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There are 6 item(s) tagged with the keyword "housing crisis".

  • Displaying: 1 - 6 of 6
1. New Prime Minister, systemic change?

As the runners and riders are whittled down in the Conservative Party leadership race, which will ultimately decide the next Prime Minister, it is timely to look at what issues impacting on local government will be waiting in the in-tray for the successful candidate.

Most immediate will be stabilising inflation to a more sustainable level, in order to begin to address the escalating cost of living crisis facing the country. Whilst some candidates will play to the core electorate in this race, promising tax cuts and low spend, it is inconceivable that more money will not be found to support the growing number of people who will be living in fuel and food poverty through the coming winter. Local government is uniquely placed to ensure that any money spent is targeted in the right places, at the right time, to the correct people to avoid families making choices between heating or eating.

Tags: conservatives, finance, housing crisis, local government, local by default, cost of living, APSE
2. Tackling the housing crisis

Will new Housing Minister Esther McVey succeed where her predecessors have failed and finally make significant inroads to solving the housing crisis? Only if she recognises that 100 years on from the Addison Act local authorities must once again play a key role in delivering quality affordable housing.’

 

There are three main areas of Government housing policy that APSE has called for action on in our latest research, with the Town and Country Planning Association, ‘Housing for a fairer society’.

 

The first issue is delivering and retaining genuinely affordable housing. A good start would be for Government to reinstate a definition of affordability that is linked to income. Government also needs to provide significantly more direct grant for social rental homes. It should also suspend the right to buy in England as happened in Scotland and Wales, where the numbers of council houses are increasing, for the first time in a generation. In the meantime, Councils should be allowed to keep 100% of their right to buy receipts to reinvest in building. The current validity test also needs reformed in order to close loopholes that allow developers to avoid contributing affordable housing.

Tags: Housing, housing crisis, council housing, permitted development, right to buy, validity test, APSE, TCPA
3. The time is right to build a new generation of council housing

It was a hugely symbolic moment when Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced £2bn of additional funding for a new generation of council housing during her speech at the recent Conservative Party conference in Manchester.


Whilst it doesn’t quite take us back to the 1950’s when Housing Minister Harold McMillan enhanced his future Prime Ministerial credentials by building over 300,000 new homes in a single year, around 200,000 of which were council houses, it shows an eventual acceptance by Government that we are not going to tackle one of the biggest public policy challenges of our time without State intervention.


While successive Governments have talked about housing need, population growth, changing demographics and set ever increasing targets for the amount of homes required, we have seen little success on closing the gap between the numbers of homes needed and the amount of new builds actually taking place.


 

Tags: Housing, housing companies, housing crisis, APSE, Local government
4. Housing and the 2017 General Election

With the General Election debate starting to heat up, it’s pleasing to see that the housing crisis is featuring quite prominently in the major political party’s manifestos and more importantly local government’s role as part of the solution.


Whilst it’s not quite the 1951 election where the parties were competing on who could build the most homes during the course of the next parliament, with Harold McMillan’s Prime Ministerial credentials established on the back of delivering on housing pledges made, there is significant recognition by all that the number of homes built needs to increase dramatically in the coming years. The question is how can this be delivered by the next Government?


 

Tags: Housing, housing crisis, housing companies, Local government, APSE
5. Broken homes

Well it appears as if we are back at Groundhog Day again on housing policy, another white paper acknowledging that we have a major housing crisis in the UK but with limited ideas about how we fix it.

What we do have is some comforting words. Government has ‘listened ‘it wants to ‘help’ to ‘support’.  But when we peel back the comforting language what lurks beneath? Well very little that we can rely upon. Whilst I appreciate that running alongside the white paper is a series of consultations it is a missed opportunity to put some tangible solutions forward.
 
APSE, alongside our research partners in the TCPA, are working on our third tranche of housing research. Time and again we find that the root cause of the housing crisis is the lack of supply of new build, the mix of properties that are being built and in particular the lack of affordable homes. We have consistently called for a strengthened role for local councils to deliver homes for rent on scale to alleviate the strain at the bottom end of the housing ladder.

Tags: Housing, housing companies, housing crisis, APSE
6. Homes for all: Ensuring councils can deliver the homes we need

APSE's report ‘Homes for all: Ensuring councils can deliver the homes we need’, was launched last week at Parliament. It was a timely reminder of the role local government could play in tackling the housing crisis facing the UK.


Unfortunately the passing of the hugely controversial Housing and Planning Act the day before was a reminder that the current Government don’t see the direct involvement of councils as part of the long term solution. Their preference is clearly to pursue the notion of a home owning democracy, irrespective of whether the public want this or the housing market can deliver it. This approach ignores the many groups in society most in need of affordable homes and who are unlikely to ever be in a position to achieve home ownership or funds for a starter home.


 

Tags: Housing, APSE, TCPA, housing crisis, housing companies
  • Displaying: 1 - 6 of 6

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Promoting excellence in public services

APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) is a not for profit unincorporated association working with over 300 councils throughout the UK. Promoting excellence in public services, APSE is the foremost specialist in local authority frontline services, hosting a network for frontline service providers in areas such as waste and refuse collection, parks and environmental services, cemeteries and crematorium, environmental health, leisure, school meals, cleaning, housing and building maintenance.

 

 

 

 

 

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