setting out housing priorities in place by next March or face government intervention”

In a recent report, the government-convened Local Plans Expert Group said ensuring councils have up-to-date Local Plans “is one of the most significant steps the government can take to address the national housing shortage”.

Adopting a Local Plan is difficult. Local Plans have to go through six stages of evidence gathering and public consultation.

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do.”

Despite the concerns about development, the Inside Housing research also showed that of the 10 areas where the number of dwellings grew the fastest in 2014/15, only three had an adopted Local Plan in place.

For more on the findings click here.

Five of the sector’s major auditors have agreed to a liberal interpretation of new accountancy rules, ending an impasse which had threatened to add a £5bn deficit to housing association accounts.

Deloitte, Grant Thornton, KPMG, BDO and Mazars have all agreed to follow Financial Reporting Council (FRC) advice on loan classification and sign off associations’ accounts.

These accounts are being prepared under the Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102) this year for the first time.

The rules require auditors to distinguish housing association loans as either ‘basic’ or ‘other’ in the year-end accounts.

Where the ‘other’ classification is used, the loans are booked differently, which potentially adds deficits to financial statements.

Auditors had been split over the classification of a specific type of loan with an early repayment clause, and if it had been deemed ‘other’ £5bn of deficit would have come onto balance sheets.

Accountancy watchdog the FRC recommended in June that associations should decide the categorisation for themselves, provided they can offer an explanation. It then remained to be seen if the auditors which favoured an ‘other’ classification would follow this guidance.

In a briefing to members , the National Housing Federation (NHF) said: “We have since discussed the matter with the main audit firms to the sector who favour the ‘other’ classification and they have confirmed that, in light of the FRC’s statement, they would now be able to provide a clean audit opinion on this issue for housing associations choosing to account for these loans as ‘basic’, so long as associations demonstrate why this is most appropriate in each case.”

According to Inside Housing:

!When the government raised Right to Buy discounts to £75,000 in March 2012 and £100,000 in London a year later, it promised all “additional” homes sold as a result would be replaced within three years.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Inside Housingcalculated this ‘additional’ figure to stand at 27,419 homes in March this year, out of 41,756 total sales.

With 6,526 starts so far, a further 20,893 are therefore needed in three years. If current delivery levels are maintained, councils will build only 6,165 – a deficit of 14,728.

Melanie Rees, head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, added: “We have got serious concerns about whether [councils] will be able to replace the homes without more flexibility.”

In 2012/13, the first year of the scheme, 3,054 of the 5,944 homes sold were classed as ‘additional’. Three years later, enough homes have been started to meet this pledge.

But the drastic rise in sales over the next years means 4,266 further starts are required by the end of 2016/17 to continue meeting the pledge, the Inside Housing analysis shows. A total of 12,693 starts will be needed by 2017/18 and 20,893 by 2018/19.

Despite this, replacement starts fell by 44% to just 667 in the final quarter of 2015/16, according to government figures.

Alan Strickland, cabinet member for housing at Labour-led Haringey Council, said councils are hamstrung by restrictions on the use of the cash raised for replacement sales – it is limited to 30% of the cost of the replacement and must be spent within three years.

“We cannot even give the money away to local housing associations,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “Under the reinvigorated Right to Buy, councils are already replacing more than double the additional homes sold, and more council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years.” ”

Home HA plans to discount tenants’ rents, freeze property prices and top up savings in a pioneering bid to help tenants buy their social home.

Home Group is in talks with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and Number 10 over a proposed new scheme it has badged ‘Graduated Ownership’.

The model, which it plans to offer to tenants in a pilot in the autumn, could be picked up by other associations to run alongside the Right to Buy.

The 55,000-home landlord said 86% of its tenants want to own some or all of their property, but many struggle to raise a deposit. The landlord had developed a three-pronged package, which it hopes will offer tenants who do not qualify for Right to Buy discounts a route to buy their home.

First it would match the government’s contribution in a Help to Buy ISA – the government saving scheme which pays a £50 bonus for every £200 saved.

It would also freeze the price of the property for five years once a tenant began saving for a deposit, protecting them from house price inflation.

Finally, it would offer the opportunity for tenants to sign up to a ‘reduced service’ – such as taking responsibility for certain repairs – in exchange for a reduced rent which would help them save for a deposit.