The Week in Housing: ‘Asleep at the wheel’

Good afternoon.

It has been more than four years since a fire ripped through a retirement village in Crewe in August 2019.?

The Beechmere development was built using a timber-frame structure, which was almost completely destroyed in the fire. More than 150 residents lost their homes and possessions; while none were injured, the fire service said the impact on their lives “has been significant”.

Inside Housing attended a hearing at Warrington Magistrates Court this week to hear that Your Housing Group pleaded not guilty in relation to the fire.

The housing association was one of six organisations that appeared, charged with fire safety offences.?Of these, three companies entered not guilty pleas and the remaining firms gave no indication of a plea.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service brought a series of charges under fire safety legislation, following its investigation into fire.

The magistrate warned that the “complexities” of the case means that the trial could last up to 12 weeks. Inside Housing will be following the case when it returns to Chester Crown Court on 14 November.

Another big story this week was the news that Places for People and Origin Housing have begun merger talks .

The tie-up will see Origin become a subsidiary of the much larger 230,000-home landlord, which posted a post-tax surplus of ￡91.3m in the last financial year.

Away from merger activity, the mayor of London had a pop at the government this week after prime minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to intervene in the capital’s after criticising Sadiq Khan’s record on delivery.

But as the mayor’s office pointed out, the government’s flagship Affordable Homes Programme is likely to fall around 1,000 homes short of its 250,000-home target.?Mr Khan said the government “was asleep at the wheel”.

It’s not the only thing they’re asleep at.

One organisation with its foot firmly on the pedal of late?is the Housing Ombudsman, which had good and bad news for the sector this week

On the one hand, the watchdog’s annual complaints review for 2022-23 found that the number of severe maladministration findings has increased by 323%.

However, the ombudsman told Inside Housing the fact that 44% of residents feel that complaints do lead to change, up from 30% on 2021-22, showed progress is being made.

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