Housing

Growing crisis of homelessness and destitution among newly recognised refugees results from a failing system that is ‘dysfunctional by design’ and ‘discriminatory in delivery’

New Refugee Council report highlights evidence including a more than 200 per cent increase in homelessness among asylum seekers evicted from Home Office asylum support accommodation in two years

Government welcomes 'significant milestone' in its work to deliver decent homes for social housing residents in England

New regulatory regime will provide the Social Housing Regulator with powers to drive up standards and take action where providers fall short

Systemic failure is now impacting the delivery of homelessness services in some areas of Scotland

Scottish Housing Regulator reports situation requires it to have the highest level of engagement with local authorities about homelessness since it was set up in 2012

Crisis welcomes reports that MPs are seeking to remove clauses from Criminal Justice Bill that would criminalise rough sleeping

Chief Executive of homelessness charity urges Home Secretary to instead focus on 'real solutions' including increasing funding for support services and building more social homes

Housing Minister sets out ‘improvements’ being made to Renters Reform Bill following concerns raised by MPs

However, Renters Reform Coalition says that changes are hardly an improvement and may make things worse, and that the Bill is fast becoming a Landlord's Charter

Round-up of recent decisions of the Housing Ombudsman

Commencement of Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 provisions including in relation to Regulator’s new powers to authorise emergency repairs in specified cases of disrepair

New statutory instrument

Shared ownership model is ‘drastically failing’ as buyers face rising rents, uncapped service charges and disproportionate exposure to repair and maintenance costs

MPs call for government to take clear and urgent action to reform how schemes currently operate so they can deliver an affordable route to home ownership

Scottish Government introduces Bill to prevent homelessness and strengthen tenants’ rights

Housing (Scotland) Bill includes measures requiring social landlords and public bodies to 'ask and act' to prevent homelessness, the introduction of long-term private sector rent controls, and strengthened protections against eviction

Housing Ombudsman launches consultation for social landlords on its approach to developing new guidance on Good Practice in undertaking housing activities

Ombudsman confirms that proposed approach to good practice is to encourage all landlords to self-assess at the point they become aware of an issue rather than waiting for a complaint or escalation

Lords Select Committee criticises government for ‘sitting on its hands’, having failed to establish a property agent regulator on the recommendation of independent working group four years ago

Letter to Secretary of State warns that the delay is impacting tenants, leaseholders and others by exposing them to continued malpractice

Temporary modification of method used by rent officers or First-tier Tribunal for Scotland to determine rent increases in Scotland following expiry of emergency rent control measures

New statutory instruments amend existing processes to ensure that rent increases can be limited to a maximum of 12 per cent for a one-year period after expiry of rent cap provisions on 31 March 2024

Average Band D council tax bills in England to increase by just over 5 per cent in 2024/2025

New DLUHC figures also confirm that all local authorities with social care responsibilities have opted to use some or all of the social care precept flexibilities to increase bills by up to 2 per cent

Miscellaneous amendments to primary and secondary legislation as a consequence of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023

New statutory instrument

Welsh homelessness and housing organisations urge members of the Senedd to challenge UK Government’s plans to criminalise rough sleeping

Letter to Senedd Committee highlights that 'dehumanising' measures are at odds with the Welsh Government's own Ending Homelessness Action Plan

Government urged to extend move-on period for people granted refugee status from 28 to 56 days

Leading housing and refugee support organisations highlight increase of almost 1,000 per cent in number of people sleeping rough who had left asylum support in previous 85 days

Blaming high demand for a more than ten-week delay in drawing up a homeless person’s Personalised Housing Plan is ‘not good enough’ and creates real injustice

Ombudsman also finds Kensington and Chelsea Council to have caused injustice by failing to account for the impact of domestic abuse on the homeless person because it did not consider the alleged perpetrator as a ‘relative’