Coronavirus: Renters ‘need more help’

Rachel Reeves, Labour chairwoman of the Commons Business Committee, said there was nothing in the chancellor’s announcement to offer financial support to people who were already on statutory sick pay, self-isolating or had been laid off. 

And unions raised concerns there were no measures to help freelancers and people working in the gig economy.

Other MPs called for more help for renters.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma told BBC Breakfast that measures which will offer support to renters will be announced: “very shortly”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged the government to suspend home rental fees and ban evictions of tenants during the coronavirus crisis.

Public Health England guidance on social distancing for everyone in the UK and protecting older people and vulnerable adults (Published 16 March 2020)

Background and scope of guidance

This guidance is for everyone. It advises on social distancing measures we should all be taking to reduce social interaction between people in order to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). It is intended for use in situations where people are living in their own homes, with or without additional support from friends, family and carers. If you live in a residential care setting guidance is available.

We are advising those who are at increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus (COVID-19) to be particularly stringent in following social distancing measures.

This group includes those who are:

• aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions)
• under 70 with an underlying health condition listed below (ie anyone instructed to get a flu jab as an adult each year on medical grounds):
  • chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis
  • chronic heart disease, such as heart failure
  • chronic kidney disease
  • chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis
  • chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy
  • diabetes
  • problems with your spleen – for example, sickle cell disease or if you have had your spleen removed
  • a weakened immune system as the result of conditions such as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or chemotherapy
  • being seriously overweight (a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above)
• those who are pregnant

Note: there are some clinical conditions which put people at even higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19. If you are in this category, next week the NHS in England will directly contact you with advice the more stringent measures you should take in order to keep yourself and others safe. For now, you should rigorously follow the social distancing advice in full, outlined below.

People falling into this group are those who may be at particular risk due to complex health problems such as:

• people who have received an organ transplant and remain on ongoing immunosuppression medication
• people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radiotherapy
• people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia who are at any stage of treatment
• people with severe chest conditions such as cystic fibrosis or severe asthma (requiring hospital admissions or courses of steroid tablets)
• people with severe diseases of body systems, such as severe kidney disease (dialysis)

What is social distancing?

Social distancing measures are steps you can take to reduce the social interaction between people. This will help reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19).

They are:

1. Avoid contact with someone who is displaying symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19). These symptoms include high temperature and/or new and continuous cough
2. Avoid non-essential use of public transport, varying your travel times to avoid rush hour, when possible
3. Work from home, where possible. Your employer should support you to do this. Please refer to employer guidance for more information
4. Avoid large gatherings, and gatherings in smaller public spaces such as pubs, cinemas, restaurants, theatres, bars, clubs
5. Avoid gatherings with friends and family. Keep in touch using remote technology such as phone, internet, and social media
6. Use telephone or online services to contact your GP or other essential services

Everyone should be trying to follow these measures as much as is pragmatic.

We strongly advise you to follow the above measures as much as you can and to significantly limit your face-to-face interaction with friends and family if possible, particularly if you:

• are over 70
• have an underlying health condition
• are pregnant

This advice is likely to be in place for some weeks.

Handwashing and respiratory hygiene

There are general principles you can follow to help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, including:

• washing your hands more often – with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use a hand sanitiser when you get home or into work, when you blow your nose, sneeze or cough, eat or handle food
• avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
• avoid close contact with people who have symptoms
• cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in a bin and wash your hands
• clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces in the home

What should you do if you develop symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19)

The same guidance applies to the general population and those at increased risk of severe illness form coronavirus (COVID-19). If you develop symptoms of COVID-19 (high temperature and/or new and continuous cough), self-isolate at home for 7 days. You can find the full guidance at stay at home.

How can I get assistance with foods and medicines if I am reducing my social contacts?

Ask family, friends and neighbours to support you and use online services. If this is not possible, then the public sector, business, charities, and the general public are gearing up to help those advised to stay at home. It is important to speak to others and ask them to help you to make arrangements for the delivery of food, medicines and essential services and supplies, and look after your physical and mental health and wellbeing.

If you receive support from health and social care organisations, for example, if you have care provided for you through the local authority or health care system, this will continue as normal. Your health or social care provider will be asked to take additional precautions to make sure that you are protected. The advice for formal carers is included in the Home care provision.

What should you do if you have hospital and GP appointments during this period?

We advise everyone to access medical assistance remotely, wherever possible. However, if you have a scheduled hospital or other medical appointment during this period, talk to your GP or clinician to ensure you continue to receive the care you need and consider whether appointments can be postponed.

What is the advice for visitors including those who are providing care for you?

You should contact your regular social visitors such as friends and family to let them know that you are reducing social contacts and that they should not visit you during this time unless they are providing essential care for you. Essential care includes things like help with washing, dressing, or preparing meals.

If you receive regular health or social care from an organisation, either through your local authority or paid for by yourself, inform your care providers that you are reducing social contacts and agree on a plan for continuing your care.

If you receive essential care from friends or family members, speak to your carers about extra precautions they can take to keep you safe. You may find this guidance on Home care provision useful.

It is also a good idea to speak to your carers about what happens if one of them becomes unwell. If you need help with care but you’re not sure who to contact, or if you do not have family or friends who can help you, you can contact your local council who should be able to help you.

What is the advice if I live with a vulnerable person?

If you live in a house with a vulnerable person refer to our household guidance.

How do you look after your mental wellbeing?

Understandably, you may find that social distancing can be boring or frustrating. You may find your mood and feelings are affected and you may feel low, worried or have problems sleeping and you might miss being outside with other people.

At times like these, it can be easy to fall into unhealthy patterns of behaviour which in turn can make you feel worse. There are simple things you can do that may help, to stay mentally and physically active during this time such as:

• look for ideas of exercises you can do at home on the NHS website
• spend time doing things you enjoy – this might include reading, cooking, other indoor hobbies or listening to the radio or watching TV programmes
• try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, drink enough water, exercise regularly, and try to avoid smoking, alcohol and drugs
• keep your windows open to let in fresh air, get some natural sunlight if you can, or get outside into the garden

You can also go for a walk outdoors if you stay more than 2 metres from others.

Further information on looking after your mental health during this time is available.

What steps can you take to stay connected with family and friends during this time?

Draw on support you might have through your friends, family and other networks during this time. Try to stay in touch with those around you over the phone, by post, or online. Let people know how you would like to stay in touch and build that into your routine. This is also important in looking after your mental wellbeing and you may find it helpful to talk to them about how you are feeling.

Remember it is OK to share your concerns with others you trust and in doing so you may end up providing support to them too. Or you can use a NHS recommended helpline.

Advice for informal carers

If you are caring for someone who is vulnerable, there are some simple steps that you can take to protect them and to reduce their risk at the current time.

Ensure you follow advice on good hygiene such as:

• wash your hands on arrival and often, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitiser
• cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze
• put used tissues in the bin immediately and wash your hands afterwards
• do not visit if you are unwell and make alternative arrangements for their care
• provide information on who they should call if they feel unwell, how to use NHS 111 online coronavirus service and leave the number for NHS 111 prominently displayed
• find out about different sources of support that could be used and access further advice on creating a contingency plan is available from Carers UK
• look after your own well-being and physical health during this time. Further information on this is available here

Summary of advice

* if one member of your family or household has a new continuous cough or high temperature 
** if you live alone and you have a new continuous cough or high temperature 
*** for example cinema, theatre, pubs, bars, restaurants, clubs 
**** for example via telephone or internet 
¹ such as anyone instructed to get a flu jab each year 

Manchester City Council unveils plans to help associations buyback Right to Buy homes

Inside Housing NEWS14/11/194:00 PM BY LUCIE HEATH

Manchester City Council will introduce a new policy which will see them offer money to housing associations to help them buy former Right to Buy homes.

Picture: Getty

Manchester City Council will consider offering housing associations funding to buy back Right to Buy homes #ukhousing

Manchester City Council is introducing a new Right to Buy buyback policy, which it says will make better use of RTB receipts #ukhousing

Under the policy, the council will consider using Right to Buy receipts to help housing associations that would like to buy back former council homes but have identified a funding gap between the cost of acquiring a property and the rental income it will receive. 

Currently, councils are offered the chance to buy back former Right to Buy properties or offer it to another social landlord, if the home is being sold within 10 years of the original purchase.

Manchester Council will now commit to offering these homes to a housing association within 48 hours of receiving a notification of the opportunities to purchase.

Government will introduce shared ownership Right to Buy scheme

Just 10 homes sold through Voluntary Right to Buy pilot using portability

Housing associations, which will agree with the council the areas they are interested in buying properties in, can then either purchase the property or return it to the council with an appraisal which shows there is a funding gap. 

If Manchester City Council decides to fill the funding gap, it will be on the condition that the home will be let at affordable rent level and the council will also have the first decision on who lives there.

In 2012, David Cameron increased the Right to Buy discounts to £75,000, while introducing a commitment that each home sold would be replaced with another affordable home within three years. 

Last year, the government fell behind that pledge when data revealed that 15,981 replacement homes had been acquired or started, compared with the 17,072 required.

Manchester Council said its new policy would see them reinvest Right to Buy receipts in a way which would reduce the impact of the policy more directly.

The proposal, which was agreed by the executive at a meeting this week, uses a similar approach to the one introduced by the council last year, through which councils and housing associations pool funds to buy large properties for bigger families. 

Housing association tenants to get ‘shared ownership’ Right to Buy, Jenrick reveals

30/09/194:00 PM BY PETER APPS

Housing association tenants will be given a right to buy 10% of their homes under new proposals announced by the housing secretary today. 

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick (picture: Chris McAndrew)

Robert Jenrick has set out plans to give housing association tenants the right to purchase a share in the equity of their property – starting at 10% and rising in 1% chunks.

The new right will be automatic for newly built homes, Mr Jenrick said, with a “voluntary” arrangement between associations and the government for existing tenants. 

This echoes the ‘voluntary deal’ for the full Right to Buy extension struck between housing associations and the government in 2015.

A press statement issued by the Conservative Party today said: “We want to work with housing associations on a voluntary basis to determine what offer can be made to those in existing housing association properties.

“For those tenants in new stock, there will be an automatic right to buy a share of their home from as little as 10%, with the ability to increase that share over time, up to full ownership.”

Last month the government promised an overhaul of shared ownership – allowing buyers to purchase a property with just 10% of the equity. 

But this is a major further step – offering what is effectively a partial ‘Right to Buy’ to 2.6 million households.

Mr Jenrick said: “This government is determined to level up opportunities across the country, helping millions of people into homeownership.

“As housing secretary, I want to ensure that residents living in new housing association homes are given the opportunity of climbing onto the property ladder by giving them the right to shared ownership of their homes.

“This means that tenants in new stock will have an automatic right to buy a share of their home, as little as 10%, and increase that share over time. I also look forward to working with housing associations on a voluntary basis to open this opportunity to those living in existing properties.

“As Conservatives, we know that owning a home is not just about the four walls around you; it’s about investing in your family, saving for the future and putting down roots in a community. We are on the side of hard-working people who want the sense of security that comes with homeownership.”

It is not yet clear how the policy will be enforced for new homes, although it is possible the government is considering making it a condition of grant funding. 

Neither has the party revealed how it plans to establish a voluntary agreement with the sector for existing stock. 

In 2015, this was struck with the National Housing Federation following a sector-wide ballot about whether or not to support the move. It was proposed that the regulator would oversee housing associations’ compliance with the deal.

The full extension of the Right to Buy – proposed by David Cameron in the 2015 manifesto – would involve housing association tenants benefiting from the discounts available to council tenants when purchasing their homes. 

Housing associations would then have been compensated for the reduced value of the sale through public money, to have been raised by the sale of vacant council houses. 

These plans have hit the buffers – with a West Midlands pilot ongoing, but no implementation date and no funding mechanism identified with the sale of council homes ruled out last year. 

The government made no reference to the wider Right to Buy extension in its announcement this morning, but it is possible this new scheme would serve as a replacement. 

Inside Housing reported in August that Boris Johnson’s new government was considering switching housing policy to focus on homeownership following a more multi-tenured approach under Theresa May.

#Govt agency/department/organisation #Home ownership #Housing Association/RP #Policy #InsideHousing 

‘My time at Number 10’: an interview with former government housing advisor Toby Lloyd

Inside Housing 12/09/19 BY PETER APPS

Last year, Shelter’s policy chief Toby Lloyd was ushered into Number 10 as Theresa May’s housing advisor. He tells Peter Apps about life at the heart of a floundering government. Photography by Jon Heal

When Toby Lloyd was invited to Number 10 Downing Street to give a presentation on his ideas to solve the housing crisis, he could not have realised quite how life-changing a meeting it would be.

Then head of policy at homelessness charity Shelter, he impressed Number 10’s policy team so much that they phoned him up the next day and offered him a job.

Over the next 14 months, he lived and worked right at the beating heart of government – a resident (self-described) housing nerd inside the small band of policy specialists directly advising prime minister Theresa May.

And then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over. Ms May lost one Brexit battle too many and departed office in July. Mr Lloyd went with her – flotsam in the political wave crashing over Westminster.

He meets Inside Housing after two months back in the real world.

Arriving late, he cracks jokes about how busy it is being unemployed. He has grown long, flowing hair and now sports a look that sits somewhere between a retired New Zealand cricketer and a classical portrayal of Jesus. His appearance is certainly a long way from that of your stereotypical Tory – although this is unsurprising, given that he is not one. What may be more surprising is that not being a Conservative did not leave him out of place in Number 10.

The policy unit advisors, he explains, are hired as subject specialists rather than the general political advisors who float around the Westminster departments. This means there is less of a party-political flavour.

“I wasn’t particularly unusual in being a non-Conservative,” he says. “There were other people who were brought in for social care, particularly… who were not Conservatives by any stretch.”

But it was his ability to talk to Conservatives that carried him into Downing Street. In his years at Shelter, he had developed what he calls a “civic housebuilding pitch” – essentially a way of packaging the charity’s message to appeal to centre-right politicians. He credits Prince Charles with inspiring this vision.

“I got invited to one of those housing jamboree events which just so happened to be at Clarence House as the Prince’s Foundation was unveiling its latest piece of work,” he explains. “There were a huge number of civil society and influencer organisations there basically parroting the same analysis as I’d been plugging at Shelter for many years.

“It was exactly the same – the land market is broken, we don’t build enough homes, they’re not the right type, they’re not affordable to local people and that fuels nimbyism, nothing is working here, we need a new approach based on quality and affordability.”

He realised that with a simple tweak of focus, Shelter’s message could gain traction with a class of politicians who had previously overlooked it. The approach worked.

“The first time I tried it at a Conservative Party conference fringe event I had a room full of councillors from places like Buckinghamshire singing my praises and clamouring for more,” he says. “All I’d done is actually [use] the same Shelter housing market critique I always did, but accompanied with pictures of Prince Charles’ developments… The political divide on this is ephemeral, it’s not real.”

It was this same pitch that caught the attention of Number 10. The lure of such a position of influence could not be ignored – whatever views he held personally about the party offering it.

“You can’t solve the housing crisis without dealing with government,” he says. “If you actually want to fix the housing system for millions of people in this country, you have to have the state do most of the heavy lifting because the problem is just too big.”

By the time he joined in April 2018, Ms May had been without a majority for almost a year and Brexit was taking up more and more of the political agenda. But she remained determined, he says, to deliver something on her “burning injustices” agenda – the speech she famously gave promising social reform after her appointment in 2016.

“[The speech] was up outside her office on a poster,” Mr Lloyd says. “It was referred to frequently – people took it very seriously. Of course, inevitably, Brexit took up so much of the headspace, bandwidth, political energy that there just wasn’t that much left for anything else. But even without Brexit this was a minority government with a lot of divisions within itself and that inevitably means the prime minister’s agenda doesn’t become law overnight.”

Key among these divisions was pushback over parts of Ms May’s housing agenda from Philip Hammond’s Treasury.

“The Treasury’s sacred duty is to look after the nation’s finances and they frequently interpret that as stopping reckless politicians spending vast amounts of money on things they think will be politically popular but might not work,” he says.

“That is fair enough – that’s their job – but if you are one of the people trying to get money spent on things, it can be quite frustrating.”

Mr Hammond’s Treasury took a particular interest in what was being proposed on housing.

“Philip Hammond took an awfully strong personal interest in housing and planning issues,” Mr Lloyd says. “I was often quite surprised how personally involved he was on issues of housing policy.”

It was partly these divisions and political struggles that led to the most significant moment of Ms May’s premiership from a housing perspective.

In October 2018, she used her party conference speech to announce the surprise scrapping of the cap on council borrowing for new Housing – potentially opening the door to the return of mass council housebuilding for the first time in a generation.

“Party conferences… are the one part of the year which is driven entirely by the politicians and not the civil service so it does allow things to be pulled out of the hat a bit more,” he says.

“[Usually] the Treasury has a lot of opportunities to either block things from happening or then slow them down and obstruct them once they’ve been announced. Because of the party conference process this was able to just be announced.

“But then to be enacted, all it took was the secretary of state to write to councils. So it was much harder for the Treasury to then slow down the process.”

The Treasury disliked this policy for the simple reason that the borrowing would go on the government balance sheet. That fact has always driven a dislike of council housebuilding in the department.

“The reason they [the Treasury] are so opposed to that, even at a time when they were agreeing to spend money on social housing, is because of the balance sheet issue,” Mr Lloyd explains. “They will tell you repeatedly that every social home built by a council costs twice as much as a social home built by a housing association.

“Exactly the same money, borrowed from exactly the same people, to build exactly the same house, to house exactly the same people, but just because of the Treasury scoring rules, one counts on the balance sheet and one doesn’t. For a lot of people in the real world that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, but it matters hugely to the Treasury.”

Aside from the borrowing cap, one of the key focuses of housing policy during this time was dealing with the fallout from the Grenfell Tower fire. Mr Lloyd says this was a genuinely high priority for Ms May.

“There was a real revelation that things had gone dreadfully wrong and government had an urgent moral duty to help the people directly affected and to address some of these issues which underlaid them,” he said.

“Unfortunately, all of those turned out to be things which were long, slow, difficult and expensive to do so I can totally understand the criticism that the response was inadequate but… it was not [for] a cynical reason.”

In particular, he was frustrated by the slow pace at which the government accepted the need to pay for the removal of cladding – offering £400m to social housing providers in spring 2018 and a further £200m for the private sector in May this year.

“The government was always going to end up paying for that, one way or another,” he says. “By delaying and delaying and then being seen to be forced into it you’ve still spent the money but managed to look mean and cruel at the same time.

“The old stereotype of Conservative governments was that they were competent but cruel, whereas Labour governments were kind but incompetent. To position yourself repeatedly in a place where you look both incompetent and cruel is unwise, but we seemed to manage that quite regularly.”

He cites the glacially slow progress of the Social Housing Green Paper, designed to reform the sector, in part to take account of the issues raised by Grenfell, as a 

major disappointment – both for him personally and for the then-prime minister.

“The big one that didn’t get finished and was a real regret to her and to me was the Social Housing Green Paper: improving regulation for the housing sector, consumer rights, that whole package of stuff,” he says. “It was a source of real regret that we weren’t able to get that to the next stage of the reform process before she left.”

This was not the only unfinished business from Ms May’s time. An announcement about ending ‘no-fault’ evictions in the private rented sector came right at the end of her tenure, with the consultation still open when she left. Does he hold any hope that the new regime will pick up these policies and carry them on?

“I would hope… just given the policy and the political logic they will carry on with those reforms – I mean why not?” he says. “But really, I have no idea what is going to happen.”

Who does? Politics has never been less predictable. But Mr Lloyd’s guesses should hold some weight. There are few in the housing sector who have been so close to the heart of the machine.

Overcoming the problem of accessing residents’ homes – INSIDE HOUSING

Vicky Green, Head of Locality at Bromford, explains the positive methods her team have adopted to help with this common landlord issue. Picture by Getty

Bromford Group owns 44,000 homes across central and South West England with around 100,000 residents, making it one of the largest housing associations in the UK. Vicky Green leads a team of neighbourhood coaches overseeing 4,000 people in the Wolverhampton area.

What does Bromford offer its residents?

Our strapline is that we invest in homes and relationships. That’s at the heart of our work. Three years ago, we changed the structure and approach to how we communicate with our residents – so much so that we invested £3m in the recruitment, reimagining of roles and training of staff. We no longer have housing managers. Instead, we have neighbourhood coaches who have only 180 homes to oversee, and they are out on their patch, walking the area and knocking on doors. We commit to checking in with residents at least once a year.

Neighbourhood coaches help people to thrive in their homes. We have turned our approach on its head. We don’t find what’s wrong and tell the resident what to do; we ask the person what they want their success to be – whether it’s settling a family in a community, giving financial advice or working through barriers to gain employment – and we start with what’s good already and work up from there to develop the knowledge and skills in the area they need.

Since we launched this approach, 91% of our residents have engaged with their neighbourhood coach.

The benefit of this approach for Bromford is that it has given us a better understanding of how to deal with housing issues with our residents because we know them better now and we know how to best communicate with them. We’ve built a relationship based on trust.

How does Bromford ensure its properties and residents are safe?

On our website there are lots of ‘how-to’ guides that offer residents step-by-step information on how to maintain and repair appliances and parts of the home – even how to prevent breakages. We have found that many residents like this because it made them feel more at home in the property and empowered to not have to always call on us.

If, however, the resident would like us to deal with it, there is a call centre and we can also guide someone through a small repair while they’re on the phone. We have built a mock-up kitchen in the centre so that our staff can take a look at an appliance or cupboard handle, for example, while the resident is on the phone and tackle the problem together.

Obviously, for issues of safety, there are contractors who visit the property to undertake checks. Now that we have neighbourhood coaches, residents have said they are 20% more likely to know where to go for help if they know their neighbourhood coach than if they don’t.

Is gaining access to properties an issue for you?

When we launched the neighbourhood coach scheme we looked at how we were approaching safety checks. It used to be that the contractor would visit and if no one was in, they would leave a card and they’d repeat this three times, then report to us if they’d been unsuccessful in booking a visit with the resident.

Now, the neighbourhood coaches know in advance what properties need to have a safety check, so they can chat to the resident about this and make sure it gets booked in. The result is we continue to meet our targets, with all our properties being checked every year.

What are the reasons that you might have problems gaining access?

There can be many reasons why a resident doesn’t want us to go into their home, ranging from hoarding to mental health and safeguarding issues. Sometimes it’s as simple as there being a language barrier. However, there are many ways around this – Bromford has a diverse team and our residents usually have a network of friends and relatives around them who help, but if needed we will employ translation services, although this is rare.

But I’d say trust is the main reason. One of the problems we found is that some of our contractors call from private numbers and when residents see the withheld number on their phone, they don’t answer. So for the residents that we know don’t answer the phone, the neighbourhood coach – who they know – will call them or drop in to see them.

Ways to work with residents to improve access

Landlords must legally carry out safety checks on all properties. However, it is not always easy to do this and can be costly if a legal process is involved. Reasons for residents denying access can be varied and might be because of rent arrears, language issues, mental health problems, hoarding, pets, unhealthy relationships, or simply feeling unsure. Possible ways to help communicate with residents might include:

• Make sure the contact points with residents are known and easy to approach, so that residents are aware of who to contact when they have issues with appliances or alarms that might need maintenance, making residents feel comfortable with contracting companies.
• Get in touch with residents’ associations and social groups, particularly for harder-to-reach groups such as young people or disabled residents so that you can communicate with them in social situations, be known to them and gain trust for times when you need resident co-operation.
• Look at your communication strategy. Perhaps using email newsletters and texts is a better way of communicating with residents than posters on notice boards. Think about the people who live in your properties – could offering information in other languages help?
• Make sure your housing manager or neighbourhood coach is proactive and asks residents to be available for safety checks.

Can you see the new initiative working?

Yes. Last year, due to bad weather, nine of our properties were flooded over the Easter break – a crisis, and the biggest insurance claim that Bromford has had to make.

Understandably the residents of these homes were very vocal, and we worked as quickly as we could to improve the situation. However, there was one resident who wouldn’t let us in. We were concerned about the resident being in a home that had contaminated water and damp, so the neighbourhood coach visited him because she knew him. She worked with him to talk through the process of what needed to be done to his home and where his furniture and belongings would be stored, and helped him realise that we wanted him to feel comfortable and safe.

Once he had moved to another property, we regularly sent him photos of the refurbishment work. We made sure that the entire process was focused on the residents and not the contractors. It worked well as everyone was back in their homes within 12 weeks.

What feedback have you had from residents?

Continuing this example, the resident who had originally denied us access came to us and thanked us for being patient and taking the time to understand what was important to him and how that had made him trust us as a housing association. We understood how important his home was to him and installed a flood door in his property so he could feel reassured that the situation was unlikely to happen again.

For Bromford, that is an example of success and from recent research, we’ve found that the number of residents who say they trust us to be honest and do what we say we’ll do rises by 5% when they know their neighbourhood coach. We don’t just want to solve the present issue but to also think about next year and the year after and continue investing in the community.

Access is central to this so that residents – and their neighbours – can be safe and comfortable, and ultimately thrive.

Guinness apologises after wheelchair user stuck in flat because of faulty lift. 29/08/193:10 PM BY LUCIE HEATH INSIDE HOUSING

 

The Guinness Partnership has been forced to apologise after a disabled resident was repeatedly stuck in their flat because it was faulty. 

The Guinness Partnership has launched an investigation after a disabled resident was stuck in their flat for “25 days over the past year” #ukhousing

Actor Athena Stevens, who has cerebral palsy, told Inside Housing she was stuck in her flat for roughly 25 days over the past year, with the longest single period lasting 14 days. 

Ms. Stevens, who lives on the fifth floor, claims that the lift has been “consistently broken” since she moved into her flat in Winch House in south London in April 2017. 

According to Ms. Stevens, she has missed a series of professional commitments, including television interviews, and recently had to crawl down the stairs to get to a West End audition. 

Ms. Stevens said: “Every time I say we need to talk about long-term management they tell me, ‘Well it’s fixed now so hopefully it won’t happen again’.

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“I am a professional. Guinness has done nothing to even acknowledge the fact that this is having an impact on my professional life.”

Ms. Stevens, who is a leaseholder, said that when she bought the flat, she was assured it was built for people with disabilities in mind. 

Several other residents in the 28-home block have been affected by the faulty lift, including a pregnant woman and older relatives, Ms. Stevens claims. 

A Guinness spokesperson said that a specialist contractor will now be conducting a full investigation into the situation.

They added: “The lift has now been repaired by a specialist contractor and we are reviewing longer-term solutions to improve reliability. 

“In the meantime, we have apologised to our customers for the difficulties the breakdowns have caused and we are offering additional help and support where this is needed.”

Separately, Guinness was also forced to apologise this week after a support worker in Gloucestershire criticised the provider over the allegedly “unsafe conditions” in one of their buildings, including “heroin needles” and “crack wraps”, Gloucestershire Live reported. 

A spokesperson for Guinness said the organisation had been looking at a series of ways to tackle the issues but said the situation was “difficult”.

Man dies in India House (Manchester Evening News 16:03, 22 JUL 2019)

 

A man has died after falling from a flat in India House. Police were called at around 2.35pm. Paramedics also attended.

It followed initial reports of concerns for the welfare of a man.

Police said the man died despite the best efforts of paramedics.

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: “At around 2.35pm today, Monday, July 22, police were called by the ambulance service to reports of a concern for the welfare of a man.

“It has since been established that a man fell from a building on Whitworth Street and despite the best efforts of emergency services, has sadly died.”

It is understood he fell at the rear of the building.

No further details have been released.

The man’s identity and age haven’t been confirmed.

The death isn’t being treated as suspicious.

By Paul Britton

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/man-dies-fall-city-centre-16627862

It’s not that grim up North

03/07/19 Charlie Norman, group chief executive, Mosscare St Vincent’s Housing Group – INSIDE HOUSING

The ‘grim up North’ cliche is not always true, and in Manchester, there are many things to be proud of at the moment, writes Charlie Norman

Sketch by Tony Wilson (picture reproduced with permission of the artist)

At home, I have the above sketch (drawn by a talented friend) on my wall – the late, great and often controversial Tony Wilson, who commented on how we do things differently around here.

Last week the Housing 2019 conference was held in Manchester, and the Greater Manchester family launched a new ambition to deliver a new housing strategy among a myriad of other great aspirations, it seemed appropriate to write a commentary piece about how we are doing housing differently in Greater Manchester.

We all want this to be a place where people can grow up well, get on well and age well.

I am sure that anyone reading this believes that it is a basic human right for all to have a safe, warm, affordable and decent place to call home as well as have equal access to opportunities in life – is this really too much to ask?

It is abhorrent to think that due to strained public policy, years of austerity and the treatment of homes as a nest egg rather than a nest, more people are homeless than 10 years ago and inequality is rampaging through society in one of the richest nations in the world.

Let’s face it – despite best efforts, not a great deal on housing policy has been forthcoming for the past 18 months with the kerfuffle in Westminster and it really does feel like the love hasn’t spread up North.

So it’s good to know that we are doing things differently around here and have taken charge of our own destiny.

There is huge dissonance between the central drive and obsession with building new homes and the need to invest in our existing homes and communities – it’s particularly acute in the North.

We need a policy that thinks about building safety, pre-1919 terraced homes not dealt with in previous regeneration programmes, zero-carbon standards, more supported housing, and good strategic asset management. The list goes on.

We have to balance all of this with the need to build much-needed new homes. This is why within the Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP) group we got over ourselves a good few years ago and now work together to achieve more for the greater good – we feel really proud to be part of this collaboration which is in great shape.

On top of this, our relationships with the combined authority, the elected mayor, local politicians, the districts and the Health and Social Care Partnership are critical and have evolved so much.

Our relationship with our tenants and communities is also more critical than ever, and we are focusing on this to get things right for them.

To help with the need for more homes, better life chances and health outcomes, GMHP has just refreshed its ambition to deliver, aiming for a new and evolved agreement with local partners. Here’s what we have pledged in a nutshell:

For new and existing homes, we will double building new homes (16,000) in the next 5 years. The new Greater Manchester housing strategy sets a target to build 50,000 new homes by 2037, 30,000 of which are for social rent – hurrah!

We also want to help people to stay at home longer but if they want to right-size in later life then we need to develop and regenerate homes that are attractive, technologically advanced and well designed. To that end, we’re working with localities to deliver 15,000 new supported and age-friendly homes by 2035.

We’ll also be investing in existing homes – we have signed a zero-carbon pledge by 2038 in Greater Manchester (a no mean feat). We will be playing our part to eliminate the impact of carbon emissions but importantly reducing fuel bills.

It goes without saying that more grant would help – both for new supply and regeneration. We will support influencing efforts in the Spending Review to spend £16bn more on this. Freeing land, easing planning and access to public land that recognises the social value as well as maximising capital receipts would also hit the mark.

On health and social care, we are working on a Greater Manchester-wide approach to healthy homes based on the home improvement agency model.

There will also be a census to measure what we have now in terms of independent living and what we need in the future as well as working with partners, such as the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to ensure a pathway for better mental health.

On work and skills, we want to help 1,000 apprentices into work and support 2,000 residents a year into work.

On homelessness, anyone who came to the conference can’t have missed the tragic situation with rough sleeping in the city as in many other places up and down the nation.

When Metallica (my favourite band) played here a week or so ago – they gave £40,000 to a homelessness charity after being moved by the amazing efforts of the voluntary sector to do something about it. Austerity, welfare reforms and withdrawal of public services have taken their toll and it just isn’t acceptable.

With the leadership of the elected mayor and other civic leaders, GMHP along with many partners are really trying to overcome this huge challenge through efforts such as our supported housing offer, the successful social impact bond, A Bed Every Night, an armed forces covenant, housing options for older people and now the Housing First programme.

All of these have been led in different ways by many of the GM housing partners.

It really isn’t grim up North, this is a fantastic place.

Despite all the shenanigans going on at the moment and the challenging times we live in, let’s remain focused on doing our bit to shape places and homes where people can live well and do well in life and keep doing things differently.

Dominic Raab’s promise to extend Right to Buy

NEWS 17/06/19 BY RHIANNON CURRY (Inside Housing)

Prospective prime minister Dominic Raab promises to extend the controversial Right to Buy policy; Kier looks to offload housebuilding arm, and all your other major housing stories this morning

Dominic Raab has promised to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants if he is elected the new leader of the Conservatives, according to The Sun.

Mr Raab said that one of his first acts if he were to become the new prime minister, would be to fulfil a pledge made in 2015 to give a million more tenants the chance to buy their home.

But the idea received scathing responses on Twitter from those working in the social housing sector.

Sean Tofts @SeanToftsReplying to @carlbrownIH @insidehousing
@DominicRaab states that too many people are struggling to get on the housing ladder bit neglects that the selling off of social housing will perpetuate this and the gap between the haves and have nots. Clearly, he doesn’t consider social housing to be ‘proper housing’. #clueless

Just 37% of people born in the 1980s managed to buy a home at the age of 29, compared with half of those born in the 1960s.

Raab’s promise to extend Right to Buy #ukhousing