ROOF Blog archive

WE’RE TAKING a break but will be back with all the latest news and views on housing and homelessness on Monday, January 8.

TENANTS IN TAUNTON have voted overwhelmingly against stock transfer. In a ballot result announced by Taunton Deane Borough Council this week, 69% of tenants voted against a switch to Deane Housing and 31% in favour on a 69% turnout.

However, tenants of five estates in Sheffield have voted in favour of transferring their 3,000 homes to Pennine Housing, Acis Group and Manchester Methodist Housing Association. The votes in favour of transfer in the three ballots ranged from 73% to 88%.

MORTGAGE LENDING hit a record high in November as the housing market ended the year showing few signs of a slowdown.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the £33.1 billion total for the month was 19% higher than in November 2005 and 9% higher than the previous month. CML director-general Michael Coogan said:

‘The housing market is undoubtedly in robust shape as we move towards the New Year. Not only is today’s lending figure the highest ever, our recently published forecasts suggests lending will beat our previous predictions for the coming two years.’

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Glasgow Housing Association is to leave his job next month. Reports in the Scottish media are linking the departure of Michael Lennon to disputes with ministers over funding for GHA to transfer its 80,000 former council homes to smaller local housing organisations.

MORTGAGE REPOSSESSIONS will be 80% higher in 2006 than 2005, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Forecasts published yesterday say 18,000 properties will be taken into possession this year, up from 10,310, meaning that the number of people losing their homes accelerated in the second half of the year. However, the annual total is still well below the levels seen in the 1990s.

The CML says:

‘The number of possessions has risen more sharply than the number of longer-term arrears. Lenders appear to be taking firmer action in these long-term cases, possibly reflecting the limits to forbearance where earlier problems cannot be resolved, and this process may have further to go. The increase also appears to reflect the growing proportion of specialist lending where arrears and possession rates tend to be higher because borrowers are higher risk, for example people with past debt problems.’

Separate research published yesterday by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests that cancer patients are at particular risk. A poll conducted by the charity said 6% of people lose their home after being and 18% face problems keeping up with mortgage payments.

The CML is forecasting that house prices will rise 7% in 2007 (double the rate it expected six months ago) and 5% in 2008 despite factoring in another 0.25% rise in interest rates next year.

HE WAS 24 YEARS OLD and he hadn’t even seen Cathy Come Home. In 1966 Des Wilson was working on a campaign called Shelter from a dingy London office. In an interview to be published next week he tells ROOF (go here to subscribe) what happened next:

‘I’d been planning the campaign for nearly a year and had no idea about the film. They showed it, and next day all hell broke loose! The publicity was amazing. At the launch of Shelter the hall was crammed with journalists and TV cameras. It was like a presidential press conference.’

Armed with the PR ‘miracle’ of Cathy Come Home, he toured the country showing it at public meetings:

‘I’d turn up in the hall for the last five minutes, and walk on to the stage just after that last very graphic scene where the children are torn away from her. I’d find an audience sitting there, stunned. It made it so easy for us.’

In a wide-ranging interview the founding director of Shelter describes how he broke the rules on charities engaging in political activity in a series of controversial campaigns and how the key was to challenge the view that if people were homeless it was somehow their own fault: ‘The great thing about campaigning is that you’ve got to get people saying “yes, I see that”. The way to do that is to get them to move on, to give them a thought they hadn’t thought of before.’

In Wilson’s day the received wisdom was that only a few thousand people were homeless. ‘Ministers were defining homelessness by how many people were in hostels on any given night. It was insane! You could be sleeping in a car over there with four children and you wouldn’t be homeless by their definition.’

Back in 2006, statistics on statutory homelessness published yesterday showed there were 19,390 acceptances in the third quarter of the year, down 22% on 2005. The number of households in temporary accommodation was 93,090, down 8% on 2005 but still double the number seen in 1997.

NIGERIA, THE PHILLIPINES AND GREECE have been named as the worst violators of housing rights in the world in 2006. The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions shamed the three nations for their systematic violation of rights and failure to abide by international obligations.

The 2006 Housing Rights Violator Awards went to Nigeria for forcibly evicting more than two million people since 2000, The Phillipines for forcing people out in the name of beautification and development and Greece for evicting Roma communities and forcing them to live in slums.

COHRE’s 2006 Housing Rights Defender Award went to seven Chinese activists who put themselves at risk to expose mass forced evictions.

YOU AND YOURS continues a series of features in the BBC’s No Home season with an interview today between Jamie McCoy, who slept rough for 38 years, and housing minister Yvette Cooper. Tune in at noon today or go here to listen again. You can also listen again to programmes from earlier this week, which include a clash over the single room rent between housing benefit minister James Plaskitt and Liz Phelps of Citizens Advice. Or you can download the pick of the week’s programmes to listen to on your ipod.

COUNCIL TENANTS in North Shropshire have voted overwelmingly in favour of stock transfer. In a ballot result announced today, 79.5% of tenants approved a switch to Meres and Mosses Housing Association on a 71% turnout.

MORE DETAILS are emerging about housing-related measures in today’s pre-Budget report (see story below):

• The target for the number of people helped by shared equity schemes by 2010 has been increased from 100,000 to 160,000. This will mainly be through schemes that do not involve government money but the government will be launching a competition to involve lenders in a shared equity scheme for people who want to buy 50-70% of a home rather than the current 75%
• Introduction of the planning gain supplement has been delayed until early 2009 at the earliest pending more consultation on the details (see chapter 3 of the main report)
• The Housing Corporation will be expected to make 18% efficiency savings over the next spending review period.

In initial reactions, Shelter and the National Housing Federation presented a united front in calling for new social rented housing to take priority over shared equity. Shelter’s Adam Sampson said: ‘Expanding shared equity schemes may be good news for a lucky few first time buyers and will free up some social lets for those in housing need. However, providing these schemes does nothing to help those who will never be able to afford to buy, even with government help.’ The NHF’s David Orr said: ‘Shared equity schemes alone will not end the housing misery of millions of people on moderate and low incomes.’

Up to 160,000 people will be helped into home ownership schemes by 2010, according to the report of the Shared Equity Task Force. It said this was double the orginal plan, although the target was already 100,000 at the open market homebuy launch in October. The increase is accounted for by a combination of the procurement gains expected in the spending review, greater involvement from the private sector and some expansion of the market.

Not much reaction so far to the apparently dramatic announcement on the environment and new homes. The plan is to use the Code on Sustainable Homes, which is being launched next week and will apply to publicly-funded homes, as an outrider for tightening up the building regulations, which apply to all homes, so that all new homes will be ‘zero carbon’ by 2016. Expect critics to point out that:

• Nothing is being done about existing homes, which account for most of housing’s carbon emissions
• The last time the building regulations were changed on energy efficiency they were watered down
• Although exemption from stamp duty for zero carbon homes is being dangled as a carrot, cuts in VAT or council tax might have achieved more
• Last but not least, nobody actually seems to know what a ‘zero carbon’ home is!

TENANTS IN GRAVESHAM have overwhelmingly rejected stock transfer. The result of a ballot announced today by the Kent authority shows 86% voted against a move to Thameside Housing Association with just 14% in favour on a 70% turnout. The council is set to decide what to do next at meetings over the next two weeks.

TENANTS IN INVERCLYDE have voted yes to stock transfer, breaking a run of four successive defeats for the policy in Scotland. In a ballot result announced this afternoon, they voted 71% to 29% in favour of moving to housing association River Clyde Homes on a 65% turnout.

The result was hailed as ‘good news for tenants, the wider community and future generations’ by Cllr Eddie Gallacher, vice-convener of the environment and regeneration committee.

It was also good news for communities minister Malcolm Chisholm, who had been under pressure after ‘no’ votes recently in Edinburgh, Stirling, Renfrewshire and Highland. Inverclyde is the sixth Scottish authority where tenants have voted yes. He said:

‘I am very pleased with this landmark decision by Inverclyde tenants. It will see thousands of local people and their families benefit from new investment in their homes which will greatly improve their quality of life. Perhaps even more importantly, it gives tenants a direct say in shaping the future of their neighbourhoods. That is what the community ownership programme is all about.’

TENANTS IN SALISBURY have voted decisively against stock transfer. Only 29% voted in favour of the plan in a ballot result announced today; 71% voted against on a 74% turnout. Councillors in the Wiltshire town will decided what to do next at a meeting on 11 December.