You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
The Week in Housing: consumer inspections continue, EPC C target set and good news for SHPS
The Week in Housing is our weekly newsletter, rounding up the most important headlines for housing professionals. Sign up below to get it direct to your inbox every Friday
Good afternoon.
Our story on the outcomes of the Regulator of Social Housing’s new consumer regime inspection programme continues to be one of the most read articles of the week.
Wednesday’s second wave of judgements featured eight registered providers, many of which maintained their governance and viability grades. All were given either C1 or C2 ratings.
Results from the initial round of inspections, covering two social landlords, were published in late July.
The first four social landlords that failed the new consumer standards were revealed in July, with a further four announced earlier this month.
The government confirmed that landlords will have to meet an Energy Performance Certificate rating of Band C by 2030, pledging to work with social housing providers to meet the goal.
READ MORE
There was good news for the Social Housing Pension Scheme. Its deficit has dropped by £870m since its previous valuation, falling to its lowest level since 2008.
This equates to a reduction in the deficit of more than 55%, taking it from £1.6bn to £690m, meaning SHPS members will see a significant reduction in deficit contributions being paid into the scheme.
An important investigation from Inside Housing’s latest quarterly update to its live data dashboard reveals the number of households with children aged under five living in temporary accommodation and B&Bs.
The government does not publish data on the number of young children in temporary accommodation, despite evidence that it has highly damaging effects on child development and well-being.
We also pored over the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). With the redrafted NPPF out for an eight-week consultation, Inside Housing analysed the implications of a document that seeks to encourage large-scale housebuilding and reverse many of the previous government’s policies.
A visit to Leeds this week saw a judge dismiss two winding-up petitions issued to TopHat, after the modular house builder settled with a developer out of court.
The Housing Ombudsman highlighted the approach of 13 landlords as it shared lessons from its report on window-related complaints.
At the same time, the New Homes Ombudsman urged the government to make it mandatory for house builders to join its service.
The watchdog, which is responsible for dealing with complaints about the quality of new housing, said that home buyers needed greater protection amid the government’s plans to deliver 1.5 million homes this parliament.
The government said it “expects all developers to build safe and decent homes and work with homeowners to fix issues if they do occur”.
Trading updates continue to paint a mixed view of the sector. Large London landlord L&Q reported a significant downturn in completions and approvals in the first quarter of this year at the same time as multimillion-pound increases in turnover and operating surplus.
In contrast, Great Places Housing Group said it was on track to meet its full-year development target, as it recorded a rise in pre-tax surplus for the first quarter of the 2024-25 financial year.
BPHA revealed a net loss before tax of £1.5m due to £22.7m in exceptional breakage costs from legacy financial agreements.
Accent Group more than doubled its capital spending on existing stock during 2023-24, as overall investment in its homes topped £50m.
The long-running merger saga in the private housebuilding sector has come to an end after Bellway declined to make an offer to acquire rival house builder Crest Nicholson just days after the deadline to do so was extended.
Rising inflation and increased costs at Transport for London (TfL) saw one developer halve the number of affordable homes being provided on a south London site after it agreed to pay £25m for a new train station that TfL was supposed to fund.
Meanwhile, a new registered provider of shared ownership homes has launched after a £405m deal with a higher education pension fund and a for-profit provider.
It is the second-largest deal since Vistry Group’s £580m build-to-rent agreement in June with Blackstone and Regis, the same large private equity firms that set up Sage.
Specialist housing association Anchor signed a 10-year deal with a proptech company to provide repairs software for its 54,000 homes.
Sarah Jones, chief executive of Anchor, told Inside Housing the deal represented “a complete transformation of the way we deliver repairs and planned works” across housing, leasehold and care homes.
On professionalising the sector, it was revealed how an exam body is seeking to rival the Chartered Institute of Housing by launching its own housing qualifications.
Innovate Awarding has developed new Level 4 and 5 housing qualifications and submitted them to Ofqual, the government qualifications body, on 31 July.
If they are approved, Innovate Awarding hopes to begin teaching the qualifications on 1 September.
In an exclusive interview, Nick Atkin, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, set out how he is shaping three emerging social housing partnerships that are crucial to the government’s plans to build more homes.
His warning that the sector will be severely hamstrung without urgent action should be taken very seriously. He spoke to Inside Housing about how the government could shift the dial.
There was sad news for the sector this week as it lost two well-respected veterans. Tributes were paid to Sue Roberts, the former chair of Wolverhampton Homes and the National Federation of ALMOs, who has died aged 71.
Tributes also flooded in for Keith Simpson, a well-known figure who founded Just Housing and the Direct Works forum. Mr Simpson, who was 80, passed away on 7 August.
Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk
Editor’s picks: five stories you may have missed
Finance and risk directors resign from THFC
Developer explores 6,000-home masterplan for Oxfordshire site
Hyde to renew £2bn contractor framework as it targets 1,500 homes a year
PA Housing chair to join Olympic Park development corporation in shake-up of top team
MLA calls for ‘major’ reform of planning system in Northern Ireland
Sign up for our Week in Housing newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
