General Articles

Hundreds of students living on a west London housing estate owned by Notting Hill Genesis, were evacuated at short notice and rehoused after a series of building safety problems emerged. The building safety issues are understood to include problems with... View Article

The National Housing Federation is asking all English housing associations to adopt its new resident engagement charter and make themselves more accountable to their tenants. Together with Tenants, was an initiative set up in response to the Grenfell Tower fire... View Article

A Liverpool based social landlord has regained its compliance rating from the regulator two years after being down-graded over widespread health and safety failings. The Livv Housing Group, formerly known as Knowsley Housing Trust, was found to be non-compliant in... View Article

A 22,000-home landlord had its governance rating downgraded by the Regulator of Social Housing after owning up to not correctly implementing rule changes within its group structure. Yorkshire-based Incommunities Group was downgraded from ‘G1’ to ‘G2’, meaning it is still... View Article

The Government has allocated more than £150m to pay for more than 3,000 permanent homes aimed specifically at getting rough sleepers off the streets and provided with specialist support. In all some 276 schemes have been approved across England, including... View Article

The building control system and processes used by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea were fundamentally flawed and failed to properly assess the planned refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, according to an expert witness for the inquiry. Beryl Menzies identified... View Article

The Grenfell inquiry’s fire safety expert has said the advice given by specialist fire engineers during the design stage of the tower block’s refurbishment, amounted to professional negligence. Exova was employed to put together the fire strategy for the refurbishment... View Article

The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire has continued to reveal a series of questionable behaviours by key participants in the refurbishment project which ultimately resulted in 72 people losing their lives. Actions by a number of staff at... View Article

The Housing Ombudsman has continued its tougher and more transparent approach by naming and shaming the five social landlords it found guilty of ‘severe maladministration’. The Ombudsman named the five landlords as the London boroughs of Camden and Newham, as... View Article

Dangerous combustible cladding panels which exposes residents to unacceptable fire risks is being replaced so slowly that it could take until 2029 before all affected buildings are fixed. The claim is being made by the Labour Party. According to official... View Article

An acrimonious disagreement broke out on twitter between the Housing Secretary and campaigners over the delivery of recommendations from the Grenfell Tower public inquiry. On 30 October, the MHCLG tweeted “It has been a year since the Grenfell inquiry phase... View Article

The number of young people sleeping rough in London has risen to a record high with further increases forecast as sofa surfing and staying with friends has been outlawed by lockdown restrictions. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network says the... View Article

Homelessness in rural parts of England has risen by 115 per cent in the last two years, with campaigners warning of further increases as a result of planning reforms reducing the number of affordable homes to be built in the... View Article

New guidance for councils to ensure that young care leavers get the stable homes they need and prevents them becoming homeless has been issued by the Government. Care leavers often struggle to cope with the challenges of living independently at... View Article

Court approved evictions will not be taking place in large parts of England after bailiffs were told to not enter residential properties in areas covered by COVID-19 restrictions. Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland has written to the High Court Enforcement Officers... View Article