An article examined social housing policy-making in Northern Ireland. The period 2007-2011 marked the beginnings of a trend away from 'technocratic domination' by officials towards greater intervention and policy ownership by politicians.
Source: Jenny Muir, 'The dynamics of policy-making under UK devolution: social housing in Northern Ireland', Housing Studies, Volume 28 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
A report called for an increase in the supply of social rented and affordable housing. It outlined a role for local authorities and arms length management organizations in building up to 60,000 additional homes over five years, and called for the borrowing cap on local authority borrowing to be lifted.
Source: John Perry, Let s Get Building: The case for local authority investment in rented homes to help drive economic growth, National Federation of ALMOs
Links: Report | Summary | LGA press release
Date: 2013-Dec
A survey examined the intentions of councillors in 45 stock-retaining councils to build new council housing through the Housing Revenue Account. It found that 93 per cent planned to build new homes, but aspirations were relatively modest – most councillors hoped to build up to 1,000 homes over the next decade. New build council housing was the main investment priority (60 per cent), followed by 'decent homes' (18 per cent).
Source: Does Council Housing Have a Future? A Smith Institute opinion survey of councillors in England with lead responsibility for housing, Smith Institute
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Nov
The Welsh government published a Bill designed to: introduce a compulsory registration and licensing scheme for private rented sector landlords and letting and management agents; reform homelessness law, place a stronger duty of prevention on local authorities, and allow them to house applicants in the private sector housing; place a duty on local authorities to provide sites for Gypsies and Travellers; introduce standards for local authorities on rents, service charges and quality of accommodation; reform the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy system; enable local authorities to charge 50 per cent more than the standard rate of council tax on empty homes; and assist the provision of housing by Co-operative Housing Associations.
Source: Housing (Wales) Bill, Welsh Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Welsh Government press release | WLGA press release | CIH press release | Inside Housing report | BBC report
Date: 2013-Nov
The Scottish government published a Bill designed to: end the right to buy in Scotland; establish a private rented sector tribunal; change mobile home site licensing to improve protections for residents; introduce a regulatory framework for letting agents; enhance local authority powers to improve the quality of houses in the private sector; and make changes to the allocation and management of social housing.
Source: Housing (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Scottish Government press release | CIH press release
Date: 2013-Nov
The government published guidance for local authorities and tenant groups that were looking to transfer their housing stock to a private registered provider. The government also published the outcome of an earlier consultation on the manual, and statutory guidance.
Source: Department for Communities and Local Government/Homes and Communities Agency/Greater London Authority, Housing Transfer Manual: Period to 31 March 2015, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Manual | Consultation response | Statutory guidance | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Nov
A government report discussed the impact of High Speed 2 Phase One on social housing. It explained the government's approach to working with local authorities, housing associations, affected tenants, and other key stakeholders to agree a joint strategy to replace properties along the route.
Source: HS2 Property and Compensation for London-West Midlands: Decision document impact on social rented housing, Cm 8757, Department for Transport, TSO
Links: Report | DT press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report examined the impact of benefit changes on social landlords' income, arrears, collection costs and empty properties. It said that: around 10 per cent of tenant households had housing benefit cut as a result of the changes; the proportion of income collected by landlords since April 2013 had reduced; the cost of collection had risen in real terms; and, although void times had not increased, there had been a larger number of voids (with associated income disruption), as a result of more households moving. The report said that the impact had particularly affected larger landlords and those based in the North.
Source: John Wickenden, The Tipping Point?, HouseMark
Links: Report | HouseMark press release
Date: 2013-Nov
The government began consultation on proposals to change rent policy, issue a new direction to the regulator on rent, and issue new guidance to stock-owning local authorities. The consultation would close on 24 December 2013.
Source: Rents for Social Housing from 2015-16, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation document | Draft guidance | Direction on rent standard | DCLG press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Oct
An article examined the drivers of residential mobility across tenures and how these had changed between 1995 and 2007. The findings suggested that tenants of social housing were much less mobile than households in other tenures. The article noted that the costs of this immobility were difficult to quantify, but might be limited.
Source: Youngha Cho and Christine Whitehead, 'The immobility of social tenants: is it true? Does it matter?', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Oct
A study examined the experiences, attitudes and behaviour of tenants in respect of the bedroom tax and other welfare reforms, to understand how better to use interventions and incentives.
Source: Ipsos MORI, Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges Presented by Welfare Reform: Final report, Viridian
Links: Report | Viridian press release
Date: 2013-Oct
The government published the impact assessment for the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013.
Source: Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013: Impact assessment, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Impact assessment
Date: 2013-Oct
The government began consultation on proposals to issue revised allocations guidance to social housing providers. Proposals included: to 'strongly encourage' all local authorities to adopt a two year residency test, alongside other criteria that would ensure those with a strong association to the local area would not be disadvantaged; to encourage a 'housing options' approach to allocations, such that those who did not qualify were assisted in other tenures or, where appropriate, 'reconnected to their own country'; and to publish clear policy about the collection and publication of waiting list and lettings information.
Source: Providing Social Housing for Local People: Strengthening statutory guidance on social housing allocations, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation document | DCLG press release | Inside Housing report | HOC research brief
Date: 2013-Oct
A report considered the size and quality of the council housing sector in London and the prospects for renewed council building programmes to address the problem of insufficient supply.
Source: Right to Build: What's stopping councils from building more housing?, Greater London Authority
Links: Report | GLA press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A report highlighted the increase in complaints received by the Local Government Ombudsman regarding homelessness services, in particular in relation to families and young people.
Source: No Place Like Home: Councils use of unsuitable bed & breakfast accommodation for homeless families and young people, Local Government Ombudsman
Links: Report | LGO press release | Inside Housing report | LGA press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that the reluctance of the social housing regulator to downgrade housing associations' financial viability made it hard for outsiders to tell whether they were in trouble. The regulator was unable to use its statutory powers, or provide a frank assessment of concerns about a provider's financial viability, because of fears that it might trigger a re-pricing of the provider's debt and therefore undermine its viability.
Source: The Work of the Regulation Committee of the Homes and Communities Agency, Second Report (Session 2013-14), HC 310, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | HCA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Sep
A collection of essays examined the relationship between the affordable housing and philanthropic sectors.
Source: Rebuilding the Relationship between Affordable Housing and Philanthropy, Smith Institute
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Sep
A report examined the effects of reforms to the United Kingdom housing benefit system on social tenants in Northern Ireland. It assessed the likely consequences for existing housing policies, the operation of the housing market, and the housing management practices of social landlords.
Source: Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Gillian Young, and Tony O Sullivan, The Impact of the Housing Benefit Reforms on the Social Rented Sector, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Sep
An article examined how the social housing stock could be managed so as to achieve a cost-effective solution to meeting the needs of an ageing population. It considered the costs and effectiveness of a register of accessible housing.
Source: Colin Jones, 'Managing the challenge to social housing of an ageing English population', Housing Care and Support, Volume 16 Number 3/4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Sep
An article examined the policy of allowing registered providers of social housing in England to purchase complete or partially complete private homes from developers in financial difficulties. It sought to identify key impediments to this type of transfer, including the inability of providers to acquire housing stock that did not adhere to particular 'quality standards'.
Source: Manuela Madeddu, 'Housing quality and the rescue of failed private housing schemes in England: a policy review', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Aug
The Scottish Government announced (following consultation) that it was ending the 'right to buy' social houses. It said that this would safeguard social housing stock for future generations, helping to build more cohesive and sustainable communities.
Source: Press release 3 July 2013, Scottish Government
Links: Scottish Government press release | Consultation report | CIH press release | SFHA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jul
A report examined the role that money played in social housing residents' lives, their financial and social attitudes and aspirations, and their worries and concerns. It proposed a model by which social landlords could effectively support a 'silent majority' of their residents to save regularly and to establish or improve their financial security.
Source: Bad Weather, Good Habits: Encouraging social housing tenants to save more, Lemos&Crane
Links: Report | L&C press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jul
Researchers examined the views of social housing tenants in high-cost areas. Low-income tenants identified many benefits from living alongside people on much higher incomes. Almost all tenants believed that social housing in expensive areas was vital to retaining a social mix and building an inclusive society. They thought that their children benefited from attending schools in these areas, and had higher aspirations as a result. Tenants worried that moving to other, cheaper, areas would damage their work chances and their children's education, and that they would lose local support. They worried that public spending cuts, and a loss of services and support, were making their lives more precarious. Their biggest fear was that little would be left for their children and grandchildren in the way of jobs and housing.
Source: Katie Bates, Laura Lane, Anne Power, and Nicola Serle, Divided City? The value of mixed communities in expensive neighbourhoods, CASEreport 77, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (London School of Economics)
Date: 2013-Jul
The coalition government published a summary of consultation responses to proposals to charge higher rents to social tenant households on high incomes. Only around a quarter of respondents agreed with the principle involved and supported the government's proposal. The government said that it would nonetheless proceed with plans to allow landlords to charge market rents to tenant households with incomes of more than £60,000 per year.
Source: High Income Social Tenants: Pay to Stay Consultation Paper – Summary of Responses, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Consultation responses | Inside Housing report
Notes: Consultation document (June 2012)
Date: 2013-Jul
A study examined what social housing providers could do to address poverty and help prevent tenants from moving into problematic debt and rent arrears.
Source: Grahame Whitfield, Poverty and Problematic Debt: What can social housing providers do?, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | JRF blog post
Date: 2013-Jun
A study found that over three-quarters of the local councils in England that still owned housing were planning to build new homes. Under existing artificial restrictions on council borrowing, numbers were likely to be limited to 20,000 to 25,000 homes over the next 5 years: but up to 60,000 more could be built if debt caps were removed and councils allowed to borrow up to the maximum that they could safely afford to repay.
Source: Steve Partridge, Ben Taylor, and Simon Smith, Innovation and Ambition: The impact of self-financing on council housing, Association of Retained Council Housing
Links: Report | Summary | ARCH press release
Date: 2013-Jun
An article examined the risks attached to the reform agenda for social housing in England, through an exploration of the relationship between social housing and worklessness.
Source: David Robinson, 'Social housing in England: testing the logics of reform', Urban Studies, Volume 50 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-May
A think-tank report examined the future direction of housing associations. Housing associations were having to strike a new balance between their social values and commercial needs. The report considered whether the sector could continue to provide homes for low-income households; and whether it could develop new markets, including in the private rented sector.
Source: Denise Chevin, Social Hearted, Commercially Minded: A report on tomorrow s housing associations, Smith Institute
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Apr
A paper examined the recent growth of community land trusts and self-help housing in order to see which forms of support had been effective in helping them flourish. It said that community-led housing organizations could provide solutions to entrenched social problems such as homelessness, lack of access to affordable homes, and neighbourhood decline.
Source: Tom Moore and David Mullins, Scaling-Up or Going-Viral: Comparing self-help housing and community land trust facilitation, Working Paper 94, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2013-Mar
A paper examined the neighbourhood impacts of Right to Buy (RTB), including the areas of: residualization, neighbourhood stability, tenure and social mix, social interactions, and dwelling maintenance. Although there had been substantial socio-economic benefits of the RTB for many individual residents, the neighbourhood outcomes had been 'by no means solely beneficial'.
Source: Reinout Kleinhans and Maarten van Ham, Lessons Learned from the Largest Tenure Mix Operation in the World: Right to Buy in the United Kingdom, Discussion Paper 7168, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Mar
An audit report said that the coalition government was not adequately monitoring the £1.3 billion New Homes Bonus paid to local authorities in England up to 2013-14. The scheme was supposed to deliver 140,000 new homes over a 10-year period: but this estimate had been produced using 'very limited evidence', and also contained an arithmetical error. The financial risk to some local authorities was substantial because of the redistributive nature of the scheme.
Source: The New Homes Bonus, HC 1047 (Session 2012–13), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | TCPA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Mar
The Prime Minister announced plans by the coalition government to restrict migrants' rights to council housing and social security benefits. Under the plans, only people who had lived in the United Kingdom for at least two years would qualify for council housing. Migrants from the European Union and the wider European Economic Area would have their benefits halted from 2014 if they had not found a job within 6 months of arriving in the UK and did not have a 'genuine chance of finding work'.
Source: Speech by David Cameron MP (Prime Minister), 25 March 2013
Links: Speech | Downing Street press release | Citizens Advice press release | JCWI press release | Migration Watch press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | New Statesman report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Mar
A think-tank report said that action was needed to revitalize the social housing sector – stopping its 'residualization' and reversing the decline in the availability of social homes. Policy proposals included: tougher regulation of the private rented sector; the ending of subsidies and tax breaks for home-ownership; the setting of social rents at a level whereby housing benefit was not required to pay for them; and a needs-based allocation scheme for publicly funded housing.
Source: Duncan Bowie, Tackling Squalor: The pivotal role of social housing, Centre for Labour and Social Studies
Links: Report | Summary | LSE blog post
Date: 2013-Mar
A report examined the role that shared services and outsourcing might play in the future delivery of housing association services.
Source: Mark Lupton and Joanne Kent-Smith, Going to Market: The role of outsourcing and shared services in housing associations, Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined whether 'right to buy' (RTB) owners were more mobile than those in social housing. It was found that the probability of an RTB-owner making a long distance move fell between that of social renters and owner-occupiers. However, the difference between RTB-owners and home-owners or social renters was not significant. Social renters were significantly less likely to move over long distances than traditional owners. The results also suggested that RTB-owners were less likely than traditional owners – but more likely than social renters – to move for job-related reasons.
Source: Maarten van Ham, Lee Williamson, Peteke Feijten, and Paul Boyle, 'Right to buy time to move? Investigating the moving behaviour of right to buy owners in the UK ', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Mar
A report said that a radical rethink was needed of the role of non-profit housing providers. More new activities were needed that addressed the needs of all income groups and that might also generate surpluses to support more traditional social housing provision. This would require a more enterprising and innovative approach.
Source: Duncan Maclennan and Sharon Chisholm (eds), New Times, New Business: Housing provision in times of austerity, University of St Andrews
Links: Report | St Andrews University press release | GHA press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Feb
An article said that social housing could and should be the local hub for cost-effective, human-scale efforts to promote health and well-being.
Source: Tony Stacey and Ian Hembrow, 'How local housing can unlock lasting health and care', Housing Care and Support, Volume 16 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Feb
The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 was given Royal assent. The Act made the subletting of social homes a criminal offence.
Source: Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013, TSO
Links: Act | Explanatory notes | HOC research brief
Date: 2013-Jan
A report provided an overview of the social housing sector in the European Union area.
Source: Michela Braga and Pietro Palvarini, Social Housing in the EU, European Parliament
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jan
A study examined how people's lives had changed when housing associations and their support workers were involved in aftercare decisions with local councils and hospitals. It said that integrating housing with health and social care could improve the lives of vulnerable and older people, and save thousands of pounds in health and care costs in each case.
Source: James Berrington, Providing an Alternative Pathway: The value of integrating housing, care and support, National Housing Federation
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
The Northern Ireland Executive (NIE) announced plans to reform the structure of social housing provision. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) would be broken up, with the NIE taking over responsibility for overall strategy, regulation, and inspection. A regional housing body would deliver regional housing services and programmes. The landlord function of the NIHE would be 'removed from the public sector to allow for access to private funding'.
Source: Press release 9 January 2013, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: NIE press release | NIHE press release | CBI press release | CIH press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
A survey examined the potential impact of benefits reform on housing associations in England. Most housing associations feared a significant rise in rent arrears and believed their residents had little or no idea how the changes would affect them.
Source: Ipsos MORI and Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, Impact of Welfare Reform on Housing Associations: 2012 Baseline report, National Housing Federation
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
A think-tank report said that demolishing high-rise social housing blocks and replacing them with 'real streets' made up of low-rise flats and terraced housing would improve the lives of thousands of people who suffered from living in multi-storey housing. Terraced streets could exceed the housing densities (between 75 and 200 units per hectare) of most existing high-rise housing developments.
Source: Nicholas Boys Smith and Alex Morton, Create Streets: Not just multi-storey estates, Policy Exchange/Create Streets
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | RIBA press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jan
An article examined the experience of the tenants involved in a stock transfer of council housing to the private sector. It highlighted anti-democratic tactics employed by those pursuing the transfer. The transfer process was an attack on the previous democratic control of council housing, which had been replaced with governance by experts and elites and corporate governance forms of accountability.
Source: Stewart Smyth, 'The privatization of council housing: stock transfer and the struggle for accountable housing', Critical Social Policy, Volume 33 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
An article compared approaches to policing, and addressing offending and anti-social behaviour, in public housing in New York and in United Kingdom cities.
Source: John Flint, 'Policing public housing: New York and British cities', Safer Communities, Volume 12 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
A report examined the impact of funding changes on local authority housing services in England, highlighting a number of serious concerns. Further funding cuts threatened to push services over the edge into closure, leaving individuals without accommodation or support. Local authorities risked losing experienced commissioners with a knowledge of local needs. The quality of services would be affected by lack of performance monitoring and poor pay for workers.
Source: Who Is Supporting People Now? Experiences of local authority commissioning after Supporting People, Homeless Link
Links: Report | Homeless Link press release
Date: 2013-Jan
