An audit report said that the coalition government was not adequately monitoring the £1.3 billion New Homes Bonus paid to local authorities in England up to 2013-14. The scheme was supposed to deliver 140,000 new homes over a 10-year period: but this estimate had been produced using 'very limited evidence', and also contained an arithmetical error. The financial risk to some local authorities was substantial because of the redistributive nature of the scheme.
Source: The New Homes Bonus, HC 1047 (Session 2012–13), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | TCPA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined whether 'right to buy' (RTB) owners were more mobile than those in social housing. It was found that the probability of an RTB-owner making a long distance move fell between that of social renters and owner-occupiers. However, the difference between RTB-owners and home-owners or social renters was not significant. Social renters were significantly less likely to move over long distances than traditional owners. The results also suggested that RTB-owners were less likely than traditional owners – but more likely than social renters – to move for job-related reasons.
Source: Maarten van Ham, Lee Williamson, Peteke Feijten, and Paul Boyle, 'Right to buy time to move? Investigating the moving behaviour of right to buy owners in the UK ', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Mar
A report examined the role that shared services and outsourcing might play in the future delivery of housing association services.
Source: Mark Lupton and Joanne Kent-Smith, Going to Market: The role of outsourcing and shared services in housing associations, Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Mar
A paper examined the recent growth of community land trusts and self-help housing in order to see which forms of support had been effective in helping them flourish. It said that community-led housing organizations could provide solutions to entrenched social problems such as homelessness, lack of access to affordable homes, and neighbourhood decline.
Source: Tom Moore and David Mullins, Scaling-Up or Going-Viral: Comparing self-help housing and community land trust facilitation, Working Paper 94, Third Sector Research Centre
Date: 2013-Mar
The Prime Minister announced plans by the coalition government to restrict migrants' rights to council housing and social security benefits. Under the plans, only people who had lived in the United Kingdom for at least two years would qualify for council housing. Migrants from the European Union and the wider European Economic Area would have their benefits halted from 2014 if they had not found a job within 6 months of arriving in the UK and did not have a 'genuine chance of finding work'.
Source: Speech by David Cameron MP (Prime Minister), 25 March 2013
Links: Speech | Downing Street press release | Citizens Advice press release | JCWI press release | Migration Watch press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | New Statesman report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Mar
A think-tank report said that action was needed to revitalize the social housing sector – stopping its 'residualization' and reversing the decline in the availability of social homes. Policy proposals included: tougher regulation of the private rented sector; the ending of subsidies and tax breaks for home-ownership; the setting of social rents at a level whereby housing benefit was not required to pay for them; and a needs-based allocation scheme for publicly funded housing.
Source: Duncan Bowie, Tackling Squalor: The pivotal role of social housing, Centre for Labour and Social Studies
Links: Report | Summary | LSE blog post
Date: 2013-Mar
A paper examined the neighbourhood impacts of Right to Buy (RTB), including the areas of: residualization, neighbourhood stability, tenure and social mix, social interactions, and dwelling maintenance. Although there had been substantial socio-economic benefits of the RTB for many individual residents, the neighbourhood outcomes had been 'by no means solely beneficial'.
Source: Reinout Kleinhans and Maarten van Ham, Lessons Learned from the Largest Tenure Mix Operation in the World: Right to Buy in the United Kingdom, Discussion Paper 7168, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Mar
An article said that social housing could and should be the local hub for cost-effective, human-scale efforts to promote health and well-being.
Source: Tony Stacey and Ian Hembrow, 'How local housing can unlock lasting health and care', Housing Care and Support, Volume 16 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Feb
A report said that a radical rethink was needed of the role of non-profit housing providers. More new activities were needed that addressed the needs of all income groups and that might also generate surpluses to support more traditional social housing provision. This would require a more enterprising and innovative approach.
Source: Duncan Maclennan and Sharon Chisholm (eds), New Times, New Business: Housing provision in times of austerity, University of St Andrews
Links: Report | St Andrews University press release | GHA press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Feb
An article compared approaches to policing, and addressing offending and anti-social behaviour, in public housing in New York and in United Kingdom cities.
Source: John Flint, 'Policing public housing: New York and British cities', Safer Communities, Volume 12 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
An article examined the experience of the tenants involved in a stock transfer of council housing to the private sector. It highlighted anti-democratic tactics employed by those pursuing the transfer. The transfer process was an attack on the previous democratic control of council housing, which had been replaced with governance by experts and elites and corporate governance forms of accountability.
Source: Stewart Smyth, 'The privatization of council housing: stock transfer and the struggle for accountable housing', Critical Social Policy, Volume 33 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 was given Royal assent. The Act made the subletting of social homes a criminal offence.
Source: Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013, TSO
Links: Act | Explanatory notes | HOC research brief
Date: 2013-Jan
A report provided an overview of the social housing sector in the European Union area.
Source: Michela Braga and Pietro Palvarini, Social Housing in the EU, European Parliament
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jan
A report examined the impact of funding changes on local authority housing services in England, highlighting a number of serious concerns. Further funding cuts threatened to push services over the edge into closure, leaving individuals without accommodation or support. Local authorities risked losing experienced commissioners with a knowledge of local needs. The quality of services would be affected by lack of performance monitoring and poor pay for workers.
Source: Who Is Supporting People Now? Experiences of local authority commissioning after Supporting People, Homeless Link
Links: Report | Homeless Link press release
Date: 2013-Jan
The Northern Ireland Executive (NIE) announced plans to reform the structure of social housing provision. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) would be broken up, with the NIE taking over responsibility for overall strategy, regulation, and inspection. A regional housing body would deliver regional housing services and programmes. The landlord function of the NIHE would be 'removed from the public sector to allow for access to private funding'.
Source: Press release 9 January 2013, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: NIE press release | NIHE press release | CBI press release | CIH press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
A study examined how people's lives had changed when housing associations and their support workers were involved in aftercare decisions with local councils and hospitals. It said that integrating housing with health and social care could improve the lives of vulnerable and older people, and save thousands of pounds in health and care costs in each case.
Source: James Berrington, Providing an Alternative Pathway: The value of integrating housing, care and support, National Housing Federation
Links: Report | NHF press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
A think-tank report said that demolishing high-rise social housing blocks and replacing them with 'real streets' made up of low-rise flats and terraced housing would improve the lives of thousands of people who suffered from living in multi-storey housing. Terraced streets could exceed the housing densities (between 75 and 200 units per hectare) of most existing high-rise housing developments.
Source: Nicholas Boys Smith and Alex Morton, Create Streets: Not just multi-storey estates, Policy Exchange/Create Streets
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | RIBA press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jan
A survey examined the potential impact of benefits reform on housing associations in England. Most housing associations feared a significant rise in rent arrears and believed their residents had little or no idea how the changes would affect them.
Source: Ipsos MORI and Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, Impact of Welfare Reform on Housing Associations: 2012 Baseline report, National Housing Federation
Links: Report | NHF press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jan
