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Housing associations should freeze their rents now – or face tenant strikes

  Housing association tenants are more likely to be suffering from social isolation, threats to employment and exposure to Covid-19 in poorly paid jobs. Few realise that they’re also facing a rent hike. This Monday, social landlords increased their rents by 2.7%. Little wonder that pressure is growing to suspend rent payments to ease financial pressures. In countries implementing a lockdown, those renting their home are becoming more vocal on the possibility of rent strikes. Pressure is mounting across the globe and there are demands in Boston and New York in the US, South Australia and Canada . In the UK, rent strikes are being discussed in numerous major cities, notably in Islington in the capital. In Cheltenham, estate agents shop windows have been graffitied with slogans such as “Can’t Pay? Don’t”. One area where there is a greater degree of influence over rents is in housing associations. Following nearly 50 years of subsidy, these are wealthy organisations. In England, their

Shared Ownership - a housing market fix?

Shared Ownership has given homes to around 180,000 families and it’s claimed that it offers a third way, an opportunity to house many more at a lower cost, another tenure that broadens the landlord offer. Some housing association websites go further and claim “It’s about getting your foot on the housing ladder. It’s a great alternative to renting and perfect if you can’t afford to buy a house outright.” Really? Whilst housing associations like selling them, the experiences of the occupiers can be quite different. Higher entry costs, administrative charges, rents rising annually, plus the responsibility for all repairs can mean the worst of all worlds. Why do increasing numbers feel trapped in the tenure?   “It’s a step on the ladder” , yet Cambridge University found ( 2012 ) that over 12 years only 27,908 had staircased to 100%, and in many rural areas freehold ownership is expressly prohibited. They concluded that many shared owners simply cannot afford to buy their property in full,

8 facts you need to know about welfare reform

  8 facts you need to know about welfare reform This blog is simple. It gives facts that contradict commonly held and repeated views. It debunks the myths that we hear regularly. Print it out and keep it near you. MYTH 1. Keeping the rise in benefits to only 1% is fair because it hits shirkers, not workers. Fact: 60% of the reduction falls on in-work households. Why? Because the 1% rise - which equates to a real-terms cut - affects universal benefits like child benefit and tax credits like child tax credit. MYTH 2. Spending on benefits for those out of work is out of control. Fact: the majority of all welfare spending is on pensioners - 53%. Also, benefits for those out of work is less than a quarter of the total welfare budget. Second, on average, between 2000 and 2010, welfare spending grew annually, in real terms, by only 1.75% - compared to 5.5% in the 1950s and 1960s, and 3% in the 1980s. Third, benefit spending in 2011-12 accounted for 10.4% of GDP, lower than the mid-80s (11%

Fixed term tenancies

Housing policy has travelled a long way from post war Britain. The modern approach was described by Housing Minister, Aneurin Bevan. When announcing major investment in building social housing he said he wanted to see places, “ ...where the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer all lived in the same street. I believe that is essential for the full life of a citizen... to see the living tapestry of a mixed community.” Today, housing policy has regained its Victorian ethos; a tool used to divide. A scalpel is being applied to the ligaments that bind community. Where there is harmony, they bring discord. The gap between the haves and the have nots, the deserving and the undeserving poor, is growing wider. For individuals, that divide is increasingly difficult to breach.   Remember 2016. It is not just the year that for the first time the state permanently stopped subsidising the building of social rented housing, it is also the year that the undeserving were chased out of

Leadership and Seductive Innovation

Whatever sector, whatever industry you are in, these are challenging times. It is all hands to the pump to find the right course. And for those fearing their very survival, it is understandable that the search for that new, powerful idea should dominate. But success will never lie in new technology alone; it is also critical to look in the right direction, not to get waylaid into seemingly seductive solutions. Look at the business and be honest, are a series of technological innovations likely? And if they are, will they make the impact on your industry that you anticipate? For service organisations in particular, constant technomania is probably an absolute distraction from the core business. Worse, it will beguile you into believing there is a promised land; that there is a magic bullet that will solve the organisation’s problems. The techno-fetishists earn their crust by promoting ever whackier and unachievable ideas. New jobs are being created, innovation labs are springing up. Cha

Grant is Dead

 

This Ole House

Published in Inside Housing: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/this-ole-house-42273  

How to issue a bond: nine tips for housing associations

Make time This path is so well trodden it is difficult to see over the sides of the trench. The legal documentation has developed over many years so there is virtually no opportunity to change it. In addition, investors need to know heir investment is secure and so satisfactory title must be demonstrated. Depending on the type of organisation and the quality of your records, this can be inordinately difficult. There is no shortcut, so start early. Do your homework The financial world is just that, a different world. Investors will know more about you than you do about them. Most are knowledgeable about housing associations and what they do not know, their in-house analysts will discover. Any credit rating (and Moody’s dominates the market) will be used to verify their analysis and may give comfort that their understanding is correct. And comfort gives confidence. Confidence can lead to a lower rate of interest – but don’t bank on it. Learn the language Coupons aren’t supermarket money-

Strategic Planning

  We are preparing our new corporate plan. With the end of the next Parliament likely to be in 2020, what is going to be different? What will have changed irrevocably; fundamental shifts that will transform how we view our world. With the Chancellor announcing that another £25bn of cuts is needed in the first two years after the election, there are four key trends that are evident.  Public services are being dismembered. Assets are being transferred into the private sector rapidly and that is likely to be accelerated after the next election. At the end of 2013, 3,670 schools had become Academy schools. There are no national figures available, but the Local Authority accounts in the county where we work show that school buildings to the value of £40m have been transferred so far. In 2014, 56% of English secondary schools were academies. Primary schools, 11% and growing. In January 2014, it was estimated that 70% of contracts being awarded by the NHS were going to private companies.  As

5 Ways to Reduce the Spare Room Subsidy

As we approach the anniversary of the introduction of the bedroom tax, its’ impact is becoming clearer. DWP figures to November 2013 show that the HB reduction has been applied to 498,174 households and each has lost on average, £14.40 per week. With increases likely as families move into the higher priced private sector, the reduction in HB is likely to be £150m short of the recently claimed £490m. Let’s remind ourselves of the core argument. Speaking in the Lords on its introduction, Lord Freud said, “We do not think that taxpayers should be expected to meet the cost of somewhere approaching 1 million spare bedrooms, a cost of around £0.5 billion every year...”   So, what else could be done to make up this shortfall? How else could households be incentivised not to hold spare rooms? In the interests of fairness, what else could be done? After all, as an exercise in using fiscal policy to influence behaviour change, the spare room subsidy has been pretty successful. It has opened our

Government Strategy - Laying the Foundations

  Unrestrained optimism is our great weakness. Whilst we always want to look on the bright side of life, it’s a risky business, particularly when it leads us to inapt conclusions. The publication of Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England late last year made many commentators, looking for a theme, seem confused. Initially grasping at individual policy initiatives as harbingers of great doom, those commentaries are now giving way to practitioners tunnelling for useful, workable solutions. The Strategy calls for new build of high quality homes, mortgage indemnity that will help some people, there’s some more funding, an increase in the Right to Buy (RtB) to meet ownership aspirations, a commitment to deliver Zero Carbon homes. As ever, there’s little detail on how any of this will be delivered. The early naysayers have taken breath and stepped aside to allow the analysts to translate policy into action and define the new direction of housing policy under a coalition govern

Redefining acceptable conduct: Using social landlords to control behaviour

  Abstract The 1996 Housing Act brought ‘antisocial behaviour’ within the remit of housing legislation for the first time. This legislation is directed exclusively at those living in council housing. There still remains uncertainty about the exact nature of ‘antisocial’ behaviour. This has implications for the reasons for outlawing it and for the application of this legislation. Using data from the British Crime Survey, it is argued that there is insufficient evidence of a growth in antisocial behaviour. This legislation is directed exclusively at those living in council housing. What appears to be occurring on local authority housing estates is that a combination of, among other things, high unemployment, high child densities and lack of public funding in community and associated facilities is resulting in higher rates of vandalism. The legislation, in reality, seeks to legitimise opposition to a range of previously acceptable behaviours. For publication click here . For complete pape

Who should cast the first stone?

  Published in The Guardian 18th April 1998

Regulating the Regulator

 

No roof of your own

 Published in The Guardian 19th July 1995

Homing in on the public sector

  Published in The Guardian, 8th February 1995

The Threat to Rural Housing