You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
From the archive – councils ‘ignoring homelessness guidance’
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week 10, 20 and 30 years ago
30 years ago
A council in the South West of England was set to press ahead with its stock transfer plans despite tenants voting overwhelmingly against the proposal.
Torbay Council in Devon described the result of its stock transfer ballot as “disappointing” after nearly three-quarters of tenants who voted rejected the offer to transfer ownership to Devon, Cornwall and West Country housing associations.
The council asked the secretary of state for permission to sell its stock, despite the result.
However, the two associations that had offered to buy homes from the council wrote to Torbay asking it to consider keeping any tenants who did not want to transfer over.
In the letter, the landlords said: “We had hoped for a clearer mandate to manage.” However, they insisted that they were “still offering tenants a good deal”.
20 years ago
Local authorities were said to be ignoring government guidance on homelessness, housing minister Hilary Armstrong was warned after research from Crisis revealed widespread ignorance of issues affecting rough sleepers outside of London.
A report by the charity found that councils were taking their lead from the voluntary sector when it came to tackling homelessness, with volunteers providing the majority of rough sleeping services in seven out of 10 local authority areas surveyed.
Crisis said that three-quarters of the 10,000 people who slept rough were outside of London.
However, only 28 out of 242 councils that responded to the survey had a rough sleeping strategy in place. Crisis said that government guidance on homelessness was being “ignored” by authorities which saw rough sleeping as a “big city” problem. “Not a single authority set aside any vacant housing,” the report claimed.
It added: “The clear message for government is that guidance alone is unlikely to be effective in achieving a better service.”
Ms Armstrong cited a reduction in street homelessness but warned councils not to rest on their laurels. She also unveiled a plan to involve local authorities in assessing bids for funding from voluntary organisations.
10 years ago
Inside Housing revealed the true scale of the empty homes crisis after finding that nearly 10,000 low-cost homes built by housing associations had remained unsold six months later.
A Housing Corporation survey of 215 social landlords found that 9,655 of the 21,538 homes built to help low earners onto the property market had not been sold.
The figure amounted to 45% of associations’ total output and was valued at £640m.
David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, said the slew of properties represented “one of the highest concentrations of empty homes”. He said housing associations should find ways of using the unsold properties until buyers were found.
“Leaving them empty is a horrendous waste,” he added.
The Housing Corporation said that £130m of social housing grant was tied up in the unsold homes.
