ROOF Blog

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.

Thousands of tenants, students and buy-to-let investors will be hit by new laws forcing landlords to apply for planning permission if they want to rent a property to three or more people. Landlord associations have criticised the Government’s proposals, which will bring down from six to three the number of unrelated people who can rent a property together before planning permission is needed from local authorities. The legislation will affect only properties that register for a ‘change of use’ (for example, converting a family home into flats), and will not affect pre-existing houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) that are rented out to three or more tenants. There are more than 400,000 registered HMOs, and these will fall within the new legislation only if their landlords change the tenancy arrangements.

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 Government has informed the National Landlords Association (NLA) that the Assured shorthold tenancy (AST) threshold will rise to £100,000 on October 1 2010. The proposal to increase the threshold had been broadly welcomed by the NLA as an attempt to offer greater clarity and transparency for landlords and tenants. But it seems that a quirk of the process means the change will be retrospective and will be applied to existing tenancies. As a result, any tenancy with an annual rent between £25,000 and £100,000 in existence on 1 October 2023 will become an AST overnight. The NLA says the proposals have the potential to be damaging to a significant number of landlords who entered into contractual tenancy agreements in good faith. Landlords and tenants will no longer be able to negotiate individual terms for their tenancy and the rights and responsibilities associated with the Housing Act 1988 will be extended to these higher rent properties.

Almost 8000 homes for Armed Forces families are standing empty despite the Ministry of Defence spending £17m a year renting substitute properties. Figures showed there are currently 7889 unoccupied homes for service families in the UK, including 2077 that have been empty for more than a year. But the MoD has spent more than £88m since 2004 on renting homes where no suitable properties are available, with the bill for 2009 topping £17m. Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Willie Rennie, who uncovered the figures, said: ‘It is scandalous that the Government is spending millions renting forces homes despite already having thousands of houses standing empty.’

More than 1 million householders have used credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent in the last 12 months, a new survey by ROOF reveals today. Despite restrictions on credit and reports of many people paying off personal debt, an exclusive YouGov poll for ROOF magazine reveals a disturbing picture of over a million people taking desperate measures with credit cards to keep a roof over their head. The highest proportion of those who pay their rent or mortgage through credit card were from working class professions (8% of those in the C2DE social grouping), but the poll also showed that middle/upper class (ABC1 category) are falling victim, with 4% of respondents saying they use credit cards in this way.

A £13 million manor house looking out across one of Paris’ most exclusive squares has become France’s most desirable squat. The vast 17th-century property boasts listed rooms with period painted wooden beams and panelling and a spectacular view over the Place des Vosges. It has not been lived in for more than 40 years. The squatters broke into the property to draw attention to the plight of low-paid workers unable to afford housing while countless properties are left vacant. They belong to a group called ‘Black Thursday’, created by four students appalled at the sky-high rents they were required to pay for even the smallest properties. They want more social housing, which has a waiting list of 1.2 million people, and have the support of local Green and Left-wing politicians.

The Chancellor should double the tax relief on income made from renting out a spare room when he delivers his pre-Budget report on 9 December, according to the National Landlords Association.

The NLA hopes that Alistair Darling can be persuaded to raise the tax-free ‘rent-a-room’ threshold from its current level of only £4,250 – a level it has remained at since being introduced in 1997.

Since that time, rents have more than doubled in most parts of the country, shrinking the value of the original income threshold.

The NLA is one of several organisations supporting the Raise the Roof campaign, which is lobbying for an increase to £9,000 per year.

‘Raising the tax-free threshold for live-in landlords would provide an important boost to homeowners who are facing difficulties meeting their mortgage payments,’ said Chris Norris, NLA policy manager.

‘For many, the extra rental income really could mean the difference between paying the mortgage and losing their home.’

The government is expected to announce modest rent reductions for around two million housing association tenants, despite a survey of tenants showing that most are against a rent cut.

The associations – the main providers of social housing – fear that such cuts will lead to a sharp fall in the level of affordable house building because they will be unable to raise the necessary loans for new building.

But ministers are determined to press ahead with the first ever rents cut, despite an opinion poll by the National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents the associations, showing that almost 70 per cent of tenants do not want a reduction.

The NHF says that even a small cut will reduce their income, already well down as a result of the recession, by millions of pounds.

NHF chairman, David Orr, said: ‘Faced with such a shortfall, associations could be forced into cutting back dramatically on the key services tenants really value, such as anti-social behaviour programmes, job training schemes and education initiatives.’

Tenants who receive local housing allowance (LHA) will be able to choose to have their rent money paid directly to their landlord if the Conservatives win next year’s general election. Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, will announce today at the Crisis national conference in Birmingham that a Conservative government will revert to the way housing benefits were handled before last year’s government reforms, which are due to be reviewed before April 2010. Shapps is expected to say that the current system is deterring landlords from renting property to tenants receiving LHA: ‘Fearful that rent money may never be paid, some landlords routinely include the words ‘No HB’ in their ads, further restricting the supply of housing for affordable rent.’