The government introduced a Housing Bill. The Bill included: powers for local councils to ensure bad landlords took greater responsibility for managing their property and dealing with anti-social tenants; a mandatory national licensing scheme to raise standards in houses in multiple occupation; replacing the housing fitness standard with an evidence-based 'housing health and safety rating system'; a requirement on house sellers to provide a home information pack; a clampdown on companies and individuals exploiting the right-to-buy rules; a new social housing ombudsman for Wales; and powers for the Housing Corporation and Welsh Assembly to pay grant to bodies other than registered social landlords.
Source: Housing Bill, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 8 December 2003, column 782, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | ODPM press release
Date: 2003-Dec
A committee of MPs said that changes in public service agreement targets in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had led to 'inconsistent management and unreliable reporting on the progress in implementing targets'. Targets were becoming 'increasingly complex', posing major challenges in terms of producing meaningful ways to report progress.
Source: ODPM Annual Report and Accounts 2003, First Report (Session 2003-04), HC 102-I, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Dec
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister published its autumn 2003 performance report. It detailed progress towards key targets, including those for helping other departments meet their own targets for neighbourhood renewal and social inclusion; reducing regional inequalities; improving delivery of local services; improving the balance between housing availability and demand for housing in all English regions; and improving the condition of both social sector housing and private housing occupied by vulnerable groups.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2003, Cm 6074, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government confirmed that it intended to introduce a Housing Bill, based on a previous draft. The Bill would give local authorities powers to license landlords in the private rented sector in areas of low demand; overhaul the buying and selling of homes through home information packs; give greater protection to tenants living in houses of multiple occupation; replace the housing fitness standard by a housing health and safety rating system; and amend the right to buy to prevent profiteering. Plans to introduce housing benefit sanctions for anti-social behaviour were apparently dropped.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, 26 November 2003, columns 4-7 (Queen's Speech), TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Queen's Speech | ODPM press release | RICS press release | Shelter press release | LGA press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2003-Nov
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the draft Housing Bill. It rejected a suggestion that the Bill had taken a piecemeal approach to housing stock, and said that the Bill was a central element in the government's action plan to tackle the problems in private sector housing.
Source: The Government's Response to the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee's Report on the Draft Housing Bill, Cm 6000, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | ODPM press release | MPs report
Date: 2003-Nov
A report argued that a new mutual home ownership model was needed to solve the acute shortage of low-cost housing for key workers. The housing model proposed included a 'community land trust', designed to take land out of the market and keep it as a public asset so that affordability was preserved on a long-term basis, and co-operative tenure.
Source: Pat Conaty, Johnston Birchall, Steve Bendle and Rosemary Foggitt, Common Ground - For Mutual Home Ownership, New Economics Foundation (020 7820 6300) and CDS Co-operatives
Links: Report (pdf) | NEF press release
Date: 2003-Oct
A report set out a housing strategy for London, with the key objectives of increasing the supply of affordable housing; reducing homelessness and the use of inappropriate temporary accommodation; modernising the private rented sector; bringing social housing up to a decent homes standard; and achieving sustainable communities through housing investment and neighbourhood regeneration.
Source: Homes and Communities in London: London Housing Strategy 2003, London Housing Board, available from Government Office for London (020 7217 3510)
Links: Report (pdf) | LHB press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
A report argued that housing poverty was the most extreme form of social inequality in Britain. Most homeowners enjoyed a higher quality of housing, were able to choose where they lived, and had benefited from the rising value of housing assets. By contrast, although most tenants enjoyed much better basic standards of housing than their counterparts 60 years ago, they had very little choice over where they lived and no housing assets at all. The report called for dramatic changes to close the housing 'equity gap' and increase choice, including higher taxes on homeownership.
Source: Chris Holmes, Housing Equality and Choice, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Report (pdf) | IPPR press release
Date: 2003-Aug
The government responded to a critical report by MPs on plans for housebuilding in the south east. It said that good design was the key to providing desirable homes that were not environmentally damaging. The government announced the allocation of over 1 billion of public investment in housing and infrastructure in the 'Thames Gateway' area (east of London), aimed at providing 120,000 new homes by 2016.
Source: Government Response to ODPM Select Committee Report on Planning for Sustainable Communities: Sustainable Communities in the South East, Cm 5895, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 30.7.03, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000) | Creating Sustainable Communities: Making it happen in the Thames Gateway and growth areas, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Response (pdf) | Response | ODPM press release (1) 16.7.03 | MPs' report | ODPM press release (2) 30.7.03 | Making it happen report (pdf) | English Partnerships press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A report proposed a series of measures to achieve a more integrated approach to housing and 'liveability' policy. Regional housing boards should be directed to include plans to improve liveability in regional housing strategies; regional housing strategies should be developed alongside regional green space strategies; housing market renewal pathfinders should develop strategic working relationships with environmental regeneration agencies; Learning and Skills Councils, regional development agencies and housing associations should prioritise support for estate-based employment programmes and new social enterprises as a vehicle for improving housing and housing environments; and greater use should be made of voluntary sector intermediary organisations to help residents play a more active role in local decision-making and long-term management strategies.
Source: Graham Duxbury, On the Home Front: Improving the housing environment and delivering sustainable communities , Groundwork (0121 236 8565)
Links: Report (Word file)
Date: 2003-Jul
A report by committee of MPs on the draft Housing Bill said that the proposed 'home information pack' for prospective house buyers had not been tested widely enough for professionals to feel confident about its effects; called for all houses in multiple occupation to be subject to mandatory licensing; and said that additional measures should be introduced in the Bill to reduce abuses of the right-to-buy system.
Source: The Draft Housing Bill, Tenth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 751-I, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Council of Mortgage Lenders press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A report from a think-tank opposed to large-scale immigration said that estimates of the number of new homes required in England over the next 20 years had been seriously underestimated, because they did not take into account current levels of immigration. It said that detailed analysis of the government's household projections for England for the period 1996-2021 revealed that the figure of 65,000 for net inward migration included as part of the calculations was only one third of the actual level.
Source: The Impact of Immigration on England s Housing, MigrationwatchUK (01869 337007)
Links: Report (pdf) | MigrationwatchUK press release
Date: 2003-Jul
Five key national advisory bodies issued a joint statement setting out seven criteria for successful housing market renewal. They said that older urban areas offered a network of settlements that could become high-value locations; that heritage was an asset; and that good design was critical to regeneration.
Source: Building Sustainable Communities: Actions for housing market renewal, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400), English Heritage, Commission for Integrated Transport, Environment Agency, and Sustainable Development Commission
Links: Report (pdf) | CABE press release
Date: 2003-Jun
A think-tank report argued that government housing policy failed to tackle the main problems, which were a burdensome and inappropriate planning system, and a market heavily biased in favour of home ownership. It called instead for liberalisation of the planning regime, increased taxation of homeowners, and a 'level playing-field' in which registered social landlords were able to compete with private rental providers.
Source: Tom Startup, A Social Market in Housing, Social Market Foundation (020 7222 7060)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
Three symposium papers reviewed the history and development of the 'right to buy' policy, and discussed possible options for future reform.
Source: The Right to Buy Symposium for debate, Briefing paper, Chartered Institute of Housing (020 7833 9712) and Institute for Public Policy Research | Alan Murie and Ed Ferrari, Reforming the Right to Buy in England, Chartered Institute of Housing, Institute for Public Policy Research and Housing Corporation | John Hargreaves, Does the Right to Buy make Business Sense?, Chartered Institute of Housing, Institute for Public Policy Research and Housing Corporation
Links: Briefing paper (pdf) | Murie and Ferrari (pdf) | Hargreaves (pdf)
Date: 2003-May
A committee of MPs said the government did not have a strategy to rebalance economic activity and housing demand across England, or to redistribute jobs and housing demand more fairly across the regions. It said that a national spatial strategy could help ensure that the supply of housing was better balanced with demand, reduce the impact on the environment and share out economic opportunities.
Source: Planning for Sustainable Housing and Communities: Sustainable communities in the south east, Eighth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 77-I, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | RICS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Apr
The government announced three new housing-related reviews aimed at helping to improve housing supply and mortgage finance. Kate Barker would conduct a review of issues affecting the supply of housing, in particular the role of competition, capacity and finance in the housebuilding industry. David Miles would undertake a review of the factors underlying the low take-up of fixed-rate mortgages. John Egan would develop a skills and training strategy for economic development, regeneration and planning to deliver sustainable communities.
Source: Budget 2003: Building a Britain of economic strength and social justice - Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report, and Financial Statement and Budget Report, HC 500, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debates 9.4.03, columns 271-372, TSO | Finance Bill 2003, TSO
Links: Report | Technical annex (pdf) | Budget speech | Hansard | HMT press release | Finance Bill | ODPM press release | Consumers' Association press release
Date: 2003-Apr
The government published a draft Housing Bill for consultation. The Bill was designed to improve the worst conditions in houses in multiple occupation; replace the existing housing fitness standard with an evidence-based 'health and safety rating system'; give local authorities new powers to address the impact on local communities of bad tenants and landlords in the private rented sector; extend to five years the period needed to qualify for the right-to-buy scheme; and introduce 'home information packs' to make buying and selling houses easier.
Source: Housing Bill: Draft legislation for consultation, Cm 5793, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 31.3.03, columns 40-41WS, TSO
Links: Housing Bill consultation paper (pdf) | Hansard | ODPM press release (Bill) | ODPM press release (information packs) | Shelter press release | LGA press release
Date: 2003-Mar
A report described the processes followed, and lessons learned, by those trying to improve housing conditions and the social fabric of Wales in a rapidly changing policy context. It examined change under three main headings: working strategically; engaging communities; and meeting the needs of vulnerable groups.
Source: Joy Kent (ed.), Delivering Housing Solutions: Strategies into action, Chartered Institute of Housing (020 7833 9712)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Mar
The Scottish Executive announced a regeneration package intended to 'deliver sustainable communities, encourage community ownership and ensure a decent standard for all homes'. The package included the establishment of a 'community ownership programme' to facilitate transfer of council stock to registered social landlords; regeneration funding linked to stock transfer; debt write-off for partial transfers of council stock; and funding for more than 6,000 new homes. But campaigners accused the Scottish Executive of 'betraying' its own housing agenda, by presiding over steep falls in housing investment.
Source: Press release 18.3.03, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400) | Press release 28.3.03, Shelter Scotland (0131 473 7170)
Links: SE press release | SCVO press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The government set out a strategy and action plan for housing and community development. It said it was 'determined to put an end to poor housing and bad landlords, to deliver more affordable housing, especially for key workers and young families, and to develop new sustainable communities in regions of high demand': but that 'in doing so, we must raise the quality of how we build and what we build, protecting and enhancing the countryside and green spaces for all to enjoy'. It said the plan would include: 5 billion for more affordable housing, including 1 billion for homes for key workers; 300 million to encourage 'modern build' housing; 500 million for deserted and rundown housing areas in the north and midlands; 2.8 billion to improve social housing; and 201 million for improving the local environment (all figures in aggregate for the three years 2003-04 to 2005-06). The Environment Agency warned against the environmental risks of the government's strategy. The opposition Conservative spokesman accused the government of proposing 'bulldozing the north and concreting over the south'.
Source: Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 5.2.03, columns 273-293, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 5.2.03, Environment Agency (08459 333111)
Links: Report | Press release (1) | Press release (2) | Hansard | CABE press release | Shelter press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Feb
The Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 became law. It addressed issues such as anti-social behaviour in housing estates; grants to improve the standard of private sector housing; and the provision of caravan sites for Travellers. It was the first new primary legislation on social housing in Northern Ireland for more than ten years.
Source: Press release 28.2.03, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
A report highlighted the need for the government to tackle problems of excess housing demand in the south east and excess supply and abandonment in the north and Midlands. It said that some older inner-city areas have suffered greatly from abandonment and should be targeted for redevelopment.
Source: Katharine Mumford and Anne Power, Boom or Abandonment: Resolving housing conflicts in cities, Chartered Institute of Housing (020 7833 9712)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Feb
A committee of MPs said that action should be taken to avoid the mistakes of previous large-scale social housing programmes. It called for good practice guidance to be developed on a range of issues, including a standard workable form of shared ownership, procedures for negotiating planning gain, design guidelines for high-density housing, strategies for securing mixed tenure development, and a mechanism for ensuring that the lifetime costs of building including management and maintenance are taken into account when new affordable housing is built.
Source: Affordable Housing, Third Report (Session 2002-03), HC 75-I, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Feb
The government announced measures to restrict the 'right to buy', with the aim of easing local housing market pressures, reducing homelessness and preventing exploitation of the scheme. Maximum discounts available to council tenants purchasing their homes will be reduced to 16,000 (from 22,000-38,000). Forty-two local authorities in parts of London and the south east will be included in the scheme, unless they can demonstrate that reduced discounts would not be justified in local housing market conditions. The government also said it would widen the scope of restrictions on the resale of 'right to buy' houses in rural areas. Campaigners and housing associations said that the new restrictions did not go far enough.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 22.1.03, columns 14-16WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 22.1.03, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000) | Press release 3.1.03, Shelter (020 7505 4699) | Press release 29.1.03, National Housing Federation (020 7278 6571)
Links: Hansard | ODPM press release | Shelter press release | NHF press release (Word file)
Date: 2003-Jan
An MP introduced a 10-minute rule Bill which would establish a new bedroom standard , limiting the number of adults or children who can share a bedroom; end the practice of including living rooms and kitchen/dining rooms as rooms available to sleep in when determining whether a household is statutorily overcrowded; require local authorities to tackle overcrowding as part of their housing strategy; and require the government to consider overcrowding in decisions about funding for new affordable housing.
Source: Housing (Overcrowding) Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 22.1.03, columns 323-325, TSO
Links: Hansard | Shelter press release
Date: 2003-Jan
The Labour Party issued a consultation document on its policies on housing and transport.
Source: Sustainable Communities, Better Transport, Labour Party (08705 900200)
Links: Consultation Document (Word file)
Date: 2003-Jan
