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council housing

Fire safety four years after the Grenfell Tower fire

Fire safety four years after the Grenfell Tower fire

November 24, 2021

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the government focused its safety efforts on replacing ACM cladding (aluminium composite material) implicated in the fire. Even so, four years later, progress is still slow. In the social sector, 78 per cent of buildings affected have had remedial work completed but in the private sector the […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, housing finance, housing associations

The Treasury has made £47bn from Right to Buy but we have paid a price in lost social housing

The Treasury has made £47bn from Right to Buy but we have paid a price in lost social housing

April 4, 2021

Government changes to the rules about spending Right to Buy receipts will make it easier for councils to reuse the money they get from selling the homes, but will it lead to enough of them getting replaced? An important concession is that councils can now use receipts to fund 40% of the cost of a […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, right to buy

Right to Buy is shocking value for money – a sensible government would ditch it

Right to Buy is shocking value for money – a sensible government would ditch it

May 20, 2019

Right to Buy continues to fiercely divide opinion. Here, John Perry argues why he believes calling time on the 40-year-old policy is now the sensible thing to do Here’s a good question for a pub quiz: what was Britain’s biggest ever privatisation? Was it British Gas, or perhaps water or electricity? All of these raised […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, right to rent

The government commits billions to private housing – it’s time to fund social homes instead

The government commits billions to private housing – it’s time to fund social homes instead

April 7, 2019

How much has government housing investment been cut since 2010? Headlines at the time reported that it fell by 60% and many people’s impressions are that it has since stayed at something like that level. But as the UK Housing Review has shown by looking at the detailed figures over the last four years, the […]

Category: Housing | Tags: housing finance, housing investment, homeownership, housing associations, council housing

The loss of social homes must be stemmed

The loss of social homes must be stemmed

March 11, 2019

According to Crisis, to tackle new housing needs and address the backlog of overcrowding, sharing and unsatisfactory living conditions, we need to build 90,000 social rented homes per year in England. Yet currently we struggle to produce 5,000. This means that, far from meeting new needs, we’re not even building enough to replace the social […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, housing investment, housing associations

How do we build 100,000 social rented homes each year?

December 5, 2018

Crisis and the National Housing Federation have just published a new report showing that 100,000 social homes are needed across Great Britain. With all but 10,000 of those needed in England, the biggest challenge will be to the Westminster government and will require a step-change in how it delivers housing.  The high numbers reflect the […]

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

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: housing investment, council housing, borrowing rules, housing finance

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 associations, council housing, borrowing rules, housing investment, housing policy, rents | 1 Response

Social rented housing is disappearing at a time we need it most

Social rented housing is disappearing at a time we need it most

February 1, 2018

Building of new homes for letting at social rents has fallen to a trickle – just 5,380 in the last financial year. The past five years have seen just 50,290 built altogether, most of these financed by social landlords without grant aid. Theresa May has promised to revive social renting “in those parts of the […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, housing investment, housing associations

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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.
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