ROOF Blog

Higher unemployment is forcing more young people into further education, increasing demand for short-term flats and providing a boost for Unite, the student accommodation developer. Demand is expected to accelerate at such a rate that Unite yesterday told investors it would continue to buy properties in student hotspots such as London and would not be reinstating the dividend — last paid in the middle of 2008 — until it had returned to ‘meaningful’ profit, even though the group announced a profit of £600,000 after a loss of £5.8 million in 2008. A lack of job opportunities was partly behind a 23% rise in the number of university applications between February 2009 and the same month this year, Mark Allan, chief executive of Unite, said yesterday.

Ministers are to crack down on excessive housing benefit payments in a series of reforms designed to curb the increasing £17 billion annual rental bill. Yvette Cooper, the work and pensions secretary, plans to cap the highest rates paid to private landlords — as much as £1,800 a week — to stop families on benefit living in palatial homes at the taxpayers’ expense. The reforms are expected to save hundreds of millions of pounds a year, but could result in hundreds of families being evicted from expensive accommodation with six months’ notice. The housing benefit bill, which covers rents in the private and social sector, has jumped from £11 billion in 1998 to £17.4 billion in 2008-09 and goes to 4.5 million claimants. The Treasury has forecast that this will rise to £20 billion by 2011 because of the recession, rising private rents and a critical shortage of social housing. The average rent in social housing is only £72 a week against £108 in the private sector.

The Electoral Commission is reminding people living in temporary accommodation that they don’t need a permanent address to have a say at the next general election. The independent elections watchdog has produced a poster encouraging residents in shelters, hostels and bed and breakfasts to discuss how to register to vote with their accommodation managers. The project is being supported by Homeless Link, whose chief executive Jenny Edwards commented: ‘Homeless Link believes it is crucial that those who are experiencing homelessness use their political voice to influence the environment in which they live and the services they use. We welcome the recognition of the importance of homeless people’s votes and are working to increase awareness of voter registration procedures.’

Older people should be offered accommodation in bright, purpose-built communities instead of the shabby and cramped care homes where many now reside, according to a new report.

The provision of desirable retirement homes would encourage pensioners to sell their current properties, giving young families a greater chance of raising their children in suburban homes with gardens, it says.

The Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) was commissioned by Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health to come up with creative proposals to improve housing for older people.

After visiting ‘model’ retirement communities in European countries including Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden it has called for a local authorities and housebuilders to radically rethink their approach to elderly accommodation.

The best developments all had ‘space, light, accessibility and a shared sense of purpose’, with large communal areas where residents could socialise, it found.

The panel said there was no reason why homes in the UK could not be architecturally interesting and built in desirable neighbourhoods.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has urged MPs to show children living in overcrowded homes the same concern as they have shown battery chickens.

More than 270 MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for better living conditions for chickens.

The mayor and Shelter are calling on the government to rewrite definitions of overcrowding, which they say was promised in 2004. About 330,000 children in London live in overcrowded homes, Shelter says.

Current legislation passed in 1935 means a family of four living in a one-bedroom flat are not classed as being in overcrowded accommodation.

Shelter’s director of policy and campaigns, Kay Boycott, said the number of children living in overcrowded homes has gone up 10 per cent in two years. ‘People cannot afford to move to larger homes when they have children,’ she said.

‘The legal standard for accommodation needs to be rewritten by government. Living in confined conditions has a devastating effect on family life, especially children’s safety, health and education,’ she added.

A student denied her degree because of alleged rent arrears has won her fight to be allowed to graduate. In an out-of-court settlement, the university has agreed that she can graduate and waived the £3,540 fees in back rent they said she owed. Maria Lavelle joined the University of Winchester as a 25-year-old mature student in 2008. She moved into student accommodation but asked if, as a mature student, she could not be housed with freshers as she thought the atmosphere would be too noisy. When she found she had been, she gave notice that she would be moving out and into private lodgings. However, the university said she had signed a contract to stay the whole year in student accommodation and argued she should pay back £3,540 in arrears. The National Union of Students described her case as an ‘extremely significant test case’, adding: ‘This is common practice among universities and it’s something we’ve been concerned about for a while.’