……..Support Almshouses – Community-led, Truly Affordable Housing For Your Community……

Is Boris’s new white paper, “Planning for the Future”, good news for those needing affordable homes?

In sentiment, it looks good. Who could argue with a paper that starts off aligning its spirit with the great housing philanthropist George Cadbury? But, like a proverbial curates cream egg, it may be good in parts but there is more than one layer to this and the devil may lurk in the sugar coated detail.

The Government’s mission is presented as the solution to the country’s housing crisis. But this terminology has always been, in my view, a misnomer. The real crisis is one of affordability, not just availability. There seems to be no lack of 4 bedroom executive homes being built, however, for young families and single people living in substandard housing at ever increasing rents, there is a crisis. Roughly, 90% of those on lower incomes find that housing benefit does not cover their rent. While an estimated 8.4 million people in England are living in an unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable home, according to the National Housing Federation *. This is unsustainable.

So the good first. There is an ambition that most developers will pay something towards the affordable housing provision locally. This paper asks for a national, clear and unambiguous policy. It points to an uncertain and inconsistent implementation of section 106, a levy on developers to provide a percentage of housing onsite or negotiate a fee to the council for the provision of affordable homes.

Certainly the current Section 106 agreement process needs reviewing, for example, it could work more effectively if properly applied and standardised and not negotiated and haggled down by the best lawyers. Also, it does not properly prioritise community housing and truly affordable housing, with the current wording suggesting the best beneficiaries are housing associations, not locally led and accountable community housing charities such as almshouses.

The new paper wants a standard levy across the country, but with the potential for regional variations. Does that sound familiar? I wonder what the difference would be in practice.

What we need is a simple levy set for affordable housing on new development by commercial developers. If its 20% then let it be 20% from Ipswich to Islington. Let’s make sure that almshouses, as the truly affordable form of community-led housing, are recognised as a priority beneficiary, if not we would like to see almshouse charities being offered the opportunity on all sites where the levy is applied. Let’s make sure that no almshouse charity is charged the affordable housing levy (I know how mad that sounds but some local authorities have tried!)

There are definitely some good elements of the paper around protecting Greenbelt, AONB and focusing development on brown field sites and I don’t want to detract from that. Overall, the White Paper has some good intentions but in places is contradictory or, at least, appears so.

We would like to see:

– All almshouse charities exempt from the new Infrastructure Levy just as they are from the current Community Infrastructure Levy.

– All almshouse charities to be able to apply for affordable homes benefits or partnerships on a level playing field with other affordable housing providers.

– Community led housing supported on small scale sites as a preferred option to large corporate style housing associations.

* Affordable housing stats from – Statistica and ONS

Posted 19 August 2020

Draft Building Safety Bill

The Government has recently published its draft Building Safety Bill. The bill would bring a number of changes in what is being referred to as the “biggest improvements to building safety in nearly 40 years”.

Changes include:

• The creation of a new Building Safety Regulator
• A new duty holder system will be implemented in every building, which aims to ensure that the person or entity that creates a building safety risk is responsible for managing that risk
• The requirement to have a Building Safety Manager in every high-rise building in the country to manage the day-to-day management of the building
• Increased sanctions for breaches
• Creation of a New Homes Ombudsman

The Almshouse Association will continue to monitor the progress of the bill and will keep members up to date with any developments.

Building Safety Fund

The Government has released guidance for social landlords on how to apply for the Building Safety Fund to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding without passing the cost onto leaseholders. Due to the age of most almshouses, it is unlikely that many members will be eligible for this support, but it is worth looking into if you oversee a multi-storey almshouse. It is also worth noting that a lot of the language refers to landlords and leaseholders, but the funding should extend to almshouse charities.

The key points for the fund are:

• The Government will prioritise funding for building owners who can demonstrate that the contractor will start work on cladding remediation by 31 March next year
• Online forms must be completed by 31 December 2020 to be considered
• Trustees would need to provide:
  • Confirmation that evidence is available to support submissions regarding eligibility of height and materials.
  • Confirmation of costs of the project – this could be a report from a cost consultant, together with the basis on which costs attributable to leaseholders have been calculated.
  • Confirmation that they have the legal right to recharge leaseholders – this could be evidence in the form of a copy of a lease agreement that contains the legal right to pass cost back to leaseholders. Social housing providers will be expected to show a representative sample demonstrating that the ability to recharge is across all leases.
  • Certification that the project will be on site and remediation work will have started by 31 March 2021.
• The funding is not available for buildings below 17.7m in height

Full guidance on the fund can be found here.

Previous Policy and Governance Updates:

Click here for Policy and Governance – June 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance – May 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance – Apr 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance – Mar 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance – Feb 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance –Jan 2020 Summary
Click here for Policy and Governance – 2019 Summary

Posted 17 August 20

Last month, The Almshouse Association wrote to Helen Whately MP, Minister of State for Care, calling for almshouses to have access to testing for coronavirus as testing was due to be rolled out to care homes. Since writing the initial letter, the rollout of tests has been delayed, with full rollout now expected next month.

However, we are pleased that the minister has responded to our letter and has assured us that the Government, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Public Health England and others agree that:

‘some supported-living and extra-care facilities share similarities with care homes in terms of care and risks…[and that] The Government will roll out an initial round of testing for staff and residents in the settings that meet certain risk-based criteria’

The Almshouse Association welcomes the response from the minister which provides reassurance that coronavirus testing will be based on risk. We will continue to push for almshouses to be seen as high risk settings which require regular access to Coronavirus testing.  

Members may also like to know that the minister expressed her “immense gratitude for the care being provided in almshouses, particularly during this pandemic.” 

You can keep up to date with the latest Coronavirus news here.

10th August 2020

From August 20, the way that deductions are made from Universal Credit to cover the cost of the Weekly Maintenance Charge will be changing.

Under the current rules claimants of Universal Credit are, in certain circumstances, allowed to agree to have their housing costs paid directly to their landlords under the Alternative Payment Arrangement, however, the schedule for these payments (four-weekly cycle) did not match the schedule of the remaining Universal Credit payment (monthly cycle). This system has been found to create difficulties for both claimants and landlords.

The new system will bring both of this payments in line with each other so that claimants and landlord receive their payments on the same date.

• This change will only affect landlords who make use of the online Landlord Portal to manage payments.
• Payment information can be accessed via the portal to see information which will enable them to more effectively support beneficiaries who are experiencing difficult circumstances.
• Those who will be affected by the change should be contacted prior to the system going live and should be provided with detailed guidance on the changes.

More information on these payments can be found here.

If any of the guidance is not clear or you would like further support, please do not hesitate to contact The Almshouse Association and we will endeavour to help.

Posted 27 July 2020