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Editor’s comment


Dear housing minister, please focus on safety and affordability


Patrick Mooney, News Editor


It has been a dramatic few months in terms of health and safety with hundreds of homes being destroyed or badly damaged as fire ripped through the timber cladding and balconies of several housing schemes. It is to our eternal relief that no lives were lost, but based on the accounts of residents who fled their homes with little but the clothes they were wearing, this was perhaps more down to good luck than it was to effective alarms, or to fire retardant design and fire fighting equipment. The horrific scenes of people’s homes and possessions being destroyed by fires running out of control played out on our TV and computer screens. But will this jolt our politicians into action? More than two years have passed since the Grenfell Tower fire, but meaningful actions to protect and safeguard our lives and our homes have yet to be implemented. A new Prime Minister has taken over in Downing Street and he has appointed yet another Secretary of State and lower ranking ministers to develop and implement housing policies. Fairness suggests that we should give them some time to get to grips with their new portfolios, but the revolving door of ministerial appointments turns so frequently that surely we do not have the luxury of observing such niceties.


HORRIBLE HOUSING HEADLINES This view is reinforced when we read some of the media headlines of the past few weeks which show just how badly broken and dysfunctional our housing market is at present. Consider the following headlines:


• More than 8.4 million people in England are living in unsuitable housing • Highest level of people living in temporary accommodation since 2007 • Long term empty houses on the rise • Multi billion fire safety costs threatens new building in London


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Now if you were the new Housing Minister (the 9th in the last nine years) don’t you think you would want to address that situation and at the very least recognise these issues as your highest priorities. It therefore came as a huge surprise that in the first speech given by Esther McVey, as the new Housing Minister, she made virtually no mention of rented housing or the growing concerns over fire safety. Speaking at the RESI 2019 conference in Newport, Ms McVey instead focussed almost entirely on how the Government is trying to encourage house building and home ownership. The only initiative and new money she promised to deliver was in giving 37 councils a share of a £2 million pot to crackdown on illegal housing developments in the Green Belt. This is intended to be spent on employing enforcement officers, new technology and paying legal costs – but £50,000 to each council won’t buy very much.


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Printed in England Choosing a Patrick Mooney 4 | HMM October/November 2019 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


warranty provider Dean Stritch of LABC Warranty describes what to look for when choosing a warranty provider for residential and commercial projects. See report inside


A MATTER OF PRIORITIES Then at the Conservative party conference a fortnight later, the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced plans to give new and existing tenants a right to shared ownership, buying an initial 10 per cent share in their rented home followed by further shares, as small as one per cent. This is surely a huge distraction and could complicate further housebuilding by social landlords, with the reaction of lenders an unknown factor. I am not saying this work is unimportant. But the decision to focus on these matters is very revealing about housing priorities – Saving the Green Belt and extending the right to buy, or safeguarding the lives of millions by ensuring we are all living in safe homes? When you compare it to the Brexit advertising campaign which is seeing £100 million being spent on ensuring we are all aware there is a possibility of the UK exiting the EU at the end of October, you understand how far housing has slipped down the political agenda. Then the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (who previously held the housing brief in cabinet) overlooked housing in his recent spending promises, you realise the writing was already on the wall. The National Housing Federation has done us an enormous service in recent times – it has highlighted the scale of the problem facing millions of people and only a few weeks ago it revealed a costed blueprint to solve the problem. This is not an easy fix, so the NHF drew up a 10-year plan which invests in the present and in the future. It focusses on improving our living conditions and in creating jobs, as well as taking people out of poverty. These all strike me as hugely important issues and on my bucket list they all come above protecting the Green Belt or extending the right to buy. Surely our Government should focus on delivering the housing we so badly need and we can live safely in.


HOUSING MANAGEMENT & MAINTENANCE


OCT/NOV 2019


Over 8.4 million in housing need


Fire safety costs threaten new builds


Households in TA hits 12 year high


Sprinkler height consultation underway


R&M spend falls by £434 million


Dean Stritch of LABC Warranty describes what to look for when choosing a warranty provider for residential and commercial projects. Image: Fallow Park, Staffordshire, by Jessup


See page 33 On the cover...


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