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Short on time? Thursday’s housing news in five minutes
A round-up of the top stories this morning from Inside Housing and elsewhere
Top story: Regulator to become ‘more vocal’ in criticism of lease-based providers
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) plans to be “more vocal” in its criticism of lease-based supported housing providers. This comes after it won the backing of the High Court last week, following Inclusion Housing’s failed attempt to quash a regulatory judgement declaring it non-compliant with the RSH’s standards.
Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive of the RSH, told Inside Housing that it “can’t see improvements coming fast enough” at troubled associations operating the controversial lease-based model – while in some cases the situation is worsening.
He added that more regulatory judgements will likely be issued against lease-based providers, with the RSH also expecting to update a report published in April last year which was highly critical of the model.
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Leaseholders of blocks with unsafe cladding hit by insurance premium hikes of almost 400%
Residents of buildings with dangerous cladding are seeing their insurance premiums quadruple, compounding the enormous financial impact the crisis has on individuals.
At one block in Birmingham, the building insurance premium increased from £39,000 to £191,000 – with this cost needing to be split between the 141 households.
That is on top of the £8m combined bill to remove the tower’s cladding and implement other fire safety measures, which will cost individual leaseholders up to £100,000.
The insurance premium hike came after leaseholders were unable to renew their building insurance cover with Aviva because of the fire safety issues and instead had to sign a deal with a consortium of five different companies.
Lunchtime long read
Picture: Jonathan Goldberg
Nicholas Burton lived on the 19th floor of Grenfell Tower. He and his wife Pily were rescued from the fire, but Pily never recovered from the ordeal and passed away several months later. Here, Nick talks to Inside Housing about his hopes for the future and what needs to change.
Quote of the day
“We do not need a loan. We need your help to solve this crisis. We need your help to make those who are truly responsible answer. We need your help to make our homes safe and ensure there is no repeat of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017.”
Ritu Saha, a leaseholder affected by the cladding crisis and founding member of the UK Cladding Action Group, has a clear message to ministers ahead of the Budget.
In the papers
Picture: Getty
The Independent reports that the number of single mothers living in temporary accommodation has soared by 75% over the past decade, according to government data.
Meanwhile, The Guardian runs a long-read piece on the life of a rough sleeper who dug himself a bunker underneath Hampstead Heath in London.
The Guardian is also among the papers to cover yesterday’s events at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, focusing on the revelation that fire safety engineers set out to “massage” the building’s fire safety credentials. Inside Housing was also keeping an eye on the proceedings.
Local news
Picture: Getty
A survey by Newcastle-based housing association Karbon Homes has found that 53% of its tenants moving onto Universal Credit subsequently showed signs of destitution, with some forced to skip meals, Chronicle Live reports.
The Reading Chronicle focuses on the fact that more than 1,000 homes in the area lie empty – one has been abandoned for 23 years.
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