Social Housing Weekly - 16 September 2024

When home is a health hazard

Tragedies like the death of two-year old Awaab Ishak have brought the topic of housing and health into sharp relief in recent years. It's now well-understood that poor quality homes, ridden with damp and mould, are not good for our health - and in the worst cases can even kill. 

It's surprising then that Learning and Development Manager at the Housing Ombudsman Service, Polly Cox, has had to remind the Government last week(£) that successive governments have ‘failed to grasp’ the links between health and housing policy. It doesn't seem particularly hard to grasp, given the regular reports of deaths or sickness caused by sub-standard homes. Or there is the fact that COVID-19 hit households in over-crowded or poor-quality homes much harder - an evident connection between housing and health.

We've known housing and health are linked for generations. Public housing interventions are often driven by a need to improve public health - see the sanitation crisis and associated spread of infectious diseases in the 19th Century which led to the first programme of state-funded housing delivery.

It's not just mould and damp that lead to poor health. Anxiety and depression are closely linked to insecure and poor housing, both in the private and social rented sectors. Poor kitchen facilities are linked with bad diet, lack of insulation with winter illness, and pests left to fester into full-on infestations, or baked-in grime from dozens of previous tenants can cause huge stress amongst tenants - directly impacting their health.

I once rented an apartment that was so poorly looked after in the decades before I moved in that I wore a designated pair of 'inside shoes' right up to the edge of the bed, only taking them off when I laid down, for fear of touching the carpet, and spent the famed 'Beast from the East' winter storm hugging three hot water bottles and lighting candles to heat the room because the radiator was broken. Friends will tell you that my own anxieties around pests and cleanliness hit their peak during this tenancy and took some years to come back down to manageable levels.

The Ombudsman is allegedly continuing to have conversations with ministers about its proposed Royal Commission, which it called for (£) in January 2024, to further embed the importance of housing in health policy and vice versa. If grasping the problem is one thing, then solving it is quite another. This week we learned that the government is taking the fairly uncontroversial move of extending Awaab's law to cover the private rented sector. Such an obvious and reasonable step this is, that we can't help asking why it wasn't taken before... 

With this Government focused on preventative medicine and healthcare, this would seem a highly logical thing to do. After all, safe and secure housing prevents illness, both mental and physical. That's why we invented council housing.

Harriet Shone

LCA Director

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Renters' Reform: The Sequel

By Peter Lord

Last week, the Government introduced its Renters’ Rights Bill to Parliament with key measures for abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, tackling rental bidding wars, and reintroducing the Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector (PRS). If you were thinking that this all sounds very familiar, then you are not alone. The Bill is an ‘unofficial’ successor to the previous Conservative Government's  Renters’ Reform Bill which faced challenges from Tory backbenchers and was eventually abandoned in ‘wash-up’ ahead of the General Election.

As anticipated, the new legislation will not include rent control measures but is expected to include preventions against 'unreasonable' upfront payments, as well as banning excessive in-tenancy rent rises. So far then, this proposed legislation will go slightly further than Gove's offering, whilst falling short of the hopes of some within Rayner's own party. Other notable components of the proposed legislation look to be solidly uncontroversial, such as extending Awaab’s Law to the PRS to empower accelerated remediation of health and safety risks, and formally abolishing discriminatory tenancy adverts against households with children or in receipt of benefits.

Gove famously struggled to get his own renters' reform across the line, largely because of the seemingly intractable conflict between the interests of tenants and landlords. So does Rayner's compromise, because it is still a compromise, tread this line any better? So far, the UK’s largest corporate private rented sector landlord Grainger has praised the Government’s "ambition of raising standards" in the market while not including rent control measures. In contrast, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) warned that the Bill lacks detail for how courts would cope with an increase in repossession cases, following the abolition of Section 21 no-fault evictions. On the other hand, Chief Executive of Greystar, Bob Faith, has said that the implementation of rent controls do not represent as big a concern for investors as believed. Faith stated that Greystar already ‘operate in a lot of markets’ where rent caps or controls were in place, and that that private rented sector investment can be ‘viable’ when rent controls are implemented with ‘an ability over time for revenue to move with inflationary pressures.’

In terms of success then, will the sequel fare any better than the original? Well, this legislation will still be intolerably radical for some and disappointingly tepid for others. While pleasing nobody then, it is nonetheless unlikely to stir up insurmountable opposition.

Perhaps the Bill's biggest strength is simply the Parliamentary arithmetic; governments with majorities of 174 should not struggle to pass flagship legislation. As things stand, this looks set to be the sequel that wows nobody, but plays solidly. It will at least make Theatre Release, unlike it's predecessor...

Housing in the headlines

Demolish-v-retrofit... Rayner wants your views

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has launched a new survey calling for industry views (£) on how  planning policies and guidance should reflect issues related to demolition, retrofit and redevelopment of buildings. The survey will assist the Government’s understanding of key issues related to the demolish vs. retrofit ‘debate’ (£) and closes on 31 October 2024.

New report finds space for six million homes on Green Belt

The Times has published (£) a joint report by Create Streets and the Centre for Policy Studies with an up-to-date map of England’s Green Belt, aimed at identifying low-quality ‘grey belt’ land for development. The project identifies only 4% of Green Belt land has been developed with significant ‘pockets’ of industrial brownfield land in Green Belt areas. The report adds that 12% of Green Belt is designated as low quality agricultural land for ‘grazing’ and could provide space for nearly 200,000ha of development and six million homes.

Banking on the inheritance

A survey by financial services firm Canada Life has found that 22% of UK adults are waiting for inheritance before investing in a major purchase, increasing to 27% of 18-34 year-olds. For property, the survey finds that 19% of 18-34 year-olds who have received or are expecting to receive inheritance funds are to use the money to fund their first property purchase. 

London's social landlords drag down sector finances

Deputy Chief Executive of the Regulator for Social Housing, Jonathan Walters, has said (£) the financial state of social housing sector is ‘much healthier’ once London’s housing providers are not included. Walters said in ‘very simple terms’ that London’s housing market exposes social housing providers to ‘increased pressure’ from tenants’ needs and the cost of building safety remediation in high-rises.

Let's get political

Soft-left think tank calls for "time-honoured" tax rises

A new report by Resolution Foundation has recommended that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves increase capital gains tax, inheritance tax and National Insurance in the October Budget to ‘sufficiently fund’ public services. The think tank has described tax rises as a ‘time-honoured tradition’ in the first budget following a General Election and that any tax rises should make the wider tax system more ‘efficient.’

Owners of larger homes rush to sell ahead of expected capital gains bump

While the nation awaits the widely-expected increase to capital gains tax in the October Budget, Rightmove reports that growing ‘speculation’ over the Chancellor’s changes has led to a ‘surge’ in larger houses being placed on the market. The number of homes with four or more bedrooms being placed for sale increased by 15% in the first week of September compared to last year’s figures. According to The Times, these expected capital gains tax increases, alongside a similarly-anticipated hiking of inheritance tax at the October Budget has seen investors (£) in buy-to-let mortgages ‘rushing’ to sell assets.

Millionaires to flee Britain following Labour victory, reports The Times

The Times reports (£) the ‘surge’ in wealthy UK residents seeking to relocate abroad following Labour’s election victory. Wealth managers and tax advisers are quoted as experiencing a ‘massive uptick’ in activity with 9,500 millionaires expected to leave the country, according to New World Wealth.