ROOF Blog

The London Assembly has unanimously agreed a motion calling for an increase in the supply of family homes and improvements to the quality of family housing. The Assembly agreed a target in the Mayor’s housing strategy of 42 per cent of new social rented housing should have three or more bedrooms, but it has also urged the mayor to do more to meet demand. It warned that provision in the intermediate housing sector is falling significantly below the mayor’s target of 16 per cent.

A subsidised housing scheme for middle income earners in London could be extended nationally if it gains ministerial approval. London & Quadrant’s proposal to allow households with incomes up to £60,000 to rent a home for 80 per cent of the market rental and stay as intermediate tenants indefinitely was recently announced by London mayor Boris Johnson. The Homes and Community Agency sees the scheme as helpful by allowing housing associations to build out of sites that had previous planning permission for private homes.

The number of unsold housing association homes has peaked at more than 10,000, an increase of 20 per cent, according to chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority Peter Marsh. In total there were 10,060 housing association homes worth £707 million that are still unsold, with nearly 5,000 unsold for more than six months, an increase of 405 since November. Many of the houses, which were earmarked for shared ownership, will be turned back to rented property for social housing or at intermediate rates, with help from the Homes and Community Agency. Mr Marsh said he hoped that associations would begin to increase their build programmes once they had reduced the number of unsold homes.

Housing associations are to stop building mixed estates of privately owned and social rented homes because of the credit crunch, leading to fears of a return to ‘council ghettos’ says The Times. Bob Kerslake, head of Homes and Community Agency (HCA) said that during the past 20 years housing developments had a mix of 30 per cent social housing, 30 per cent private homes and 30 per cent shared ownership, but the significant financial risks from the credit crunch has made people reluctant to invest in housing developments. He said housing associations already have 10,000 homes for private sale or shared ownership that have not found buyers. Under latest plans, a third of homes on an estate will be social rented at very low rate, and the rest will be at subsidised intermediate rents – about 80 per cent of the market price – for low-income earners.