Housing Monthly Diary Archive
Legislation
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April 2000
Housing Green Paper Published
The Government published its long-awaited Housing Green Paper.
Key proposals of the Green Paper are summarised below:
Local Authorities
- A stronger role for local authorities in housing ,
enabling them to take a strategic view of needs across
all housing in both the public and private sectors.
Particular mention is made of strengthening the strategic
role of local authorities that have transferred their
housing stock.
- Higher emphasis on the role of local authorities in
conducting regular assessments of current and future
demand for housing and of carrying out regularly
assessments of the condition of the housing stock in
their areas.
Sustainable Home Ownership
- Assistance to enable key workers and others on low
incomes to buy their own homes in areas where the demand
for and cost of housing is high, under a new Starter Home
Initiative.
- Assistance for unemployed homeowners in obtaining work,
through improvements to the benefit help provided with
payment of mortgage interest.
- Better targeting in renovation and improvement of private
sector housing, with local authorities having more
flexibility in the grants system and greater use of loans
and low-cost maintenance services.
Private Rented Sector
- Help for well-meaning landlords to improve their
expertise and standards, and strengthening their position
in the market place. Key to this will be voluntary
accreditation, lettings schemes and best practice
guidance.
- Examination of the potential for tax measures in helping
to make the sector work better and make investment in
rented housing a more attractive proposition.
- Tackling problems of exploitation by the minority of bad
landlords, in areas of low demand where there is adequate
alternative housing, through discretionary powers to
license privately rented homes.
- Initiatives aimed at ensuring that unscrupulous landlords
do not profit from Housing Benefit while neglecting their
responsibilities. Proposed actions include placing
conditions on the receipt of Housing Benefit or limiting
payment of Housing Benefit direct to landlords, where
this would not unduly restrict the choice of properties
available to tenants.
Social Housing Standards
- Transfer of up to 200,000 homes each year from local
authorities to registered social landlords - subject to
support by tenants.
- Creation of new arms-length companies to manage local
authority-owned housing, with the best performing
authorities which have established such companies given
extra scope to borrow - providing that there is a proven
record of efficient management and investment and a clear
business plan for the stock.
- Consistent and rigorous application of Best Value and
tenant participation compact principles across social
housing.
Affordable Housing
- Changes to the allocation of Housing Corporation funding
for new social housing, aimed at ensuring that greater
account is taken of local demand and likely future
changes in demand.
- Application ofthe Construction Task Force's
recommendations and new construction techniques to
Housing Corporation-funded developments.
- Assistance in creating sustainable communities through
increased emphasis on mixed tenure in new social housing
projects.
- Production of best practice guidance on the use of
planning powers for affordable housing.
Social Housing Lettings Policies
- Funding of a pilot customer choice-based lettings systems
in different areas of the country.
- Promotion of active management of housing choices and
targeting advice, advocacy and support at households in
most housing need.
- A widening of the scope for movement across local
authority boundaries, and between local authorities and
registered social landlords.
- Flexibility for local lettings policies to deal with
particular problem estates and other local priorities.
Homelessness
- An extension of the statutory safety-net to a wider group
of vulnerable homeless people eg. care leavers and others
with an institutionalised background, the victims of
domestic violence and 16 and 17 year-olds.
- More flexibility for authorities to help non-priority
homeless people, such as childless couples and single
homeless people, in areas where sufficient housing is
available.
- Some choice of settled accommodation for homeless people
- in line with a more customer focused lettings system.
- Greater flexibility for local authorities, aimed at
ensuring sustainable solutions for homeless people and
making better use of their own stock.
- An extension of authorities' duty to provide advice and
support, and requiring them to take a multi-agency
strategic approach to preventing and responding to
homelessness.
Tenure Arrangements for Social Housing
- Long term social tenancies must retain security but there
needs to be consideration of the options for unifying the
secure and assured tenure regimes.
- Consideration of the options for new flexibilities, to
enable local authorities and registered social landlords
to make better use of their stock, especially in areas of
low demand.
Social Housing Sector Rents
- Average rents held at around their present level.
- Some rents to increase, to reflect improvements in
quality as a result of extra investment.
- Some rents to change, to remove unjustifiable differences
between rents charged for homes owned by registered
social landlords and local authorities.
Restructuring Rents in the Social Housing Sector
- Social sector rents, while remaining affordable, need to
be restructured. They should reflect more closely the
size, quality and location of homes, taking account of
property values - so that tenants pay a comparable rent
for a comparable home.
- Any restructuring should be phased over 10 years or so,
to help minimise disruption and hardship for tenants and
landlords. Proposed changes should complement a
choice-based approach to lettings policies and prepare
the way for possible long term changes to Housing
Benefit.
- Any changes in rents (up or down) should be limited to no
more than £ 2 per week in any year as a result of rent
restructuring. Particular attention should be paid to the
possible impact on vulnerable groups, such as pensioners.
Housing Benefit
- Development of a single claims process for benefits, to
reduce duplication and speed up processing times.
- Improvements to information sharing between DSS and local
authorities.
- A reduction in the complexity of the Housing Benefit
rules (eg. by fixing benefit awards for a set period).
- Development a new funding regime, based on performance
against targets in individual local authorities, to cut
fraud and error.
- A new single national fraud hotline service.
- An increase in the incentive to work, by targeting
earnings disregards on key areas or groups of people.
- A broader definition of the Single Room Rent, to ensure
that single young people have a secure foundation from
which to find work.
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