ROOF Blog

Housing Minister John Healey and the Local Government Association (LGA) today announced they are launching joint work to look at how councils can deliver new homes to tackle the shortage of affordable housing and help drive economic growth. A new Commission chaired by Lord Richard Best and made up of council chief executives, housing association chief executives and academics, will assess what councils are already achieving and advise on ways councils could play an even greater part helping to build the homes of all types the country needs, as well as extending their strategic housing role to better meet local needs and aspirations. The Commission will report to Government and the LGA in summer 2010.

Councils will be allowed to keep their rents and the proceeds from the sale of homes under an overhaul of local authority financing that reverses reforms from the Thatcher era. Along with borrowing freedoms that were recently introduced, this could lead to up to 10,000 extra council houses being built every year and mean 10 per cent more money a year for maintaining and managing Britain’s 1.8m remaining council homes, which are occupied by 4m people, the government said yesterday. Housing minister John Healey said the move amounted to a ‘once in a generation chance of change’ that should be welcomed by councils. Under the plans, the ‘housing revenue account’ system will be dismantled in 177 local authority areas. This would end the current system, whereby income from council housing goes into a central pot, not all of which is returned to local authorities.

98% of local authorities in England are failing to deliver enough affordable homes to meet need, a new website launched by Shelter has found. Shelter’s Housing League Table, launched today, found that only 8 of 323 councils in England are providing enough or more affordable homes than are needed, meaning a 98 per cent local authority failure rate. Local authorities are responsible for identifying the housing need in their area and for ensuring enough affordable homes are provided to meet this need. However, Shelter league tables also show that in the last year a total of 90 per cent of councils (292) provided fewer than half the homes they say are needed.

Buying a home has become a pipe dream for millions of young Britons – with half believing they will have to wait up to a decade or more before getting a foot on the property ladder, and only then with the help of their parents, according to a new poll. The YouGov survey, commissioned by the National Housing Federation, revealed that 86% of 18-30 year-olds could not currently afford to buy a home if they wanted to, despite recent falls in house prices. Federation chief executive David Orr said: ‘The three main parties must commit to building significant numbers of affordable homes for rent and sale to avoid locking an entire generation out of having their own home. The next government must view housing in the same terms as health, education and policing – and protect it from budget cuts, given the scale of the crisis’.

The latest generation of pod-like homes is hoping to inspire anyone concerned with sustainability and affordability and is now being touted as the newest solution to Britain’s housing shortage. Modular housing is common in Australia, the USA and Germany, but British examples have mainly been limited to one-off, self-build projects. More recently though, organisations such as the Peabody Trust have commissioned several large modular developments such as London’s Murray Grove and Baron’s Place. As well as preserving communities, flexible living negates moving costs and mortgages are available thanks to approval from National House-Building Council and CLG’s Code for Sustainable Homes scheme.

Thousands of first-time buyers will be priced out of the housing market if the Treasury presses ahead with plans to offer new tax breaks to buy-to-let investors, campaigners warn today. The Treasury published a consultation paper in February which included plans to boost the supply of private rented housing. One key proposal was for professional investors to pay stamp duty separately on each home, even when they buy a large portfolio of properties, reducing their total bill. PricedOut, which campaigns on behalf of first-time buyers who are not able to enter the property market, says the proposal is grossly unfair to first-time buyers and would make their struggle to buy a house even more difficult. William Griffith, spokesman for PricedOut, said: ‘The large tax breaks that buy to let currently enjoys mean that they can always outbid first-time buyers. It is astonishing that the government is seeking to further entrench this disparity in the housing market.’

House prices are up 0.1% compared to February, the smallest margin ever recorded at this time of the year, when prices have never fallen month on month, according to property website Rightmove. The near standstill in prices has fuelled concerns that a decline in the housing market could lead to a slowdown in the wider economy as unemployment, public sector spending cuts and potentially higher interest rates hit the consumer. Both Nationwide and Halifax reported house price falls in February. Nationwide said average prices dipped 1% to £161,320, ending a run of nine consecutive monthly rises. Halifax reported an even sharper fall of 1.5%, with average house prices dropping to £166, 857. It remains unclear whether February’s data was a blip caused by the severe weather conditions in the UK or a more long term trend.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has announced that Saxon Weald and Eastbourne borough council have been successful in a bid for almost £6.2 million grant funding to develop an extra care scheme in Langney. Derry Court and the land adjacent to it, owned by East Sussex county council, will be developed together to achieve the purpose built scheme.  The development is forecast to provide 62 high-quality self-contained apartments for older people who have an assessed care need and require support with daily living.

The British housing market is improving at a faster rate than property prices across most of the rest of Europe, a report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has found. House prices rose in only five European countries, including Britain, during 2009. But other countries continued to suffer a sharp market correction, with prices diving by up to 53%. RICS warned that countries with vulnerable economies would continue to suffer from price falls and depressed markets during 2010. Norway led the revival, with property prices in the country rising by 12% during 2009, followed by Finland at 8% and Sweden at 7%. Britain was the fourth best performing country, with the average cost of a home ending the year 1% higher than it started it, although house prices had risen by 10% from their lowest point in April.

John Healey has published the Government’s response to the Mayor of London’s plans for affordable housing in the capital. He warns that the housing strategy will not sufficiently address the capital’s needs, and outlines areas of particular concern, including plans to reduce the number of new social rented homes provided by councils and housing associations by an equivalent 2,755 homes a year compared to current plans.