People who unlawfully sublet social housing (often at a vast profit) are, in my view, dishonest and immoral fraudsters who deserve a range of punishments too awful for a family-friendly blog like this to describe. I suspect that the makers of Council Houses: Cheats and Victims (available on Iplayer, here) would agree with me. But, regardless of your views, the Panorama programme is a relatively watchable programme about social housing fraud (‘tho the attempts to link sub-letting to the problem of Pt 6, HA 1996 waiting times is perhaps less well done). Well worth an hour of your time.
Archive for the 'Allocation' Category
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Forgive the slight delay in picking this up, but the Welsh Assembly has issued a consultation on a new Code of Guidance on allocations and homelessness (closing date 30.06.2011; comments to Affordablehousing.actionteam@wales.gsi.gov.uk or by post). By any stretch, this 271 page document is a real achievement because (a) it refers where necessary to relevant case law, other guidance and research reports, from which it seeks to learn (genuinely) (b) does what CLG has singularly failed to do and updated its Code in its entirety, including (for example) reference to the proper places for eligibility enquiries, and (c) provides really quite helpful advice to housing officers and applicants in a … Read the full post
Forgive the slight delay, but DCLG published their summary of responses to their Consultation on Local Decisions: A Fairer Future for Social Housing (which we discussed here) on 28 Feb. The outcome of the consultation appears to be, um, full steam ahead on the Localism Bill. I have to say that any reader of Inside Housing would be surprised by the results. I seem to have got regular updates from IH that social landlords (of whatever political hue) weren’t going to touch the new flexible/affordable tenancy regime with a bargepole. Well, I was wrong. Surprisingly significant proportions of respondents wanted the new flexibilities: two-thirds said they “expected to take … Read the full post
Vicky Pollard continues the Chief’s west country theme, albeit somewhat stretched, to demonstrate the Con-Dem approach to consultation about their affordable rent tenancy regime (ie what consultation?). We now have more detail courtesy of the HCA and a brief ministerial statement from Shapps together with a longer press release of the Shapps saves the world type. In summary, the HCA is giving out £4.5 billion of the £6.5 billion of public funding for housing to affordable rent schemes (if you want a quick recap on these – basically, the schemes enable the landlord to charge 80% of the market rent against fixed term, so-called “flexible” tenancies with special procedures regarding … Read the full post
The Localism Bill had a second reading in the Commons yesterday. One amendment (Labour) was tabled and defeated. Looks like the significant amendments will be made in Committee. Not – I must say – the best quality debate ever as it appears to have been mostly about scoring party political points than debating the issues involved. For those who are interested, the Hansard report is available here.… Read the full post
The Localism Bill was published yesterday. I suppose it might be seen as an exciting time for the housing sector – somebody described it as a potential “paradigm shift” at an event I was at last week – but, whether or not that is correct (and it could yet turn out to be), it has left me profoundly depressed about the processes of government. The consultation document on which some of the housing provisions are based was published on 22.11.2010 (our discussion) with a closing date of 17.01.2011. The Bill has been published before the full analysis of responses to that consultation has been completed or, indeed, before … Read the full post
The heavily trailed (eg here and here), “cataclysmic” consultation paper on social housing reforms has been published by CLG today. There is much to digest and much will be left to individual PRPs and local authorities to work out. The “consultation” is limited either to specific groups or to more specific issues without challenging the underlying rationales. The Localism Bill, shortly to be introduced will carry the main proposed changes. It also seems like there will be considerable residuary powers retained centrally and locally. The executive summary of the paper (at pp 9-11) pretty much does the job if that’s all you read, but there are subtler effects and … Read the full post
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