March 2019
L&Q, one of England's largest Housing Associations, has started the process of converting 6000 Fixed Term Tenancies to Assured Tenancies (FTTs). This is the result of the findings of research that it conducted into its use of FTTs that was published in September 2018 that found that FTTs did not achieve what it had been claimed that they would achieve.
December 2018
This is an excellent blog by Jules Birch about the legacy of a significant piece of housing legislation:
November 2018
Read this excellent article, especially of your looking for data and arguments for an assignment):
Construction of homes for social rent drops 80% in a decade
October 2018
Proposed new legislation going through parliament: Homes (Fitness for Habitation) Bill, which will update the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to extend fitness for habitation requirements to almost all landlords in England, something already done in Wales in 2016 with the Renting Homes (Wales) Act.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published its latest Is Britain Fairer? report (see p.69 for chapter about housing).
August 2018
Government published:
Its Social Housing Green Paper - A New Deal for Social Housing
Its Rough Sleeping Strategy
May 2018
Must read - Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing
March 2018
Interesting opinion piece from The Guardian newspaper: British governments used to cough up for social Housing. Not this one.
February 2018
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has now published the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities in reponse to the changes made by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. It comes in to force on 3 April 2018.
October 2017
This is very important and tells us that supported housing will not be subject to the LHA cap: Government Response to the
Communities and
Local Government
and Work and Pensions
Committees Joint Report:
Future of supported housing
September 2017
Universal Credit - here is a link to good clear advice about what Universal Credit means from the CAB.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has announced that the government will be publishing a Green Paper (click following text to read his speech): "Today I can announce that we will be bringing forward a green paper on social housing in England".
The National Audit Office has published an evaluation of the government's policies about homelessness in England. This is an important report from the independent spending watchdog, which concludes that “Homelessness in all its forms has significantly increased in recent years, driven by several factors. Despite this, government has not evaluated the impact of its reforms on this issue, and there remain gaps in its approach. It is difficult to understand why the Department persisted with its light touch approach in the face of such a visibly growing problem. Its recent performance in reducing homelessness therefore cannot be considered value for money”. Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 13 September 2017. The report is detailed but also look at the Interactive Graphics to drill down into the data for your region.
August 2017
Listen to this Radio 4 series on the history of social housing: Streets Apart - A History of Social Housing (Links to BBC Radio iPlayer)
July 2017
One of our leading experts on homelessness, Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, considers the myth that homelessness can happen to anyone in this summary of her article, written with Professor Glen Bramley entitled: Can homelessness happen to anyone? Don’t believe the hype. Follow the link in her article to the longer article it summarises and also to other useful materials about homelessness.
March 2017
Very important news: Ministers to reverse universal credit policy for homeless families
Latest edition of the annual Homelessness Monitor: Homelessness Monitor England 2017.
January 2017
This is very interesting and gives a good historical overview of homelessness - Fifty Years of Homelessness
