ROOF Blog

The number of council and housing association homes for rent is at its lowest in 50 years, a Shelter Scotland report has found. Building pressure warns of a ‘growing chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available’. It estimated there were 142,000 households on the waiting list for council homes, and said the right-to-buy scheme was partly to blame for the shortage as more than 135,000 homes had been sold under the scheme in the previous decade.

House builders are drip feeding homes on to the market so they don’t flood the market and cause further price falls industry experts warned yesterday. The practice is ‘widespread’ among large scale builders such as Barratt, and they blamed a lack of competition between developers of large sites for the problem, as greater competition would bring more houses to the market.

Meanwhile a report has found that poor quality housing is holding back the economic potential of the North. The report says that northern towns and cities have a poor range of housing, in particular a lack of high quality residential homes which is limiting the potential of the region. Greater diversity of stock is needed to attract key workers to industries in the knowledge economies – a ‘vital area of growth for the North’. The report calls for the Homes and Communities Agency to switch its funding from the decent homes programme to a more broadly focused decent neighbourhood programme.

More than 100,000 young adults will leave rural towns and villages in England in the next three years due to a shortage in affordable houses research by the National Housing Federation (NHF) has found. It estimated 103,000 people aged 24 to 35 will migrate out of rural places to urban locations by 2012, because they cannot afford to live there. Around 100,000 new affordable homes are needed to be built to meet demand in rural areas in the next 10 years. The Federation is launching a new campaign today aimed at tackling the housing crisis in the countryside.

Rents are cheaper than a year ago, but rents on larger houses are increasing because of a lack of supply. In figures from website findaproperty.com, the average rents stood at £819 a month in April, down from £827 in March and £873 a year earlier. The growing supply of flats on the market – increasing for the sixth month in a row – has pushed down prices. The overall number of properties available to rent has fallen for the second month in a row. On average a property was on the market for an average of 63 days, 15 days longer than a year ago.

The Chancellor is expected to confirm a £1 billion emergency package to kick start the housing market. The deal would see the Treasury offering to take a share in housing projects where work has stalled either due to falling house prices or a lack of finance, along with providing a fund to reverse the trend in council house building. In addition, Mr Darling is expected to extend the temporary suspension in stamp duty on houses costing up to £175,000 until the end of the year.

The number of people living in overcrowded homes in England will soar 15 per cent to 2.6 million by 2011 as unemployment and repossessions bite, the National Housing Federation warned today. It says an extra 350,000 people would be living in overcrowded conditions in the next two years, exacerbated by the economic slowdown which has left as few as 70,000 new homes being built this year - down from 140,000 in 2008/09. Regionally, the most severe living conditions are in London, where 6.6 per cent of all homes are officially classified as overcrowded.

More than 1.6 million young people aged 18 to 24 are living with friends or family, nearly triple the number doing the same things this time last year. Research by Abbey Mortgages also found that among the 35 to 54 age group, more than 300,000 people are living rent free under someone’s roof, and said that in the current climate many people had little choice but to return home or turn to their friends or family.

A third of armed forces families in Ministry of Defence (MoD) housing are unhappy with their standard of housing, a National Audit Office report has found. In the past two years just 1,700 of forces’ 50,000 homes have been upgraded, and at the rate of progress it will take two decades to get the housing stock up to standard. More than 9,000 properties, or 18 per cent of stock, are standing empty because they are in the wrong location or are too small for families. The MoD provides housing for 42,000 army personal and families and spends £38 million on maintaining vacant properties and £16 million on private rented accommodation for families it cannot house.

Just ‘one square mile of land’ could solve the shortage of land in England for Gypsy and Traveller sites. A new report from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission found that investing in proper provision could generate income for councils, improve community relations and provide decent accommodation. The report shows that well-run, authorised sites could exist in harmony within communities, and could cost less than the £18 million of council taxpayers’ money a year.