ROOF Blog

Fewer young people are living independently than ten years ago, and more households in the private rented sector are headed by young people aged 16-24 than in owner occupation and social housing combined, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). Young people say that they are excluded from home ownership and shared ownership because the costs are too high for them to meet.

The National Housing Federation says banks are turning away £1 billion of business because of prejudice against low cost housing. The banks are refusing to lend to people on modest incomes – first-time buyers and key workers – because they mistakenly view the shared ownership deals as unsound. The NHF estimates that the banks lack of interest in 2008/09 resulted in 9,000 low cost homes remaining unsold, and has called for the state owned banks to make lending on shared ownership schemes a priority.

The Conservatives have unveiled a plan to tackle social housing waiting lists by bringing empty homes back into use. Tory leader David Cameron pledged to make it easier for social landlords to use empty properties to house homeless families. Plans include ‘partially’ suspending the design and quality standard requirements while social tenants renting the homes would be given short-term tenancy agreements of between three and five years with an option to buy to enter into shared equity deals. There are an estimated one million empty homes across the UK.

Social housing tenants can now apply to buy a share in their home, Margaret Ritchie, social development minister announced yesterday. Tenants with more than five years tenancy can purchase a 25 per cent stake in their home and go on to purchase up to 100 per cent, in 5 per cent increments. In the past social housing tenants could only buy with a one-off 100 per cent payment, but this new scheme has already allowed 100,000 sitting tenants to partly own their properties.

There were more affordable homes created this year than in any year since 1996/7, the government said yesterday. Some 53,730 affordable homes were provided in England in 2007/8, an increase of 21 per cent from the previous year. More than 29,000 were made available for social rent, while just over 24,000 were provided through other intermediate housing schemes including shared ownership and shared equity schemes, the figures up 19 and 23 per cent respectively from the previous year. Eight out of nine regions experience an increase in new affordable housing supply, with only the North East showing a small decrease.

The financial health of some of Britain’s largest housing associations (HAs) is being questioned following the admission on Tuesday by the Tenant Services Authority that six were on a watch list. In parliament yesterday Vince Cable asked the government was it proposed to do about those facing ‘grave financial difficulty’ and in ‘danger of collapse’. He said HAs had ‘got into bed’ with developers to promote shared ownership schemes on properties they can no longer get rid of, and as a result they ran the risk of going bust or a the last merging with a healthier association.

Housing minister Margaret Beckett announced the government has promised an extra £100 million to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder. Mrs Beckett, determined to provide ‘real help’ for families in the current difficult economic climate, increased the amount available by £100 million, to give households with incomes below £60,000 the chance to buy a new home with the help of a shared equity loan which is free of charge of five years. More than 130 developers have agreed to take part, and it is hoped that 18,000 first-time buyers will benefit. Opponents have accused the government of being irresponsible and first-time buyers of being ‘bribed’.

The government has announced it is to commission a major study into housing need to determine whether people want to rent, buy or are interested in shared ownership. The findings will play a major part on the government’s affordable housing goals, according to the housing minister who was giving evidence at a Communities and Local Government select committee into housing and the credit crunch. She said her impression was that there was strong demand for home ownership, including shared equity schemes, and added that she expects housing associations to build the majority of affordable homes, despite moves to encourage council building.

A scheme to help social tenants buy their homes is likely to fall far short of its target to fund nearly 2,000 purchases over the next three years. Only 62 complete sales through the Social HomeBuy scheme we made between April and September this year, although the government has allocated £15.8 million between 2008-11, enough to fund the shared purchase of more than 1,800 homes for the same period. However, the figures revealed the economic downturn led to a surge in popularity for the Open Market Homebuy and the New Build Homebuy schemes.

Housing associations are to stop building mixed estates of privately owned and social rented homes because of the credit crunch, leading to fears of a return to ‘council ghettos’ says The Times. Bob Kerslake, head of Homes and Community Agency (HCA) said that during the past 20 years housing developments had a mix of 30 per cent social housing, 30 per cent private homes and 30 per cent shared ownership, but the significant financial risks from the credit crunch has made people reluctant to invest in housing developments. He said housing associations already have 10,000 homes for private sale or shared ownership that have not found buyers. Under latest plans, a third of homes on an estate will be social rented at very low rate, and the rest will be at subsidised intermediate rents – about 80 per cent of the market price – for low-income earners.