News analysis by Mark Lawrence
The perfect housing storm
White Paper 2.0
Are we about to see a ‘winter of discontent’ in housing terms? Latest Shelter estimates put homelessness at 274,000 people (at the very least); Generation Rent warn there could be a Section 21 eviction every 32 minutes; and the National Residential Landlords Association’s figures show rent debt has risen 41% since May. That’s on top of previous Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that 3.8 million households are in arrears with household bills. Government has done very little to help, unlike its counterparts in Wales and Scotland. It’ll fall back on its universal credit changes made in the Budget, forgetting the scrapping of the uplift and freezing of local housing allowance. Many of the calls to reinstate the uplift or to introduce a Covid debt relief fund have fallen on deaf ears. But the cost of living is going to start impacting more and more people, with a mixture of the pandemic and Brexit starting to bite many businesses and livelihoods. Will it be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the government?
What will the Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Committee inquiry into social housing quality and regulation really achieve that the Social Housing White Paper hasn’t already uncovered? It feels like the latest attempt at working out some of the issues that have arisen from the investigation by ITV News into the state of social housing in England. As the presenter of that investigation, Daniel Hewitt, points out, it’s now the sixth inquiry in response to the series of investigations. And what’s come out of that so far? One association cleared without tenants being spoken to and a backlash from other associations who are being named and shamed too much by the Ombudsman. Hardly inspiring change. And what recommendations are going to come out of this inquiry that aren’t simply implement the Social Housing White Paper? The regulator, in its defence, will simply say it’s trying to implement
measures to stop this from happening and has started the ball rolling with TSM consultations, and the Ombudsman will say it’s ramping up the pressure and that change takes time. Housing associations will point to the competing demands they face, from building safety and decarbonisation to building new affordable homes, and councils will rightly point to the huge funding blackhole they’ve experienced over the past decade. Only government introducing the legislation to implement these reforms can really solve this issue. Not another inquiry.
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How to solve a problem like the PRS? The National Audit Office report into the regulation of the private sector wouldn’t have made pretty reading for many in power. However, insiders felt it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. There was criticism of the government’s “piecemeal” approach to introducing new measures, the lack of use of current
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HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE JANUARY 2022
regulatory tools by councils, and the concerning lack of data that should underpin any action. It’ll be interesting to see how the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities responds in this year’s White Paper on the PRS, with opposing sides of the argument in agreement that a lot needs to be done.
