The Week in Housing: new remediation strategy and BSR guidance review, plus Scottish Budget and Starmer’s housing pledge

In response to Sir Keir’s Plan for Change speech, Kate Henderson, chief executive at the National Housing Federation, said: “A substantial boost in investment and funding for new affordable homes, particularly those for social rent, is the best way for the government to meet its 1.5 million new homes target.

“Ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, we are calling on the government to introduce a package of measures to support the social housing sector to rebuild capacity including increased funding for new and existing social homes, as part of a new long-term housing strategy.”

The prime minister’s speech came after a number of reports suggested the government could miss its target by as much as half a million homes.

Matthew Bailes, chief executive of Paradigm, wrote in Inside Housing this week that Labour’s housebuilding plans risk being a short-sighted approach to the housing crisis.

With the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) publishing the results of the tenant satisfaction measures for 2023-24, Inside Housing has shared six key takeaways from the first year. 

Fiona MacGregor, chief executive of the RSH, said landlords should “already be reflecting” on their results and “using them to improve their services”.

This was followed by John Wickenden, research manager at Housemark, reflecting on the TSMs publication and the value of the data.

Beyond Ms Rayner’s new remediation plan, there were a number of big building safety announcements.

The most surprising was the Labour government rejecting a recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that would mandate personal evacuation plans for disabled people in residential blocks. Instead, ministers will implement emergency evacuation information sharing, a procedure proposed by the Conservatives in 2022 to share the location of disabled residents with fire services.

The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), an independent professional body for people in the fire engineering sector, has sanctioned a prolific fire assessor and its former chair of trustee directors. Adam Kiziak of Tri Fire and Mark Chubb, who chaired the IFE’s board of trustee directors until summer 2023, appeared on the IFE website’s list of sanctioned members last week.

The Building Safety Regulator confirmed it will undertake a review of Approved Documents guidance.

Tower Hamlets Council revealed it has taken legal action against a private building owner to remove Grenfell-style cladding from a high-rise property.

There was some good news for the sector on the development front as new stats published by Homes England for the first six months of this year showed that social housing starts are up 148% and completions are up 63%.

BPHA announced it will build more than 1,000 affordable homes under a new partnership. This came after the housing association revealed that its half-year operating surplus rose to £31.2m in the six months to September 2024, while the number of homes it delivered dropped from 163 to 119.

Platform Housing Group has increased turnover, but warned in its half-year results that operating margins are “under pressure”. The landlord continued developing at pace. It completed 451 new homes in the six-month period, although this was down from 480 in September 2023.

Meanwhile, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group has received a £83.5m loan under the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme, which it will use to deliver 230 new affordable homes.

The development picture in Scotland also took a positive turn after the government restored its affordable housebuilding programme to £768m for 2025-26, after it was cut this year by a quarter.

As part of the Budget, housing associations in Scotland welcomed the government’s announcement of winter fuel payments for pensioners and £1m for homelessness prevention.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill, which proposes a maximum private rent cap of 6% and homelessness prevention duties for landlords, has passed its first stage in the Scottish parliament.

The Scottish Housing Regulator has been warned of expired electrical reports and lead in the water supply of some social landlords’ homes.

Across the Irish Sea, the communities minister in Northern Ireland announced an extra £3.7m for tackling homelessness.

However, housing associations in the nation have warned rents will rise due to a proposed 123% hike in the cost of connecting a new home to the electricity grid.

On the regulatory front, the Housing Ombudsman’s special investigation into Hyde Group found “repeated failings” in repairs, complaint-handling and how it responded to service charge enquiries. Although, the association was praised for the way it engaged with the ombudsman.

Plus, a large city council has agreed to apologise after the care watchdog found that a disabled child lived in an unsafe flat for 18 months longer than needed.

In appointment news, the Chartered Institute of Housing revealed the first 11 members of its new equality, diversity and inclusion board.

And we published our round-up of top-level housing sector appointments in November 2024.

There was an interesting recruitment drive to come out of Manchester as landlords in the city set a target to recruit 20% of their staff from social housing tenants by 2034.

There have been a number of recruitment drives in the sector over the past 12 months. Earlier this year, Inside Housing launched its Housing Hires campaign to promote the social housing sector as a place to work and support people to find and develop careers at housing associations and councils.

Finally this week, we spoke to Hattie Llewelyn-Davies, a sector veteran and chair of Eastlight Community Homes. As she has witnessed a huge shift in how homelessness and health are managed during her time, she shares her lessons from the frontline.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

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