Bromley first to approve John Lewis homes
26/07/2024 Councillors have approved retailer John Lewis’ plans to build a housing block above a Waitrose store in Bromley town centre. |
Cost of refurbishment scheme doubles to £40m
25/07/2024 Plans to refurbish and retrofit five council-owned housing blocks in Kent have more than doubled in price since they were agreed last year. |
Homelessness pressures 'unsustainable'
24/07/2024 Councils face ‘unsustainable financial pressure' due to record levels of homelessness, according to a public spending watchdog. |
Planning funding restoration needed to meet homes target
23/07/2024 Labour will have to return planning department funding back to 2010 levels to achieve its ambition of 1.5 million homes, a network of councils has said. |
Award-winning Caseload Manager outperforms expectations, as tenancies under management near one million
22/07/2024 Voicescape’s award-winning technology, Caseload Manager, has outperformed expectations, doubling in size in the last 12 months. |
How to tackle London’s housing crisis
18/07/2024 Piali Das Gupta, London Councils’ Strategy Director – London’s Future, looks at what the new government should do to solve the capital’s housing shortage. |
King’s Speech: Labour commits to ‘modernising planning committees’
17/07/2024 The Labour Government will deliver its aim of building 1.5 million houses by ‘modernising planning committees.’ |
King’s Speech: No-fault evictions to be banned
17/07/2024 Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first King’s Speech has confirmed that so-called no-fault evictions will be banned. |
Call for ‘Right to Pause’ on Right to Buy
15/07/2024 Councils have called for the power to pause the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme when they are facing significant housing pressure. |
Liverpool City Council to receive £55m regeneration boost
15/07/2024 Liverpool City Council is set to receive a £55m boost from Homes England to accelerate the regeneration of the city’s historic northern docklands. |
Tower Hamlets Council apologises for housing backlog
12/07/2024 Tower Hamlets Council has agreed to review the way it allocates properties after an investigation revealed a backlog in housing register applications. |
West Yorkshire mayor unveils plans to deliver 38,000 homes
11/07/2024 West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has unveiled plans to deliver more than 38,000 homes across the region over the next 15 years. |
Council housing landlords warn of £2.2bn ‘black hole’
11/07/2024 Twenty of England’s largest local authority landlords have warned council housing finances are ‘unsustainable’ with housing budgets facing a £2bn ‘black hole’. |
Fixing the broken retrofit system
10/07/2024 Ian Preston, Centre for Sustainable Energy, argues the retrofit system is broken and offers lessons for the Local Authority Retrofit Scheme. |
The Grey Belt: Is it the panacea that is needed?
10/07/2024 The new Government plans to ‘get Britain building again’ by releasing 'Grey Belt' land. William Nichols, Regional Director, Lanpro looks at what this means. |
Council to explore ‘more aggressive’ strategy on empty property
09/07/2024 Hartlepool Borough Council will consider taking a ‘more aggressive’ approach to tackling derelict buildings and land in the area. |
Four councils criticised for social housing failures
09/07/2024 Four local authorities have been criticised for failing to meet the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) new consumer standards. |
Reeves: Labour set to bring back housebuilding targets
08/07/2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce today that she will bring back compulsory housebuilding targets. |
Islington identifies £1.8bn housing shortfall
05/07/2024 Islington Council is facing a deficit ‘in excess of’ £1.8bn in its housing revenue account (HRA) over the next 30 years. |
Ashfield DC agrees land purchase in £14m regeneration scheme
02/07/2024 Ashfield District Council has agreed to purchase land in Kirkby-in-Ashfield as part of the £14m North Kirkby Gateway scheme. |
Homelessness spending triples in eight years
02/07/2024 The proportion of councils’ total housing budget spent on homelessness and temporary accommodation has tripled since 2015, new analysis has revealed. |
Council refunds £1.6m to leaseholders
01/07/2024 Lambeth residents have been told to sign confidentiality clauses before receiving money owed to them for building work they had been overcharged for. |
NextGov: Resolving the housing crisis
28/06/2024 The Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) policy and external affairs manager, Laura Markus, discusses what the next government should do to tackle the housing crisis. |
Labour will need to back up strategic planning 'with teeth'
27/06/2024 Labour’s proposed push for a return to strategic planning will need to be ‘backed up with teeth’, an expert has suggested. |
Housing directors association being explored by LGA
25/06/2024 The Local Government Association (LGA) is exploring the creation of an association of housing directors. |
Planning officer boost needed to meet parties' housing goals
21/06/2024 A major boost to planning department resources would be needed to meet the housebuilding aims of any of the main parties, experts have said this week. |
North Yorkshire Council to invest £11.6m in temporary accommodation
20/06/2024 North Yorkshire Council is set to build 90 new temporary accommodation units at a cost of £11.6m. |
Build 90,000 social homes per year, party leaders told
20/06/2024 Charities and housing bodies have urged the major parties to commit to building 90,000 social homes per year over the next decade. |
Questions raised over funding for housebuilding pledges
19/06/2024 A think-tank has warned that a lack of cash for affordable housing will make political parties’ ambitious housebuilding targets difficult to achieve. |
NextGov: Planning under the next government
19/06/2024 Mike Kiely, chair of the Planning Officers Society, calls on the next government to build a more efficient and effective planning system. |
Greens to push for council tax revaluation
14/06/2024 Elected Greens will push for a re-evaluation of council tax bands to ‘reflect big changes in value’ since the 1990s, the party has pledged in its manifesto. |
£205bn cost of eradicating social housing waiting list
14/06/2024 The price tag for building a home for each household on English housing waiting lists would be more than £205bn, according to analysis from a consultancy. |
Birmingham councillors sign off on £1.9bn redevelopment
14/06/2024 Birmingham City Council's planning committee has given the go ahead to developer Lendlease for the £1.9bn redevelopment of the Smithfield site. |
Labour manifesto pledges Right to Buy curbs
13/06/2024 Labour has opened the door to reining in Right to Buy in its manifesto, published today. |
John Lewis appealing leaves Ealing reeling
12/06/2024 Ealing Council said it was ‘extremely disappointed’ after an unexpected appeal by John Lewis over the firm’s plans to build rental homes. |
Lib Dem bid to fix care and end council funding crisis
10/06/2024 The Lib Dems have pledged multi-year settlements and a cross-party solution for social care to help end councils’ current funding crisis in their manifesto today. |
260,000 social homes lost in a decade
10/06/2024 More than a quarter of a million social housing homes have been lost in England in the last ten years, analysis of government statistics has found. |
The flaws in ‘Clarkson’s clause’
10/06/2024 Following Jeremy Clarkson-inspired legislative changes around planning permission in rural areas, Kerry Booth, Rural Services Network, shares her concerns. |
Labour pledges to ‘fix our broken housing market’
07/06/2024 Labour would bring back council house-building targets and hire new officers to deal with the backlog of applications if elected, deputy leader says. |
Councils only respond to third of housing complaints
06/06/2024 Local authorities only responded to a third of complaints about hazardous private accommodation between 2021 and 2023, freedom of information data reveals. |
Quarter of councils spending 5% of budgets on temporary accommodation
05/06/2024 One in four local councils in England spent 5% of their core budgets on temporary accommodation in 2022-23, new research has revealed. |
Vent-Axia Launches its Next Generation Revive Fan Offering Social Housing Greater Efficiency
03/06/2024 Leading ventilation manufacturer Vent-Axia has launched its new Lo-Carbon Revive 7 fan raising the bar on energy efficiency for social housing providers. |
Social housing saves councils £8bn a year
30/05/2024 Social housing saves local authorities an estimated £8bn a year, according to a new study on the economic impact of social housing. |
Government digs in over asylum housing target
29/05/2024 Home Office has doubled down on council concerns over asylum targets and insisted Full Dispersal can ‘strike balance between equity and housing availability’. |
Council opens housing development in memory of Kelso Cochrane
28/05/2024 A new social housing development has been opened by Kensington and Chelsea council in memory of Kelso Cochrane who was murdered by a gang of white youths. |
Nearly 190,000 social homes set to be lost by 2040
22/05/2024 The controversial Right to Buy scheme is set to reduce the dwindling social housing stock by nearly 190,000 properties by 2040, new research has revealed. |
Housing crisis has become ‘significantly worse’ in past year
21/05/2024 Three-quarters of councillors believe the housing crisis has become significantly worse in the past year, according to a major survey of planning authorities in England and Wales. |
EXCLUSIVE: Councils given 100,000 asylum housing target
21/05/2024 Councils have been told to identify an extra 100,000 bedspaces for asylum seekers amid Home Office expectations of a surge in arrivals, The MJ can reveal. |
Councils risk falling foul of new heat network laws
21/05/2024 Anthony Coates-Smith, Managing Director of Insite Energy, a heat network metering & billing agent, highlights important changes in heat network regulation. |
Pembrokeshire buys housing stock worth £3.5m
21/05/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has spent more than £3.5m acquiring housing since November. |
‘Clarkson's clause’ introduced to cut red tape for farmers
21/05/2024 New planning laws coming into effect today will enable farmers to convert disused agricultural buildings into homes and shops without planning permission. |
Labour to outline plans for ‘towns of the future’
21/05/2024 Labour is set to provide more details today about their commitment to establish the next generation of new towns to help end the housing crisis. |
Short-term lets plans could ‘worsen’ housing shortage
20/05/2024 London boroughs have warned that government plans for regulating the short-term lets sector could worsen the capital’s housing crisis. |
North Yorkshire aims to build 500 council homes
20/05/2024 North Yorkshire Council has published its first housing strategy, which includes an ambition to build 500 council homes over five years. |
Labour-commissioned report calls for cap on rent rises
14/05/2024 Rent rises should be capped to help millions of struggling renters in England and Wales, a new report commissioned by Labour argues. |
Councils fail to collect £7m in fines from rogue landlords
14/05/2024 Less than half the fines levied against rogue landlords have been collected by local authorities, a freedom of information request has revealed. |
Tower Hamlets apologises after ‘gatekeeping’ finding
13/05/2024 Tower Hamlets did not do enough to help a family threatened with eviction, an ombudsman has found. |
Four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy owned by private landlords
10/05/2024 More than four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy are now owned by private landlords, new research has revealed. |
Government cash call for council housing firms
09/05/2024 Central Government should provide £750m funding to help local government establish housing firms in temporary accommodation hotspots, an expert has suggested. |
Guildford issues ‘heartfelt apology’ after £13.5m contract overspend
09/05/2024 Guilford Borough Council is at ‘serious risk’ of failing to deliver Best Value after overspending by millions on a housing contract, reviews have found. |
‘Bleak’ future for social housing without investment
07/05/2024 Without extra funding, the future of England's social housing looks ‘bleak’, council bosses have warned. |
Think-tank calls for regeneration funding overhaul
07/05/2024 Councils should be able to hold a regeneration account to more efficiently allocate capital for regeneration projects, a think-tank has argued. |
Demolition of Only Fools and Horses tower set for 2027
07/05/2024 The iconic London tower block whose exterior served as Nelson Mandela House in the opening credits of Only Fools and Horses is set to be demolished in 2027. |
Re-elected Burnham calls for Right to Buy suspension powers
07/05/2024 Greater Manchester’s re-elected mayor has called for powers to suspend Right to Buy on new homes under plans to build 10,000 houses across the region. |
Councils spend £45m on planning appeal advice
03/05/2024 Councils spent £45m over the past three years on external legal advice relating to planning appeals, according to a freedom of information request. |
Councils cut back housebuilding plans
03/05/2024 New research has found that 15 local authorities have recently cut the number of homes they intend to build over the next decade by at least 10%. |
Council loses £600k buying back land it sold ‘wrongly’
02/05/2024 Shrewsbury Town Council has spent £1.34m buying back land it had ‘wrongly’ deemed ‘surplus to requirements’. |
Record 145,800 children live in temporary accommodation
30/04/2024 There are 145,800 children who are homeless and in temporary accommodation, new government figures have shown. |
Think-tank: Growth in tall buildings failing to tackle housing need
30/04/2024 ‘Unplanned proliferation’ of tall buildings has not delivered the housing Britain needs, Policy Exchange has warned. |
First-of-kind ‘health neighbourhood’ gets go-ahead
29/04/2024 A multi-million pound ‘health innovation neighbourhood’ has received outline planning permission from Newcastle City Council. |
Guildford to sell £50m of assets
29/04/2024 Guildford BC has approved the sale of £50m of assets over three years under plans to stabilise the Surrey-based authority’s finances. |
What is a metro mayor?
25/04/2024 A metro mayor is directly elected by local people to oversee a region’s combined authority. |
Social housing tests could heavily impact London
25/04/2024 London boroughs are likely to be most heavily impacted by the Government’s proposed UK connection test for social housing. |
Fresh call for Right to Buy restrictions
23/04/2024 Housing experts today called for fresh restrictions on the controversial Right to Buy policy – including a ban on applying it to new builds. |
Charities call for action on ‘dangerous’ homes
22/04/2024 A coalition of charities has launched a campaign urging the Government to halve the number of homes blighted by mould, damp and other serious hazards. |
Officers recommend refusal of Birmingham skyscraper plans
18/04/2024 Plans for a 42-storey skyscraper in Birmingham city centre have been recommended for refusal over heritage concerns. |
Over 84k households evicted since no-fault eviction ban promise
15/04/2024 Over 84,000 households have faced homelessness due to being issued with a section 21 notice since the Government committed to ban no-fault evictions. |
Blackpool neighbourhood to be demolished to build £65m campus
11/04/2024 Blackpool Council's planning committee has approved the demolition of a town centre neighbourhood to clear space for a new £65m university campus. |
Homes England urged to strengthen relations with local government
09/04/2024 An independent review of Homes England has urged officials to 'build closer relationships' with councils. |
Vent-Axia's Heat Save Helps Hillingdon Council with Carbon-friendly Makeover
08/04/2024 Vent-Axia has helped Hillingdon Council decarbonise its social housing properties by providing energy efficient heat recovery ventilation for residents’ homes. |
Khan pledges to build 6,000 ‘rent control’ homes
05/04/2024 London mayor Sadiq Khan will today commit to building homes with capped rents as part of his bid for re-election next month. |
Public health directors call for better regulation of private rented sector
04/04/2024 Public health directors have welcomed measures aimed at improving social housing but called for more action to tackle poor conditions in the private sector. |
What this year’s election could mean for housing
03/04/2024 Jonathan Pearson, director at Residentially, looks at what the coming election could mean for the future of affordable housing in the UK. |
2,000 social housing blocks affected by ‘life-critical’ problems
02/04/2024 Almost 2,000 social housing blocks in England have ‘life-critical’ problems with their external cladding, according to official data. |
Proposed law could ease housing emergencies
27/03/2024 Scottish councils may be required to assess the condition of private rented accommodation under a proposed law. |
Young homeless people feel ‘ignored’ by councils
27/03/2024 Young people experiencing homelessness feel ‘dismissed and ignored’ when they approach local authorities for help, research has found. |
Brent council set to launch landlord licensing scheme
26/03/2024 A new borough-wide landlord licensing scheme is set to launch in Brent on April 1, the council has announced. |
Leicester council to borrow £45m to buy property
26/03/2024 Leicester councillors have agreed to borrow £45m to buy property to help the city council tackle the local housing crisis. |
Call for reintroduction of housing targets
22/03/2024 A cross-party coalition representing 27 mid-sized regional British cities has called for the next Government to reintroduce local housebuilding targets. |
Planning for senior housing ‘stalled’, survey reveals
21/03/2024 Less than a third of local authorities do not have clear policies in place to support housing for seniors, new research has revealed. |
Lost Homes, Lost Hope – why fighting tenancy fraud matters
19/03/2024 Alan Bryce, interim head of the Fraud Advisory Panel, argues that cracking down on tenancy fraud can help solve the local government financial crisis. |
Housing Ombudsman awards residents £40k
14/03/2024 Residents left in dire damp and mould conditions by Lewisham Council have been awarded tens of thousands of pounds. |
Crawley leaders warns of housing emergency
13/03/2024 The leader of Crawley Council has called on the Government to ‘take decisive action’ to address the city’s housing emergency. |
Council homes acquisition plan could save boroughs £1.5bn
12/03/2024 Plans to boost London’s council housing supply by buying from the private market could save boroughs and the Government billions over the next 20 years, a report has found. |
Are social housing providers at risk of underinsurance?
12/03/2024 Michaela Tweedley, director at building and projects consultancy Brawdia, discusses whether social housing providers are at risk of underinsurance. |
Limited exemptions for empty homes powers
11/03/2024 Councils will face only a limited number of exemptions from new powers allowing them to levy higher taxes on empty homes, ministers have confirmed. |
Right to Buy lobbying fails as temporary boost ended
08/03/2024 The Treasury has confirmed councils will no longer keep 100% of Right to Buy (RTB) receipts after the current financial year despite lobbying by the sector. |
Impact of the Leasehold and Freehold Bill on councils
08/03/2024 Jeremy Dharmasena, head of Leasehold Reform & Litigation, Knight Frank, looks at what the Leasehold and Freehold Bill will mean for local authorities. |
Gove urged to ‘listen’ to Cambridge on housing plans
07/03/2024 Communities need ‘far more detail’ and to have their say on government plans for a major expansion of housing around Cambridge, local leaders have said. |
Craig's call for asylum change
07/03/2024 Manchester City Council’s leader has urged Whitehall to implement ‘simple changes’ to asylum policy to ease huge pressures on major urban centres. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.