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Against the Bedroom Tax
From 1 April something like 660,000 people who have spare bedrooms are going to be taxed if they don’t take in a lodger or move to a smaller house. This might sound like a selflessly even-handed if drastic move on the part of the welfare minister Lord Freud, given that his own house has eight bedrooms,…
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Housing and migration – following up the guide
Last July, CIH published – for the Housing and Migration Network – a UK guide to issues and solutions. It’s always good to see if guidance actually works, so I’ve been collecting a few examples since then of what housing professionals have been doing in this field. In the case of working with migrants, one…
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Barrier to success
Caps on council borrowing are hindering the building of much-needed affordable homes A government that is desperate to boost house building shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. That’s the argument behind the report Let’s get building, published at the end of last year by the National Federation of Arms-Length Management Organisations. But after…
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Who isn’t to blame for the housing crisis (and who is)
The home secretary last week criticised the ‘uncontrolled mass immigration’ that took place before 2010 for its effects on housing and public services. The latest census data show that half the population growth in the decade after 2001 was due to immigration. Theresa May is certainly right to say immigration affects housing demand, but the question…
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Borrow to build
The construction of more council houses could help provide homes to rent while boosting job creation and the wider economy. George Osborne should lift the borrowing caps on local authorities to make this happen. Only a few weeks ago Prime Minister David Cameron said again that ‘you can’t borrow your way out of a debt…
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Housebuilding stifled by government funding rules
Local authorities and arms length management organisations (Almos) are quietly gearing up to build about 3,000 homes a year over the next five years – their biggest sustained spell of new housebuilding since 1990 – as councils begin to use the financial freedoms they gained on 1 April after the housing revenue account was reformed.