15 minutes with… Dinah Roake, chair of the London Housing Panel

Disrepair of social housing has been one of the biggest issues facing the sector in the past few years. Is this something the panel is looking at?

It’s not up there in the priorities [set by the panel]. But obviously, we need to be massively increasing social housing supply – if more and more of those homes are in poor condition, you’ve not achieved the objective. It’s part of the conversation, but it’s not something that we’re currently working on.

The issue of quality homes is a critical one, because we’re saying we want people to have secure, affordable homes. They’ve also got to be secure from a health and safety point of view.

You want everyone always to be saying: it’s about homes, but high quality, well located, well maintained. Some of us take that as totally implicit. But maybe we need to emphasise it.

I think that’s why the panel was so keen to introduce the equality, diversity and inclusion action plans in the new Affordable Homes Programme.

It should go to the core of the explanation about why the homes will be provided, where they’re being provided and how people are being included. And I mean from a community, housing point of view and how they’re included in the design of those homes in the first place. But it’s also about how people have agency in how their homes are, then how they are managed and maintained.

The housing market is in a difficult place right now. Are you worried about the impact this could have on affordable housing in London?

Rapidly rising interest rates will put some mortgage holders at risk of losing their home. This could be exacerbated for shared ownership tenancies if the part of their tenancy on which they pay an annual rent is inflated by the Retail Price Index at 10% or 12% come September.

If interest rates stay high, the cost of borrowing for all developers – including providers – will rise. And that, combined with inflation in the price of materials and labour, could see developers holding off from building and just sitting on land. It will also increase the cost of repairs. This is an opportunity for councils to act counter-cyclically, building zero-carbon homes for rent, using Public Works Loan Board loans and borrowing over longer horizons. The London Housing Panel has called for a massive increase in good-quality social housing supply – this could be through a net increase in transposition from other tenures.

The loss of private rental homes in London since COVID-19 is contributing to a reduction in available homes for refugees; for families who are homeless and require temporary accommodation while waiting for permanent housing; and for others who are not eligible for social rented housing based on their priority banding. Increases in buy-to-let mortgage interest rates could mean even more rental homes are sold off.

Low and middle-income families are being hit from all sides. There are fewer homes they can afford to rent, either through social housing supply or private rents; Local Housing Allowance rates frozen at March 2020 levels are affecting benefits and what rents they can afford; and the cost of living crisis is eating away at any savings.

The panel’s working groups on social housing supply and action on temporary accommodation will continue to work on these areas.