Disabled people and housing
On 3 April 2017 the Equality and Human Rights Commission published a report –
Being disabled: a journey less equal – which, it says, is the most comprehensive analysis ever on how the rights of disabled people are protected in Great Britain. The report covers six key areas of life. Within the section on ‘Standard of Living’ the report notes that disabled people face problems in finding adequate housing and this is a major barrier to independent living. There is a shortage of accessible housing across Britain: of councils in England with a housing plan, fewer than 17% have set out strategies to build disabled-friendly homes. The report also states that a higher proportion of disabled people have been affected by the under-occupancy charge (bedroom tax) than non-disabled people: at least 47% of housing benefit claimants affected by the under-occupancy charge have a disability. Families with a disabled child have also been affected by the charge. In Scotland the amount of wheelchair-adapted local authority housing for physically disabled people has decreased. “As resources become scarcer, and funding for specialist services for disabled people disappears, disabled people are finding it more and more difficult to access support.” To read the report,
click here To read the executive summary,
click here To read a press release,
click here For supporting information and a video,
click here
Local Housing Allowance
On 31 March 2017 the Chartered Institute of Housing published research showing that “in some areas the gap between the shared room rate of the local housing allowance (LHA), which single people who are under 35 and renting in the private sector receive to contribute to their housing costs, and the cheapest private rents in the area, means virtually all of the properties are out of reach.” CIH has urged the government to review LHA rates “as this research highlights they clearly no longer reflect the price of renting in the private market in many areas”. For more details,
click here
Client Money Protection
On 27 March 2017 the DCLG published the outcome of its working group review into whether it would be appropriate to recommend mandating that Client Money Protection (CMP) be taken out by letting agents. The recommendation of the working group was that the government should use its powers in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to make Client Money Protection mandatory for agents in England that handle client money. For the outcome document,
click here For an article on the matter by Shelter,
click here
Retirement properties – Law Commission report on unfair fees
On 31 March 2017 the Law Commission published a report concerning retirement leasehold properties. The report says that residents could be being hit with unfair fees. After a two-year investigation, the independent law body has found that there is real potential for abuse in the charging of so called “event fees” or “transfer fees”. For the report and related press release,
click here
Retirement properties – management fees
On
28 March 2017 the Homes and Communities Agency
published a note advising private registered providers who own or manage retirement leasehold accommodation of the management fee limits for the financial year 2017 to 2018. From 1 April 2017, the basic limit for the Leasehold Scheme for the Elderly management fee will be £430. The limit when management is contracted out to an agent who charges VAT will be £493. For the note,
click here
Children and housing
On 27 March 2017 the Children’s Society published a study –
Growing up in Hard Times – produced in partnership with the University of Bath. It follows the lives of 60 children, giving a child’s-eye view of growing up in poverty in Britain. The study says that the stress and uncertainty of repeatedly moving home is becoming a worryingly normal part of life for some children. The charity is calling for the government to ensure that financial support for housing costs increases in line with local rents for families who are renting privately. To read the report,
click here To read the press release,
click here
Homelessness Reduction Bill
On 30 March 2017 the DCLG published its response to two reports by the Commons Select Committee for Communities and Local Government: (1) on its inquiry into the causes of homelessness as well as the approaches taken by national and local government to prevent and tackle homelessness; and (2) its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Homelessness Reduction Bill, published on 14 October 2016. To access the response,
click here
Households in temporary accommodation – England
On 28 March 2017
the
House of Commons Library published a briefing paper providing background information on the increase in the number of homeless households placed in temporary accommodation by English local authorities and outlining various initiatives and issues associated with the increased use of temporary accommodation. To read the briefing,
click here
Help to Buy (equity loan) scheme
On 30 March 2017 the DCLG published statistics showing cumulative sales since the launch of the Help to Buy (equity loan) scheme on 1 April 2013. They show that over that period 112,338 properties were bought (legal completions) with the support of the Help to Buy equity loan scheme; the majority of sales were to first-time buyers (90,724) representing 81 per cent of total sales; the average (mean) purchase price was £233,403; and the top six local authorities in terms of completed sales are Wiltshire (1,895), Central Bedfordshire (1,626), Leeds (1,604), County Durham (1,497), Wakefield (1,480) and Bedford (1,408). For the cumulative statistics,
click here
Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme
On 30 March 2017 HM Treasury published statistics since the launch of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme on 8 October 2013. Since then 101,960 mortgages have been completed with the support of the scheme. Of these, 80 per cent were purchases by first-time buyers. The total value of mortgages supported by the scheme is £15.2 billion. Compared to total mortgage completions in each region, the scheme has supported a higher proportion of mortgages in the East of England and Scotland, and a lower proportion in the South East and London. The mean value of a property purchased or remortgaged through the scheme was £158,248, compared to a national average house price of £220,000. For the statistics,
click here
Help to Buy – Wales: Shared Equity Loan Scheme
On 29 March 2017 the Welsh Government published data which include information on the number of homes purchased and the value of the loans received under the Help to Buy – Wales: Shared Equity Loan scheme for October to December 2016. During that period 555 property purchases (to a value of equity loans of £20.4 million) were completed under the scheme, bringing the number of purchases since the scheme’s introduction on 2 January 2014 to 4,619. At 31 December 2016 there were 528 applications for loans still outstanding. Homes purchased through the scheme between 1 October and 31 December 2016 to first time buyers accounted for 78 per cent of all completions. To access the data,
click here
Legal aid and housing cases
On 30 March 2017 the Ministry of Justice published legal aid statistics for 1 October to 31 December 2016. Following the introduction of LASPO 2013 the volume of legally-aided housing work halved between July to September 2012 and July to September 2013. The trend then fluctuated for around 18 months but since 2014 it has been falling, and in October to December 2016 there was a 12 per cent decrease compared to the same quarter the previous year. Workload figures in this category of law are driven by legal help, which comprised 80 per cent of overall housing legal aid volume in the latest quarter. For the whole of 2016 housing accounted for £30 million of spending on civil legal aid. For the statistical bulletin,
click here
Private rented housing – rent control
On 3 April 2017 the House of Commons Library published a briefing paper providing an overview of the debate around rent control/regulation and including some information on a small selection of international rent regimes. To read the briefing,
click here The House of Commons Library has also published a short history of rent control. To read the history,
click here
‘Bedroom tax’ amendments – Northern Ireland
The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Size Criteria) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017, which for the most part come into force on 20 April 2017, amend the Housing Benefit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 [Housing Benefit Regulations], the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (the Housing Benefit [State Pension Credit Regulations], and the Universal Credit Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 [Universal Credit Regulations]. The Regulations give effect to the judgment of the Supreme Court in
R (Carmichael and Rourke) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and R (Rutherford and another) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) [2016] UKSC 58 relating to “bedroom tax”. For the 2017 Amendment Regulations,
click here For the Housing Benefit Regulations,
click here For the State Pension Credit Regulations,
click here For the Universal Credit Regulations,
click here
Gypsy and traveller sites – Wales
On 29 March 2017 the Welsh Government published its latest biannual report which includes information on authorised, unauthorised and local authority sites. There were 934 Gypsy and Traveller caravans reported in Wales on 16 January 2017. There were 115 sites across Wales. Comparing the January 2016 and January 2017 count, the number of caravans has increased by 5 per cent (39 caravans) on authorised sites. There were 44 caravans on unauthorised sites on land owned by Gypsies and Travellers, accounting for 5 per cent of all caravans. A further 69 caravans (7 per cent of all caravans) were on unauthorised sites not owned by Gypsy and Travellers. There were 409 pitches on Gypsy and Traveller sites provided by local authorities in Wales on 16 January 2017. For the report,
click here
Affordable homes
On 3 April 2017 the Human City Institute published
The Human City Manifesto to mark HCI’s 21st anniversary. The Manifesto is based on more than two decades of HCI’s research, initiatives and experiments, and a review of literature related to health and sustainable cities. It sets out 12 indicators of what makes settlements – cities, towns villages – more “human”: these include “Affordable Lives”, including an affordable home. The report makes 30 practical suggestions for operationalizing a more “shared society” by realising the potential of citizens and communities. To read the report,
click here
House Purchase Grant – Wandsworth
On 31 March 2017 Wandsworth Council reported that the number of council tenants buying a home on the open market or through shared ownership through a local scheme has reached a ten-year high, “freeing up dozens of homes for families in need”. Forty-seven tenants have taken up a House Purchase Grant from the council in the past 12 months, up from 32 last year. This has saved an estimated £2.8million in temporary accommodation and housing costs. For more details of the council’s House Purchase Grant,
click here and of low cost home ownership initiatives,
click here
Rough sleepers
On 2 April 2017 Crisis published a report which states that councils across England and Wales are targeting rough sleepers with antisocial behaviour measures such as Public Space Protection Orders and Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs). An accompanying survey of 458 recent or current rough sleepers found that nearly three in four (73 per cent) had experienced some kind of enforcement in the past year, with one in ten having experienced a formal measure with legal penalties. Experiences of informal measures not involving legal penalties were far more common – with the most frequent experience having been informally moved on by a police officer or enforcement agent (56 per cent within the last 12 months). To read the report,
click here To read the associated press release,
click here