General Articles

Government plans to introduce the legal right for housing association tenants in England to be able to buy their existing homes at discounted prices have been met with strong objections from across the sector. Since its introduction in 1980 the... View Article

Nottingham City Council will bring its housing service back in-house after discovering that millions of pounds intended for tenants’ homes and services were spent on other council run activities and services. Council leader David Mellen has written to council tenants... View Article

The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on updating the social housing quality standard, with a specific aim of delivering on improving energy efficiency and helping to achieve net zero carbon emission targets. Climate Change Minister Julie James said the... View Article

Market analysis from specialist property lending experts, Octane Capital, has revealed that the number of HMOs in England has declined in the past year, adding to the pressures in the private rented sector. The latest data shows that, on an annual... View Article

Nearly five years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the Government is promising to deliver a beefed up regulatory framework for social housing which puts tenants’ voices and interests at the heart of it. Ongoing reports of poor housing conditions, disrepair... View Article

The long-term promise to remove Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions from the country’s private rented sector is finally to become a reality after it was included within the Government’s new legislative programme. The procedure allows landlords to evict tenants without giving... View Article

The representative body of 350 councils in England and Wales is lobbying for permitted development rights to be removed to ensure all conversions and new developments contribute to the delivery of affordable homes across the country. The LGA claims more... View Article

A west London Council has been found to be in breach of the regulator’s Home Standard after referring itself over a failure to provide assurance it was delivering the full range of safety measures to tenants and their homes. During... View Article

Research by the charity Independent Age has highlighted the struggles of older tenants who are reliant on benefits to pay their housing and living costs, with campaigners demanding a rent freeze to prevent an upsurge in evictions. There are 382,000... View Article

Bromley Council in south east London has agreed to pay a family £6,000 after it did not do enough to help them when they were threatened with homelessness, following a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation. The family of... View Article

The social housing ombudsman has launched a systemic investigation into noise complaints and is expected to issue a report later this year. The investigation is exploring how social landlords manage reports of noise nuisance and what drives complaints about how... View Article

A consultation is underway to see whether local people want Sefton Council’s housing licensing schemes for privately rented properties extended for a further five-years. Since March 2018, Sefton Council has had a Selective Licensing scheme for private landlords in the... View Article

Work has started on installing ground source heat pumps at two of Gravesham Borough Council’s housing developments, as part of the authority’s work towards achieving net-zero status by 2030. Boreholes are being drilled at Merston Court and Hermitage Road, in... View Article

The Housing Ombudsman plans to conduct an investigation of property maintenance  services at the country’s largest social housing landlord after issuing two severe maladministration findings within a few weeks of each other. After the second critical judgement was published Richard... View Article

The annual report on complaints made against property agents showed a slight increase in overall numbers, but a reduction in the complaints made against individual agents. The Property Redress Scheme (PRS) is operated by the Hamilton Fraser Group, owners of mydeposits, Landlord Action, Total... View Article

In just 12 months time the average private sector tenant could be paying between £800 and £1,500 more a year in rent, according to research by a rental platform specialising in affordable homes. Following a turbulent 24 months, the UK... View Article