Industry News


Consultation on new draft shared ownership code launched


Te Shared Ownership Council has launched a consultation on a new shared ownership code of good practice, hoping that providers of shared ownership homes will adopt it. Te council acknowledges that while shared


ownership plays a “major role” in addressing housing supply and affordability, it “isn’t working well for everyone”. Earlier the Levelling Up, Housing and


Communities (LUHC) committee conducted an inquiry into shared ownership, which concluded that the tenure does not provide an affordable route onto the housing ladder for “too many people”. Te council said it is building on the recommendations outlined in the LUHC report. Te council describes the code as “a step


on the reform journey” for shared ownership, emphasising that “consumers considering shared ownership and those already involved deserve consistency, high standards of information, transparency, and support”. Te consultation will be open until September. A recent report by Savills revealed that


the number of shared ownership homes in England has passed the 250,000 mark for the first time (252,220). Te report also found that shared ownership sales have added a total of £6.5bn to housing associations’ turnover in the last decade.


Savills say that shared ownership has the potential to deliver an additional 100,000 homes in the next five years, generating £2.2bn each year.


Ann Santry, chair of the SOC Board said:


“Shared ownership has an important part to play in helping people achieve a stake in home ownership. Te new code aims to drive best practice across all of the providers and others who are part of the journey shared owners are making. “However, while we recognise the


achievements to date we must undertake further reform to this tenure. Te Shared Ownership Council seeks to play a leading role in aligning stakeholders to support reforms that improve shared ownership for consumers and allows the tenure to fulfil its potential.”


Homelessness in England at highest level on record


H


omelessness is at its highest level in England since records began and is expected to worsen, according to


an investigation by the public spending watchdog into the last Government’s attempts to tackle the problem. Te National Audit Office (NAO) said


that despite a range of measures introduced under Teresa May’s Conservative administration in 2018, homelessness had soared, with record numbers of families now trapped in unsuitable accommodation. A combination of sky-high rents, insecure


tenancies, housing benefit cuts and severe shortages of social housing were fuelling the problem, which was costing the taxpayer £2.4bn a year and threatening to bankrupt district councils, it said. Te NAO report was published in July. Its


findings included: • Te number of households accepted as homeless by their local council has risen by more than one-fiſth over the past five years, from 64,080 in the third quarter of 2018/19 to 78,980 in the same period last year, an increase of 23%;


• Just under 113,000 households, including almost 146,000 children, were living in temporary accommodation in the third quarter of last year, at a cost of £1.6bn, up from 83,540 in 2018, a rise of 35%; and


• More than 33,000 households were living in temporary accommodation outside their local area last year, a 42% increase in five years as councils, particularly in London and the south-east, struggled to find affordable properties to place families.


Te NAO said the Government had failed to get a grip on the poor quality of temporary housing endured by many homeless families, with local authorities increasingly forced to book households into B&Bs and hotels to meet overwhelming demand. Although councils are only supposed to use B&Bs


for households with children as a last resort, the figures showed that 4,560 households with children were put up in B&Bs, of which 2,960 had been living in them for longer than six weeks. Te NAO report said: “Te situation has


worsened since we last examined the issue in 2017. Despite the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2017, homelessness numbers are at a record level and expected to increase.” A separate Conservative initiative to eradicate


rough sleeping in England by the end of 2024 also failed, aſter figures published earlier this year showed the numbers of people spending the night


14 | HMMAugust/September 2024 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


on the streets or in tents or cars had risen for the second year running. Teresa May introduced the Homelessness


Reduction Act, which came into force in 2018, giving councils new duties in an attempt to get a grip on the problem and rectify the Tories’ dismal record on homelessness over the previous eight years. However, the NAO concluded that despite


some small improvements, the position had since worsened. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing,


Communities and Local Government welcomed the NAO report: “Homelessness levels have skyrocketed and too many families are living in temporary accommodation. We will take the action needed to tackle this issue and develop a long-term, cross-government strategy working with mayors and councils to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.” Claire Holland, the Local Government


Association’s housing spokesperson, said: “We need the new Government to take urgent action to implement the recommendations highlighted in this report, by adopting a genuinely cross-departmental approach to tackling homelessness, and producing a long-term strategy.” A separate NAO press release showed the last


Government spent £9.2bn trying to improve the attainment of disadvantaged children in England, only to leave office with the gap at GCSE level wider than a decade ago. Closing the attainment gap has been a priority for


the Department for Education (DfE), particularly aſter the disruption caused by Covid. In 2023/24, it devoted about 15% of its annual budget to a range of interventions aimed at achieving that.


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