Industry News News in brief
Empty homes in England rises to more than 216,000
• One million new homes could be built on brownfield sites in England, with more than 2,600 new sites identified in the past year according to the group, the Campaign to Protect Rural England. The sites are in many high demand areas such as London, Bristol and Cambridgeshire. The CPRE say previously built-on sites with a capacity for at least 120,000 new homes were identified in the last year alone. The CPRE have researched official public registers of land to come up with their figures. They added that almost two-thirds of the available sites were classed as deliverable within five years, in a counter to objections from housebuilders who often prefer to build on green field sites. The Government has set a target of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid 2020s, but we are only delivering an average of 180,000 per annum. The National Federation of Builders has issued a press release supporting the CPRE’s findings. It said brownfield sites are typically uncontroversial, can be built upon more quickly and are delivered by smaller builders using local labour resources.
• The number of newly built social rent homes (1,707) delivered by HAs in the final quarter of last year was the highest since the National Housing Federation began compiling figures three years ago. This figure was more than 550 higher than the 1,155 homes started in the same quarter in 2017/18. The previous highest figure for a three-month period was the 1,228 new social rent homes built in the first quarter of 2016/17. This level of activity contrasts favourably with figures released by the MHCLG showing that building work began on just 40,580 homes in England during the final quarter of 2018 – some eight per cent down on the previous three months. Completions were estimated at 42,970, up by two per cent on the previous quarter and one per cent on the previous year. During the whole of 2018, work started on 165,160 new-builds, almost exactly the same as the 2017 total. Only the number of completed homes rose in the past calendar year, up one per cent to 165,090. Housing Minister Kit Malthouse said he was “delighted” with the result.
2012 (when 254,059 properties were empty) according to official figures. The number of long-term vacant properties
T
(those that have been empty for at least six months) rose by 5.3 per cent to 216,186 in the 12 months to October. They now account for £53.6bn of property according to analysis by modular home and school builder Project Etopia. The rise compares with a 2.6 per cent increase in
the previous year. Prior to then the number of empty homes had fallen every year since 2008. Project Etopia chief executive, Joseph Daniels,
said: “The stubbornly high number of empty homes is compounding the housing market’s deeply entrenched problems with lack of supply remaining a key driver of high prices and low affordability. “New homes are not being built fast enough and
the constant spectre of abandoned properties aggravates an already tough market, particularly for first-time buyers who desperately want to claim the keys to their first property.” The biggest increases in the number of empty homes have been seen in coastal towns and cities.
Portsmouth recorded the biggest increase (to 939), followed by Hartlepool (to 726) and then Eastbourne (to 518). The largest number of long-term empty homes
are in London, which has risen 11 per cent to 22,481 (representing £10.7bn of property) while Birmingham has 4,283 long-term vacant homes, followed by Durham with 4,130, Bradford with 4,090 and Liverpool with 3,889. In Durham and Liverpool the number of empty homes fell by nine per cent and almost five per cent respectively.
he number of empty homes across England has risen for the second year running to more than 216,000, its highest level since
Tenants not being protected from revenge evictions
Only five per cent of private sector tenants who complained to councils about the condition of t heir homes are being properly protected by their local authorities. According to Generation Rent, 99 English
councils received a total of 67,026 complaints about housing in 2017/18. Those complaints resulted in just 3,043 Improvement Notices being served on landlords, meaning that only five per cent of those tenants were protected from eviction. The campaign group added that 12,592 Category
One hazards were recorded by 78 councils in 2017/18. These saw 2,545 Improvement Notices being served as a result, equating to 20 per cent of cases and leaving the remaining tenants with no protection from eviction. Dan Wilson Craw, the director of Generation
Rent, said: “These figures demonstrate that despite powers and protections, tenants living in squalid homes are being let down by their councils. If landlords are free to evict tenants who complain about disrepair then we cannot expect the quality of
14 | HMM April/May 2019 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
private rented homes to improve.” Data obtained under the Freedom of Information
Act by the campaign group Generation Rent shows that English councils are failing to use their full powers to protect tenants. Even when the most severe hazards, such as mould or broken stairs, is found in a rented home, tenants only get protection from eviction in one in every five cases. This is the latest example of councils being
accused of failing to use all of their powers to clamp down on rogue landlords, following media investigations last year. These found that convicted landlords are continuing to operate by exploiting gaps in a law that is supposed to protect the most vulnerable tenants. Landlords can legally evict their tenants without
giving a reason, this is called a Section 21 eviction. But section 21 evictions are invalid for six months after a council has served an Improvement Notice on the property. There must normally be a severe Category 1 hazard in the property for the council to take this action.
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