The Week in Housing: Rayner updates on rent convergence and housing targets, plus Homes England’s view on shared ownership inquiry

Good afternoon.

There have been a number of significant policy updates this week.

It started with the revelation that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England were left “taken aback” and “unimpressed” by an MP-led inquiry into shared ownership, according to internal emails.

An administrator’s report also revealed the government’s housing and regeneration agency will get back just ￡128,423 following the collapse of modular house builder Ilke Homes.

Back to policy, the housing minister admitted that delivering the government’s target of 1.5 million homes this parliament will be more difficult than the Labour Party expected in opposition.

A new report suggested the government could get closer to meeting its target by scrapping hope value for landowners , which has been blamed for artificially inflating land prices. It would also slash the cost of building 90,000 social homes a year by ￡4.5bn.

At the same time, housing secretary Angela Rayner said she is pushing cabinet colleagues?for rent convergence as she urged housing associations to restart their development programmes.

A?consultation on Right to Buy was launched, and there will be a separate one on licensing for supported accommodation providers is expected in the new year.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook promised that the government will consult in 2025 on banning new leasehold flats ?and will publish a white paper on reforms to commonhold in the next few months.

His update to parliament came just days after the UK’s largest manager of leasehold properties was?called to meet with 34 MPs over “rip-off” service charges.

There were also a number of policy interventions in Wales after the housing minister said she will create a social rent policy that reflects the key role played by social landlords in the nation, ahead of a sector-wide consultation to be carried out next summer.

A Senedd inquiry?called for a national development corporation to speed up housebuilding and for the Welsh development bank to become a direct funder of social housing to help meet housing targets.

Charity Housing Justice Cymru said the current?housing crisis will derail the Welsh government’s goal of becoming a “nation of sanctuary”.

Plus, the Building Safety Bill in Wales will be introduced before the government’s summer recess in 2025, and a revised British fire safety standard is set to be published next week .

On governance issues, the Housing Ombudsman published a report it described as containing “some of the most demanding and distressing cases we have seen”.?The watchdog named 10 landlords in its latest learning report on anti-social behaviour, including one incident?where a resident reported being threatened with a gun .

Safety and maintenance issues were found after a review by the ombudsman looked at how a housing association’s green ‘living roof’ came apart as a result of storm damage.

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