Housing

Time to address failings identified in Grenfell Inquiry report is ‘already three decades too late’

Grenfell United calls for urgent action to address lack of competence and understanding and the fundamental failure to perform the most basic duties of care

Government confirms it will not take forward previous government’s proposals for reform of the social housing allocation system in England

Consultation response concludes that plans would not have delivered any meaningful improvements and were either unnecessary, unfeasible, risked harming communities, or too costly

Registered social landlords in Scotland generally outperformed local authorities across most areas of service delivery in 2023/2024

Scottish Housing Regulator's National Report on standards shows that councils were outperformed on issues including average re-let times, levels of rent arrears and almost all tenant satisfaction indicators

Round-up of recent Ombudsman decisions and reports

Round-up of recent Upper Tribunal housing case law

Amendments to the short-term lets licensing scheme in Scotland

New statutory instrument

Supreme Court rules that non-compliance with ‘right to manage’ statutory notice framework did not invalidate claim made by RTM company

A1 Properties (Sunderland) Ltd v Tudor Studios RTM Company Ltd [2024] UKSC 27

Government confirms Rushanara Ali as new Minister with responsibilities for homelessness and rough sleeping

MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney will also take on responsibility for the Grenfell Inquiry, building safety, housing quality, and supported housing and domestic abuse

High Court rules B&B accommodation offered to intentionally homeless family in priority need was unsuitable due to children’s mental health needs

ZRR, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Bexley [2024] EWHC 2073 (Admin)

Shelter calls on government to establish a cross-department homelessness strategy as number of children in temporary accommodation hits ‘shameful’ new record of more than 150,000

Responding to new official statistics revealing the 'rapidly escalating housing emergency', charity warns that this government must succeed where previous ones have failed

850,000 families in England live in overcrowded homes

Resolution Foundation calls for more large homes to be built in social rented sector, and LHA rates to be increased so that private renters can afford homes that meet their needs

New First Minister of Wales appoints Jayne Bryant to her new cabinet as Housing and Local Government Secretary

Other cabinet appointments include Mark Drakeford as the new Minister for Health and Social Care and the reappointment of Jane Hutt as Minister for Social Justice

Government says it has no intention of enacting previous government’s policy proposals to reform the social housing allocation system in England

Housing Minister confirms that a formal response to the consultation on the plans, that included a new ten-year UK connection test and new anti-social behaviour exclusions, will be issued in due course

Round-up of recent Upper Tribunal housing case law

Housing Ombudsman seeks views on how to improve tenants’ trust in social landlords’ housing maintenance services in preparation for new repairing obligations under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act

Investigation will also examine the relationships between landlords, contractors and residents, with a particular focus on accountability, roles and responsibilities

Round-up of recent Ombudsman decisions and reports

High Court rules that a council’s ‘manifestly insufficient’ enquiries into a homeless family’s housing needs in turn led to an unlawful assessment of the suitability of out of area accommodation

UO v London Borough of Redbridge [2024] EWHC 1989 (Admin)