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Four more councils become registered providers
A flurry of local authorities from across England have joined the list of registered providers, following a trend by councils in the past 18 months.
North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council have successfully registered as social housing providers with the English regulator this month, while Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and Gedling Borough Council registered in March.
The news of these local authorities successfully registering as social housing providers takes the number of councils to do this in the past 18 months to 15.
Of those 15 to register so far, the majority said they have signed up so that they can access grant through the government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP).
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NSAP was launched in July with £266m in funding to provide supported housing for rough sleepers given emergency accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic through the Everyone In initiative.
Other local authorities have said the move will support them to deliver more new homes as part of a drive by councils to increase development.
A Gedling Council spokesperson said: “As part of our plan to increase the number of affordable housing options in Gedling and to reduce the use of temporary accommodation, councillors approved for the council to register to provide social housing.
“The council is currently working on the redevelopment of two council-owned sites to create affordable homes in the Carlton area. By registering as a social housing provider, the council can access specific funding to support the development to reduce rough sleeping and provide longer-term accommodation for some of our most vulnerable residents.”
A spokesperson for North Northamptonshire Council said the application was necessary because of a restructure that saw the previous two stock-holding authorities of Kettering and Corby abolished and replaced with North Northamptonshire.
A spokesperson for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council said: "We have recently registered to give us access to Homes England funding, including the recently announced MHCLG / Homes England Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme (RSAP) fund.
“This will help us to deliver the objectives of our Housing Delivery Strategy to provide a wider choice of tenure, type and size of housing and more housing that is affordable to people who live or work here.”
Jo Barrett, West Northamptonshire Council Assistant Director for Housing and Communities, said: “As of 1 April this year, Northamptonshire has two unitary authorities rather than a county council and seven districts and boroughs.
“In West Northamptonshire, housing stock from Daventry District Council and Northampton Borough Council has transferred over, which made it necessary for us to make a new application.”
In addition to the councils registering, a handful of council-owned housing companies have also registered with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in recent months. Lumen Housing, a subsidiary of Blackpool Council’s ALMO Blackpool Housing Company; Broadway Living, owned by Ealing Council; and Newham Council’s Populo Living are all now on the list.
The four councils were among 12 new registrations this year so far, with the list including four not-for-profit providers and two for-profit providers. Among the new for-profit providers was Habitare Homes, the newly registered provider backed by global investment company Man Group.
It was also confirmed that McCarthy Stone, the country’s largest retirement home builder, registered its own for-profit arm in February.
The introduction of such huge for-profit providers into the social housing sector marks a significant trend that has been growing over the past few years. Analysis by the RSH found that social housing owned by for-profit providers increased by 75% in the year to March 2020.
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