The Week in Housing: what outcomes should housing policy try to deliver?
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Good afternoon.
What is the state’s responsibility for housing??
It is a question to which we have no real clear answer. In this country, it is accepted (by most) that the government should provide a good education for children and modern healthcare for all.?
We instinctively believe there should be police to call if we’re victims of crime and a fire service available if our house catches alight.
Despite all of the attacks on benefits over the past decade, it is probably still the case that most people believe the state should intervene at some point before people starve to death.?
But with housing, there is no real clarity. Where is the point at which support should kick in and what should it be trying to do??
Does it stop at just trying to end rough sleeping? That’s probably the lowest point at which all parties seem to agree they have some role to play, even if the question of how to do so is less easily expressed.
But should we expect more? What are the outcomes housing policy should be trying to achieve? What level of suffering should be considered intolerable?
With 8.5 million people in some form of housing need in England (15% of the country), this is a question that needs to be answered with some clarity, but hasn’t been. The right policy solutions would, hopefully, follow.
This is what a new campaign from the National Housing Federation (NHF) is seeking to establish, and you can read more about it from the co-chairs of their effort?here .
The NHF?also ran a poll this week ?that suggests there might be more consensus around the state’s role than some commentators would lead you to believe.?
Conservative voters show a clear preference for the state’s role to be based around providing social housing, rather than encouraging the construction of homes for sale by boosting the private market.?
The same is true of voters in general, with older voters particularly likely to support this view. A consensus may prove easy to build.?
In Northern Ireland, where there has been more consensus around the need to provide social housing than England in recent years, providers have warned of that breaking down.?
In a letter,?the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations warned ?that the country is “lurching slowly and surely toward a crisis in housing” due to cutbacks in funding for social rent.?
Elsewhere, the big news of the week for the housing market is interest rates and the ongoing pain being inflicted on those with mortgages to pay off as they end their fixed terms and bump into sharply increased monthly payments.
For the housing sector, there will need to be a particular focus on shared owners – buyers who by their nature will be less likely to have financial resilience have already been clobbered with a sharp rent rise this year and may well be feeling the inflationary pinch through their service charges.?
It is good that?the sector is talking about ways to allow them to “de-staircase” , but these plans need to be made clear, flexible and quick to prevent people getting into difficulty.
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In other news, Sanctuary is on merger manoeuvres again. This time it has?opened discussion with 5,000-home Stockport-based Johnnie Johnson Housing ?(JJH).?
JJH had regulatory difficulties a decade ago, and was proud to have worked its way out of them without merging.?
There is no clarity yet on the reasons for the current discussions. Although, like many medium-sized organisations, JJH’s most recent accounts and regulatory judgements tell a tale of increasing financial pressure which a bigger partner may help alleviate.?
Details are starting to emerge about a fire in Croydon earlier this month , where the blaze spread up wooden balconies. Landlord Optivo (now Southern Housing) had identified the need for works to the facade in 2021, but prioritised other buildings.
These sorts of choices do need to be made due to the amount of building safety work to do, but the story emphasises the need for clear and robust interim measures.?
And while more funding may not have made a difference (there are only so many professionals), it shows that the government’s reluctance to fund fire safety works in the social housing sector comes at a cost. Works will be rolled out slower, which increases the chances of a disaster.?
Finally, it also points to the sometimes understated risk from combustible balconies where a small spark can cause a devastating fire. We have had?several ?ignite ?in ?this ?way ?since Grenfell, and it is starting to feel like a matter of time before one costs lives.?
A shame then that the government did not act when?it was warned that the total lack of restriction on the combustibility of balconies ?could “pose a significant life safety issue” back in 2016.?
Have a great weekend,
Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
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