It is not too late to join the north board mentoring programme, which starts in August.

Here is the latest diversity news too, as well as mor infoo on the new CEOs:

HDN-eBriefing-May-2016

“The UK has two related productivity problems. For many years, we have been less productive than our peers in Europe. Since the 2008/09 recession, we have added a second problem: our productivity growth – previously 2.3 per cent a year on average – has stalled.

The UK’s low-wage sectors – defined for our purposes as including retail, accommodation, food and administrative services – contribute to both of these problems. They employ a third of all workers, and produce 23 per cent of the UK’s gross value-added. But on average they are 29 per cent less productive than the economy as a whole.

The ‘national living wage’ (NLW), introduced in April, has a dispro­portionate impact on these sectors. In response to a higher wage bill we would ideally want firms to invest in productivity-enhancing technologies and training, or to review their business models to find more efficient ways of doing things. But there is already tentative evidence that some employers have instead chosen to seek out offsetting reductions in their labour costs, for example by reducing overtime pay.

KEY FINDINGS

• Since 2011 around half of the UK’s productivity slowdown can be accounted for by shifts in the structure of the economy away from high-productivity sectors such as manufacturing, and towards those characterised by low productivity, such as accommodation and food.
• Our low-wage sectors are less productive than their equivalents in western Europe. New IPPR analysis suggests that if we were able to raise productivity levels among low-wage firms to the levels seen elsewhere, the UK could close a third of its average productivity gap with Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
• Workers in our low-wage sectors tend to be less qualified than their peers in Europe, while firms in the UK’s low-wage sectors are less likely to offer training to their staff.
• Low-wage sector firms invest less in innovation than both other UK firms, and firms within the equivalent sectors in Europe. In particular, low-wage firms have not fully adopted the available information and communication technologies.
• The UK’s low-wage sectors have an unusually high rate of business startups relative to other countries, but this does not translate into a higher proportion of high-growth businesses within those sectors.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

The evidence suggests that firms are not investing in the adoption of new practices and technologies that would enable them to become more productive. There are two key reasons for this: first, low awareness on the part of firms of the benefits of productivity-boosting actions; and second, limited motivation (prior to the NLW) to act given relatively low labour costs.

The government should take the following measures to help improve low-wage sector firms’ productivity.

To activate demand for productivity improvements, and rebalance innovation and growth spend

• Innovate UK should use its ‘open programme’ to expand its funding criteria to innovations in workplace organisation, job design, leadership and management – drawing lessons from international experience, including Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.
• Growth hubs should provide targeted advice and information to businesses in the low-wage sectors, and signpost Innovate UK’s new ‘open programme’ to businesses in all sectors of the economy – growth hubs are being embedded in every local enterprise partnership area, giving local areas control over how they support small businesses to start and scale up.
• Local partners should be encouraged to include their plans to prioritise the performance of their low-wage firms when they bid into the Local Growth Fund – these plans should be taken into account when evaluating bids.
• HMT and the FCA should consider aligning the financial reporting requirements for small co-ops with those for small companies.
• BIS should equalise eligibility criteria to ensure that businesses using alternative models of ownership are able to access the government support on offer.

To boost skill levels

• The government top-up to employers’ digital apprenticeship service accounts should vary with the level of the apprenticeship: higher for level 4+, and lower for levels 2 and 3 – the variation could be designed such that the overall impact is cost-neutral, or the top-up for higher-level apprenticeships could be paid as a bonus.
• Businesses should establish degree apprenticeships for the biggest low-wage sectors, starting with wholesale and retail – following the model recently developed for aerospace and other high-growth sectors.”

A major lender has warned the government that it needs to address issues with the legal structure of shared ownership before it can become a more mainstream housing product.

The head of policy at Nationwide, said the lease structure which offers little legal protection to lenders could be a “concern” if a wider range of providers join the market.

According to Inside Housing:

If a tenant is evicted from a shared ownership property for rent arrears, the whole lease is lost, meaning the mortgage lender has no legal protection.

Lenders are still content to provide shared ownership mortgages where they have a relationship of trust with housing associations that their interest will be protected.

A 52% rise in UK house prices from 2005-2015 coincides with a 46% increase in multi-family households, according to 24 Housing. Newly released research from Aviva reveals the number of 21-34s living with parents increased by 32% in same period.
Company and reduced living costs are reported main benefits of multigenerational living with 57% of respondents saying they would move back in with family to help save for a deposit.

According to Aviva’s inaugural ‘Home’ report – which focuses on the changing face of UK households – multigenerational households could be set to grow in popularity as property costs continue to rise.

Based on the rate of growth seen in the past 10 years – and assuming house prices will continue to rise – there could be 2.2 million people living in multi-family households and 3.8 million 21-34s living with their parents by 2025.

The CCH is pleased to announce the launch of our snappily titled publication 1001 Co-operative and Community-led Homes: the Housing Revolution Starts Here.  It can be downloaded at www.cch.coop/1001co-ophomes.

The publication is a directory of 26 case studies of recent co-operative housing development.  What it tells us is that there is more community-led housing development going on than we thought and its across a much wider range of housing types.

There are lots more co-operative and community-led homes being built in Europe, and there should be a lot more being developed here so that co-operative housing makes a significant contribution to the homes we need.

The government has published guidance for councils on how to apply for an exemption from the 1% rent cut.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said there will be an expectation a council should “explore thoroughly what it can do to mitigate any financial risk without recourse to an exemption, including looking at all contractual commitments”..

The guidance reveals the process by which the secretary of state will assess applications for a rent cut. Here is the guidance:

Information_for_LA_on_exemption_from_rent_reduction

It reveals exemptions will only be granted “where the local authority would be unable to avoid serious financial difficulties if it were to comply”.

Inside Housing say:

“The secretary of state will consider whether reductions in expenditure will jeopardise the ability of a council to maintain its stock at a sufficient level for social housing and whether the council has considered all options for reducing expenditure and avoiding financial difficulties.

For local authorities with a “significant stock” of homes and who have a Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the government will focus mainly on how its HRA is impacted.

Councils applying for an exemption need to “present a robust and detailed business case”, including information about the financial effects of the rent cut, findings from a comprehensive review of costs and details of assumptions including inflation, interest rates, future rent levels and Right to Buy sales.

The Homes and Communities Agency, the social housing regulator in England, has said waivers would only be considered for housing associations “who face viability or solvency issues and have considered all mitigating actions” including looking at mergers. “

At the National Housing Federation (NHF) Affordable Home Ownership conference, Sovereign and Riverside – two of five landlords piloting the Right to Buy extension to housing association tenants – revealed some findings from the pilots.

Carol Lavender, divisional director for Riverside, said the average age of tenants applying to buy their home in Riverside’s pilot is 53. The oldest tenant is 96 – she’s buying a three-bedroom house.”

The tenants purchasing homes had average incomes of just under £20,000 and savings of close to £15,000, she said. The average selling price in the Merseyside pilot Riverside operates is £94,000.

Tony Quigley, director of homeownership at Sovereign, said the average age in their pilot was also in the early-50s, and the selling price was closer to £250,000 – triggering the maximum Right to Buy discount outside London of £77,000. He said three-bedroom homes were the most popular.

Here is the report from the NHC:

NHC Interim Report Page Turner

The interim report provides a synthesis of the evidence and engagement we’ve received to date and sets out the opportunities and challenges that we face. We look forward to hearing your reactions to the report and the questions posed.

We remain keen to engage with you and we will shortly be announcing a series of member-led working groups to shape policy recommendations.

For more information please contact charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk.

The NHf is consulting due to the government’s decision to cap housing benefit at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates in social housing.

The cap, which will come into effect in April 2018, has caused supported housing schemes to stop or be delayed, due to the uncertainty over funding.

Last week, the NHF published a consultation calling for views on how to fund supported housing in the future. The document suggested that one way to fund some care and support services would be to pool funding from various departments and councils to fund preventative services.

The NHF document suggests the government is making some provider costs ineligible for welfare spending or “removing some types of accommodation from eligibility for benefits altogether”.

The report invites suggestionsfor providers “security and certainty” around a localised funding stream for supported housing and which supported housing costs currently funded by housing benefit could be paid for “via another non-benefit funding route”.