Policy & Governance: 31.08.21 update | The Almshouse Association

The Almshouse Association regularly posts a news summary of the latest Policy and Governance legislation that could impact / requires action from our member charities, with links to further information where applicable. Please find below our latest summary

Property and Planning

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Opens – The first wave of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which is worth £160m, has opened for bids.

Members who are Registered Providers and interested in applying should talk to their local authority who will need to bid for funding on their behalf as part of a consortium.

The competition will be open for 8 weeks with applications being accepted from 23rd August to 15th October 2021 and details of the competition can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-housing-decarbonisation-fund

Community Housing Fund Opens – The long awaited £4 million fund to increase community led affordable homes has opened. The Community Housing Fund Revenue Programme 2021 to 2022 is funded by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will help community-led housing groups in the latter stages of pre-development.

The Community Led Homes Partnership (CLH) will manage the grant programme, assessing all applications and administering the grants. Applications opened on 23 August 2021 and will remain open until all funds are allocated or until 31 December 2021, whichever occurs first. The programme will close in March 2022 – all work funding by the grant must be completed by this date.

To apply for the fund, groups will need to complete an eligibility checker on the Community Led Homes website. If eligible, groups will be emailed an online grant application form.

Wales

A new standard for building Affordable Homes in Wales – Welsh Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, has announced the ‘Welsh Development Quality Requirements 2021 – ‘Creating beautiful homes & places’. The standard promotes low carbon designs as well as moving away from fossil fuels for domestic heating and hot water systems.

Beyond low carbon targets, the requirements also stipulate new properties to be ‘gigabit ready’, meaning fibre optic broadband or gigabit wireless technology is available, alongside a choice of internet service providers. Where this isn’t in place, infrastructure to enable future installation without disruption must be provided.

These changes, along with a recognition of the need to consider space for home working, are in direct response to the pandemic, which saw much of the country needing to learn and work from home.

The new standards also favour good design and generous space to ensure people live well within their homes.

The standard will come into force from 1st October 2021 and will apply to new affordable homes funded by the Welsh Government. More details can be found here.

Posted 31 August 21