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A time for reflection, a time for action


Patrick Mooney, News Editor


Welcome to the 21st issue of Housing Management & Maintenance, a magazine started three and half years ago in which health and safety issues and attempts to improve conditions in the private rented sector were at the forefront of topics covered. It’s surprising to look back over the intervening period and to see what has and hasn’t been achieved. We started HMM well before the Grenfell House fire, but this single tragic event proved to be a defining moment in the country’s attitude towards social rented housing and of the people who live in it. It turns out Grenfell’s tenants had been complaining about various problems arising from the block’s refurbishment, but their voices were stifled and they were not listened to. Safety concerns were secondary to the making of savings and we also learnt that many older and disabled tenants were allocated flats in the upper floors of the high rise block. A previously safe building had its ability to withstand a fire completely compromised and as a consequence 72 lives were lost. Almost two years have passed since the fire, but we appear to have made little progress in dealing with the many questions arising. Brexit has obviously been a huge distraction for the Government, but it is appalling to think there are survivors who still have not been found a permanent home some 22 months since that awful night and there are thousands and thousands of people across the country who are going to bed every night in a potential firetrap, their blocks of flats still covered in dangerous cladding while politicians argue about the merits of sprinkler systems and ‘Stay Put’ policies.


LISTEN TO TENANTS At present we see a disjointed and fractured response, with landlords and freeholders essentially doing their own thing. It’s simply not good enough for Ministers to stay quiet and hide behind the public inquiry, the Police investigation and the review of building regulations. We cannot let the second anniversary of the fire and the terrible loss of life pass in June without demanding real and significant action to ensure our homes are made safe and that tenants’ voices are listened to. Recently the Regulator of Social Housing announced it is increasing the frequency of checks on more complex social landlords. While this is welcome – none of us wants to see a housing association go under – it is not addressing the issues of residents’ safety, quality of services and accommodation, the suitability of housing allocations and whether landlords are listening to tenants. All of these issues should be centre stage in the aftermath of Grenfell, but the regulator continues with its primary focus on governance and value for money – presumably under orders from the Government. Isn’t it time that its focus was changed? We also need to ensure that private tenants receive similar protections. Ministers have passed many laws relating to the private rented sector in recent years but they keep passing responsibility for implementation to local councils. These are the same organisations who they are starving of the resources needed to carry out their existing responsibilities, let alone the new ones they conveniently delegate to them. Councils are best placed to do local enforcement and protection work, but they need the powers, the resources and the right encouragement to do this.


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INCREASE HOUSING SUPPLY The extra £3 billion for building more affordable homes in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement was a welcome boost, but it will not solve the problems of our historic under-supply of low cost housing which has been building up over decades. The price of this is being paid for by the growing numbers of homeless households and the families living in unsuitable private rentals, too afraid to complain in case they are evicted. The Chartered Institute of Housing is correct in asking for the Right to Buy to be suspended until we can get to a position where all sold properties are replaced on a like for like basis. It would be even better if we could ensure every sold property was replaced with at least two or three new homes for rent. The pilot scheme to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants will only benefit those families lucky enough to buy their home with a huge discount. Housing is too important an issue to be left to the whims of a lottery. The Government needs to step in to actively encourage more councils to increase the building of affordable housing. Some of the recent actions taken, such as removing borrowing caps on the housing revenue accounts have helped, but far more has to be done. Bigger and bolder solutions are needed if we are to ensure houses are fit for purpose and are in sufficient supply, are built in the right places, and to ensure no-one has to live in an unsafe and overcrowded property, fearful of every knock at the door.


HOUSING MANAGEMENT & MAINTENANCE


Patrick Mooney APR/MAY 2019


Section 21 evictions axed


Councils demand sprinklers funding


Harrogate to pilot UC changes


Homelessness continues to rise


End of fixed-term tenancies


There is more to architectural copper than meets the eye, with an unrivalled lifespan counted in hundreds of years, no maintenance and full recyclability. Image © Anthony Weller (courtesy of EPR Architects)


Architectural copper


for the long term Tere is more to architectural copper than meets the eye, with an unrivalled lifespan counted in hundreds of years, no maintenance and full recyclability as Graeme Bell of Aurubis explains. See report inside


See page 38 4 | HMM April/May 2019 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


On the cover...


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