Category: Press reports

17 hours ago

Conservatives trying to cover up their appalling record on housing:

"The charity Shelter said any assertion that homelessness was going down was "not true".
Figures from the charity show homelessness soared to a peak of 101,300 in 2004 before falling to 48,010 in 2010, increasing steadily under the Conservatives over the past nine years to more than 84,700."

Sajid Javid accused of talking 'total rubbish' after claiming homelessness is going down
Any assertion homelessness is going down is 'not true', says Shelter ...

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Dublin ranked the worst city in the world to move to for housing

18 hours ago

"This is what it comes to: we, our homes and our cities are commodities. We are invited to the city to be explored in the form of labour and as consumers but where we live and how we live does not matter" ...

irishtimes.com

Revealed: Best and worst cities to live and work in 2020

Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, challenges party leaders over leasehold scandal - Leasehold Knowledge Partnership

2 days ago

Good to see that Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert picked up the leasehold scandal and many of the General Election candidates are talking about ending leasehold. Thousands of leaseholders are picking up the pieces of the cladding scandal with bills in the regions of £40,000 and upwards in many cases. Many of these are residents who used the help to buy scheme and/or shared ownership scheme. These residents face being made homeless if they cannot find the funds to remove the cladding from a building they don't even own! The banks will not lend them the money as their homes are now worth £0 in current state.
Apart from the fire safety aspect, this is another crisis within housing which will end in thousands being evicted/leases forfeited through no fault of their own. www.leaseholdknowledge.com/martin-lewis-the-money-saving-expert-challenges-party-leaders-over-lea... ...

leaseholdknowledge.com

By Harry Scoffin Consumer affairs champion Martin Lewis (above) has challenged the major party leaders to explain their policies on leasehold as part of an online election debate. Election 2019: The MSE Leaders’ Debate It’s the biggest consumer decision most will make in 2019. While it’s impor...

Email your parliamentary candidates

Genesis Residents shared a link.

3 days ago

england.shelter.org.uk

The housing emergency can’t wait. Help put social housing and ending homelessness on the agenda ahead of the 2019 general election by emailing your candidates for MP using our template letter and local housing statistics.

6 days ago

Journalist request: If you have a disability and have been stuck inside your home because the lift in your building has broken down please email kirstie.brewer@bbc.co.uk ...

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HARA reveals the scandal of the large merged housing associations obediently following government policy by destroying the country’s stock of social rent homes. – Housing Association Residents Action (HARA)

1 week ago

The scandal of the destruction of the country's stock of social rent homes by housing associations obediently following the current government's policies. ...

haresidentsaction.org.uk

HARA reveals the scandal of the large merged housing associations obediently following government policy by destroying the country’s stock of social rent homes. November 28, 2019 admin Social rent homes Leave a comment Paying private landlords for ‘unsuitable’ accommodation. An article in the ...

Labour manifesto: what it says and what it means

1 week ago

"Housing
Labour would embark on a massive housebuilding programme of social housing, creating more than 1m homes in a decade.
A new national levy on second homes used as holiday homes would be used to help deal with the homelessness crisis.
Cities would get the power to impose rent caps and other controls.
With its focus on renters, Labour is gambling on a housing policy for the few, not the many. Private renters make up 20% of British households, according to ONS figures, with owner-occupiers at 62% and social housing renters at 17%." ...

theguardian.com

Guardian specialists break down the detail on pledges from Brexit to housing

Housing Associations, Shared Ownership and consumer protection considerations - Walker Morris

2 weeks ago

Many residents have found out that Shared Ownership is an assured tenancy yet they were told they would be part buying their home. Only between 5-7% of residents manage to staircase to 100% share whereby the assured tenancy converts to a leasehold under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Prior to that, it is an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 and you can be evicted if you fall into arrears of 2 months.

Walker Morris Law Firm state that any advert that states "part buy and part rent" or any other slogan that leads you to believe you have purchased anything other than an assured tenancy is potentially an offence in contravention of CPRs (The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008).

Keep an eye out for the Evening Standard Home section and see how many advert fall foul of this law. These can be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority and to Trading Standards.

www.walkermorris.co.uk/publications/housing-associations-shared-ownership-consumer-protection-con...

Excerpt below taken from the website.

"It also follows that it is incorrect – and therefore misleading and potentially an offence in contravention of the CPRs – for HAs, landlords, developers or lenders to advertise, or to refer in any way and in any of their marketing or customer-facing materials or discussions, to shared ownership schemes as “part buy, part rent” (as is very commonly done). The same equally applies to using any other terminology or slogan which could give rise to confusion or which suggests or could suggest that the shared ownership customer purchases anything other than merely an assured tenancy leasehold interest at any time prior to the 100% staircasing stage" ...

walkermorris.co.uk

Consumer protection considerations are key for Housing Associations involved in innovative ownership arrangements. Karl Anders and Louise Power explain.