Housing campaigners began occupying a four bedroom house in Hastings to prevent it being sold at auction by housing association Southern Housing. Southern withdrew another family home from auction earlier this year after a similar protest by members of Housing Rebellion. Protestors are demanding that Southern Housing stop selling off homes and instead rent this… Continue reading Housing Protestors Occupy Southern and Peabody Homes
By Suzanne Muna and Lindsay Bush There is a golden web at the top of the housing association sector. A club whose members are former colleagues and friends from other parts of the sector. The connections they share provide the pathways through which housing associations influence the institutions that fund, scrutinise, and regulate them. Parts… Continue reading The Golden Web
Over recent weeks Government has finally taken some action to improve housing associations and their performance. A few of the ideas were already in train, but others have been triggered by recent catastrophic events such as the coroner’s ruling on toddler Awaab Ishak's death. One such initiative comes directly from Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling… Continue reading A Flurry of Reaction
Announcement of the September 'RPI' inflation figure has sealed the rent rises that the majority of shared owners will be expected to pay. The RPI increase was confirmed by government as 12.6%, which translates into rent increases of 13.1% - 14.6%, depending on the formula used in the lease. Worst of Both Worlds Shared owners… Continue reading RPI Inflation Sets Shared Owner Rent Rises at around 14.6%
Angry tenants and residents of Clarion Housing Group got together at a SHAC meeting on Wednesday 13th July to agree a plan of action in protest at the ongoing systems outage at their landlord. For details, see Clarion Closes Down. Europe's largest housing association is approaching the one-month anniversary of a cyber attack for which… Continue reading Clarion Still Closed One Month On!
Tenants and residents of Clarion Housing Group have taken to social media in droves to condemn their landlord for a lengthy shut down after a major 'cyber security incident' affected IT and telephone systems. Systems Down The already hard-to-reach landlord became even more difficult to contact from Friday 17th June. Email and telephone systems remain… Continue reading Clarion Closes Down
Homes England, has announced its list of ‘Strategic Partners’ to receive funding under the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) over the next five years (2021 to 2026). Although the funding is from central government, Homes England is the government body responsible for allocating the funding and monitoring its use across England. The Homes Englad announcement lists… Continue reading Homes England’s Unaffordable Housing Programme
Oh, the irony. Or is it hypocrisy? An announcement has hit the headlines. Peter Denton, former CEO of Hyde, has been appointed to lead Homes England, the government body responsible for housing investment. Denton quipped: The government has an ambitious agenda of not just more homes but decent, affordable, safe, energy-efficient ones that sit well… Continue reading Hyde: A Very Bad Apple in a Very Rotten Barrell
