Industry News


Labour pledges to fit solar panels to a million social homes


Corbyn has announced. The Labour leader also unveiled plans to fit 1.75


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million homes in total with electricity-generating solar panels. Corbyn says this will provide social tenants with free energy, saving them an average of £117 a year on their bills, which could rise to £270 for retired households. In July last year, the Government scrapped


subsidies for the installation of solar panels, meaning social landlords missed out on further funding. As well as the million social homes, Labour plans to provide interest-free loans and grants and make changes to regulations to enable the installation of solar panels on another 750,000 homes. This is estimated to cost £350m over 15 years. Mr Corbyn said: “In this country, too often people are made to feel like the cost of saving the


he next Labour government will fit solar panels to a million social homes as part of a new Decent Homes Programme, Jeremy


planet falls on them. Our green industrial revolution will benefit working-class people with cheaper energy bills, more rewarding well-paid jobs, and new industries to revive the parts of our country that have been held back for far too long.


“By focusing on low-income households, we will


reduce fuel poverty and increase support for renewable energy. Social justice and climate justice as one. Environmental destruction and inequality not only can but must be tackled at the same time.”


Benefit cap challenge lost at Supreme Court


Chartered Institute of Housing deputy chief executive Gavin Smart called on the Government to scrap the benefit cap, saying the impact it is having is “fundamentally unfair.” Speaking after a group of single parents lost their


challenge to the benefit cap at the Supreme Court, Mr Smart said the benefit cap was putting extra pressures on the poorest in society and fuelling higher rates of homelessness. After considering the parents’ appeal for ten


months, the judges concluded that the £20,000 annual limit on welfare payments had an “often harsh” effect on single parents and the legislation


that introduced the revised cap was “tough”. But they said it did not breach the parents’ and their children’s human rights despite hearing evidence suggesting that they had been plunged into poverty. The legal action was brought by the single


mothers and their children relating to the losses suffered following the lowering of the cap on the maximum weekly benefit income from £500 a week to £384.62 in January 2017. One woman with four children lost entitlement to £80 a week. A mother of five, who has three children with significant health needs, lost £110. Smart added: “The benefit cap has increased


poverty and hardship among the poorest households across Great Britain. Some people are going without food or heating so they can pay for their housing, or falling behind with their rent and being put at risk of homelessness. “The Government’s own figures show that the


majority of households affected by the benefit cap are single-parent families – many with very young children – and people who are too unwell to work. Quite simply, the cap is punishing those who will find it most difficult to find work. We believe the impact is fundamentally unfair – it’s time for the government to scrap the benefit cap.” Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “The


decision is deeply disappointing, and is a blow to the many lone parents who are struggling to keep a roof over their children’s heads due to the benefit cap. Some families we work with are left with 50p a week towards their rent.


Large HA had fire safety problems at all its tower blocks


Social landlord Hyde Group found fire safety problems at all of its 86 tower blocks when it inspected them following the Grenfell Tower tragedy two years ago. The revelation was made by the association’s


chief executive Elaine Bailey, when speaking at a Fire Protection Association seminar recently. She said


Hyde carried out ‘Type 4’ fire risk assessments on


all 86 of its buildings over 18 metres in height and found that 100 per cent of them had their fire safety “compromised in some way”. The assessments involved them going into every


flat in the tower blocks and investigating the interiors of walls. As a result, Hyde is carrying out significant remediation work on 10 of its tall


20 | HMM June/July 2019 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


buildings, as well as thousands of smaller remediation actions” coming out of the fire risk assessments. Works range from installing new fire exit notices to replacing the entire cladding on several blocks. In one case the cladding found was the same


aluminium composite material, used at Grenfell Tower, while at other locations it was high-pressure laminate cladding of the type which experts are now warning about. Ms Bailey said that Hyde is in the process of


taking legal action in a number of cases over work that it does not believe was done to the appropriate standards.


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