High Court Right to Rent challenge set for year end

A date has been set in December for the hearing of a High Court challenge to the Government’s Right to Rent scheme on the basis it discriminates against foreign nationals. The challenge has been launched by the Joint Council for... View Article

Grenfell Tower style safety worries continue to emerge

Over the Summer months the Grenfell Tower public inquiry took a break after hearing harrowing evidence from firefighters involved in tackling the fire, but disquieting news continued to emerge about safety failings potentially affecting millions of residents. Concerns about the... View Article

Regulator finds just five breaches of tenants’ rights

The social housing regulator undertook 77 investigations into tenant-related issues last year, but found just five instances of the consumer standard being broken by social landlords. Figures published by the Regulator of Social Housing in its review of consumer regulation... View Article

HAs downgraded over risk management and safety issues

The social housing regulator has shown its intent to improve risk management and tenant safety across the rental sector, by downgrading three housing associations. North Somerset based Alliance Homes, with 6,300 homes under management was downgraded to a G2 rating... View Article

HA surpluses – winners and losers

A busy season of reporting financial results saw many large housing associations disclose varying fortunes due to investment in building new homes, refinancing of loans, operational efficiencies and spending more money on safety work to existing homes. Among the big... View Article

Merger deal for troubled HA

A year of uncertainty rooted in a poor regulatory assessment came to an end for a Cumbrian social landlord when it completed its merger with a large association celebrating 90 years in existence. Workington based Impact has 2,770-homes. It was... View Article

Plan to end rough sleeping in England by 2027

The Government has promised to end rough sleeping on England’s streets by 2027, as it launched a new strategy backed up with £100m “to help people turn their lives around”. The Rough Sleeping Strategy will focus on preventing people from... View Article

Green Paper – what the experts said

A cautious welcome mixed with some disappointment is perhaps the best description we can give to the responses given to the Green Paper, by representatives from across the social housing sector. On a school report the phrase “could do better”... View Article

Seven innovations ready to tackle UK’s dysfunctional housing market

Young Foundation accelerates social enterprises that support vulnerable private sector renters The Young Foundation welcomes seven new projects to the Reimaging Rent accelerator – the UK’s only innovation programme focussed on tackling issues of affordability, quality and security for vulnerable renters... View Article

May pledges £2bn for social housing

Theresa May has revealed to the National Housing Federation conference that housing associations will receive £2bn of long-term funding from the Government to build better quality affordable homes. The PM told the audience that the “most ambitious” providers will be... View Article