Two Worlds

A blog about UK housing, Latin America, migration and the environment

  • Home
  • Housing
  • Migration
  • Housing and migration publications
  • About
  • Contact
You are here: Home > borrowing rules

borrowing rules

'Reclassification' is the spectre in Irish housing

‘Reclassification’ is the spectre in Irish housing

November 19, 2018

Irish housing associations (‘approved housing bodies’) have had their finances reclassified so that they are part of local government, causing consternation in the sector at the threat of greater state control. This article is a response to this decision from a UK perspective, where housing associations recently faced a similar problem that has since been […]

Category: Housing | Tags: borrowing rules, housing finance, housing associations

Lifting the HRA borrowing cap should come with accounting changes

Lifting the HRA borrowing cap should come with accounting changes

October 25, 2018

Theresa May’s announcement that borrowing caps on council housing investment will be removed was a big step in the right direction, and the issuing of draft regulations appears to confirm that the caps will be lifted at the end of this month. With reports of a Treasury fight-back, the concern was that restrictions could have […]

Category: Housing | Tags: borrowing rules, housing finance, housing investment, council housing

Low Hill, Wolverhampton

Why councils don’t use their borrowing capacity

July 26, 2018

Before parliament went off for its summer holidays, the housing minister Kit Malthouse said he was ‘at a loss’ to understand why councils don’t use their full borrowing capacity to build new homes. Always willing to help out a new minister, I’ll offer a quick guide to why this apparently lamentable situation has come about.

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, borrowing rules, housing finance, housing investment

Encouraging messages, now Labour must work on the detail

Encouraging messages, now Labour must work on the detail

April 28, 2018

Jeremy Corbyn launched Labour’s affordable housing green paper last Thursday, promising one million new homes over ten years of which a significant number would be for social rent. The ambition was clear: funding will be restored to the level when Labour last held office, and councils will once again become “major deliverers” of social housing. […]

Category: Housing | Tags: housing investment, housing policy, rents, housing associations, council housing, borrowing rules | 1 Response

The wrong debate about regulation of social landlords

The wrong debate about regulation of social landlords

November 17, 2015

Reclassification of housing associations was an accident waiting to happen,  but it’s wrong to let it determine what kind of regulation should apply to the sector. It’s ten years since Steve Wilcox in the UK Housing Review first warned of the possibility that housing associations could be reclassified as public bodies. At that time the […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, borrowing rules, housing policy, tenant involvement

Q&A: Is there a risk that housing associations could become ‘public bodies’ and be ‘privatised’?

Q&A: Is there a risk that housing associations could become ‘public bodies’ and be ‘privatised’?

September 30, 2015

Why all the debate about housing associations and “public body status”? What does it mean and what are the risks and opportunities? The prime minister has called them part of the public sector and a think tank says they could be sold off in a similar way to Lloyds Bank. But what are the facts […]

Category: Housing | Tags: borrowing rules, housing finance, housing investment

Why the government’s 'long-term economic plan' should include building more social rented homes

Why the government’s ‘long-term economic plan’ should include building more social rented homes

June 18, 2015

There’s a strong economic argument for building more low-rent homes to address the massive shortage of housing according to a new report by Capital Economics for SHOUT (Social Housing Under Threat) and the National Federation of ALMOs. In fact there are two good arguments – that the capital investment boosts the economy and helps pay […]

Category: Housing | Tags: borrowing rules, housing finance, housing investment, housing benefit

The overwhelming case for new public housing

The overwhelming case for new public housing

April 9, 2015

John Healey MP and John Perry We face a housing and cost of housing crisis greater than at any point since the aftermath of the second world war. Britain is not building enough new homes, and the accommodation that is available is increasingly unaffordable to millions of people. It is a measure of a nation’s […]

Category: Housing | Tags: borrowing rules, housing finance, housing investment, housing benefit, council housing

Should councils borrow to build houses that aren’t for social rent?

February 2, 2015

A Whitehall-backed housing review has suggested councils could borrow from general funds if they have reached their Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap. But would such an approach make sense? When Natalie Elphicke and Keith House launched their new report on local authorities’ role in house building last week, they called on councils that have reached […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, borrowing rules, housing investment, housing policy

Network Rail: back to a public future?

Network Rail: back to a public future?

September 1, 2014

Network Rail rejoins the public sector today, but for statistical purposes only. Wouldn’t it make sense to follow the example of other countries and take it back properly into public control? Today Britain’s rail infrastructure passes back into public ownership: not through any political intent but solely because the Office for National Statistics decided it […]

Category: Energy and the environment | Tags: borrowing rules, public transport

Next »

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Two Worlds blog and we'll send you an email alert when we publish a new post. Please review our Privacy Policy if you have any questions or concerns.

Categories

  • Housing
  • Migration
  • Latin America
  • Masaya project updates
  • Energy and the environment
  • Central America wildlife
  • Book reviews
  • Obituaries

Tags

allocations ALMOs Amazon river Argentina armadillos asylum beds in sheds Berta Cáceres birds Bolivar borrowing rules Bosawás Brazil budget butterflies caribbean census chile climate change Colombia community cohesion coronavirus Costa Rica council housing Covid-19 Cuba daily life destitution dictators drugs economics Ecuador El Salvador energy efficiency env environment Green Deal Guatemala Gypsies and Travellers Haiti homelessness homeownership Honduras housing housing associations housing benefit housing finance housing i housing investment housing market housing policy hum human rights iguanas immigration checks India Indigenous people inequality integration interoceanic canal investment Ireland Latin America Latin writers local authorities Malvinas Masaya media Mexico migration migration policy migration statistics mining model cities Nicaragua Nicaragua crisis Nicaraguan elections Northern Ireland outsourcing panama Paraguay pension funds planning private rented sector public transport race refugees regeneration rents right to buy right to rent Scotland sloths slums solar energy Spain Spanish conquest stock transfer syria tenancy reform tenant involvement transport ukraine US intervention Venezuela Vista Alegre volcanoes welfare reform

Blogroll

  • Blogs for the London Review of Books
  • Articles for The Guardian
  • Blogs for Open Democracy
  • Blogs for Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • Articles for Counterpunch
  • Articles for The Grayzone
  • Articles for NACLA
  • Posts for Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
  • Articles for Global Research
  • Articles for LA Progressive
  • Two Worlds on Substack

Related websites

  • Chartered Institute of Housing
  • Housing Rights
  • Leicester Masaya Link Group
  • Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • UK Housing Review
Housing Guardian contributor

Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
John Perry John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on
UK housing and migration issues and writes about those
and other topics covered in this blog.
Copyright © 2012- Two Worlds. Privacy & Cookie Policy. Powered by WordPress and Hybrid.