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7 October, 2015

House of Commons briefing on Immigration Bill

New report sets out provisions in Bill - which is due to have second reading in the Commons on 13 October - including in relation to creating new office of illegal working and building on existing measures to restrict irregular migrants’ access to residential tenancies.

6 October, 2015

Local authority lettings decreased by 7 per cent in 2014/2015

New statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government also find that social housing lettings by private registered providers decreased by 1 per cent in 2014/15, in contrast to the long-term trend.

6 October, 2015

Scotland needs 12,000 new affordable homes a year

New report commissioned by Shelter Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations defines the scale, cost and reasons for what would be the biggest house building programme in Scotland since the 1970s.

5 October, 2015

Extending right to buy to housing association tenants ‘will cost £6bn by 2020’

Local Government Association warns that the discount, which would cost £1.bn a year, must not be funded by forcing councils to sell-off their social housing, which would drive up rents and the housing benefit bill and lower the capacity of councils to build more homes and tackle waiting lists.

2 October, 2015

Retaliatory Eviction and the Deregulation Act 2015: guidance note

New guidance from the Department for Communities and Local Government that describes new measures that will protect tenants from eviction when they raise a complaint about the condition of their home.

2 October, 2015

How to rent: the checklist for renting in England

New guidance from the Department for Communities and Local Government for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector to help them understand their rights and responsibilities.

2 October, 2015

Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 - new commencement order in Wales

New regulations that exclude home businesses from the security of tenure given to tenants of premises which are occupied for business purposes, which will make it easier for tenants to be allowed business use of premises in a tenancy agreement, and for landlords to recover possession of the premises at the end of such a tenancy.

1 October, 2015

New framework to help care leavers into better housing

Launched by the charities Barnardo's and St Basil's in a bid to prevent homelessness among care leavers, the framework lists five steps that local authorities should take to put young people in control of their housing.

30 September, 2015

Shelter says it cannot support proposed ‘voluntary deal’ for extending Right to Buy

In an open letter to England's housing associations Shelter chief executive, Campbell Robb, calls for the sector to oppose the forced sale of council homes for fund Right to Buy discounts, replace every home sold with properties that provide low rents and security, and use any new allocations powers to help those families and individuals who need the security of a social home most.

29 September, 2015

Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

New regulations that substitute a new form for the form contained in the Schedule to the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 in order to correct an error which was identified in the original form

29 September, 2015

Number of children in temporary accommodation in Scotland up by 15 per cent

However, new statistics from the Scottish government show that applications for homelessness assistance are down 7 per cent over same period in 2014.

28 September, 2015

‘Right to rent’ checks could push vulnerable migrants towards illegal and unscrupulous landlords

Scottish Minister for Housing and Welfare writes to UK Government to express concerns about the roll out of the Immigration Act 2014 to Scotland and the linked Immigration Bill 2015 which was introduced to Westminster earlier this month.

25 September, 2015

House of Commons Library briefing paper on private landlords responsibilities from 1 October 2015

New briefing lays out the new requirements on private landlords with reference to smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and the avoidance of Legionnaires’ Disease

25 September, 2015

Plan to force councils to sell homes on the open market should be dropped, says Shelter

New report - The Forced Council Home Sell-Off - also recommends that, if the government wishes to extend the Right to Buy for housing associations, it should find other means of paying for the discounts, which should be decoupled from the forced sales policy.

25 September, 2015

Government ministers and housing association leaders propose new deal on right-to-buy policy

Under the proposed deal - which has to be agreed by Britain's 1,400 housing associations by Friday 2 October - ministers would abandon plans to legislate for an extension of the right-to-buy scheme to 1.2m housing association homes, and in return, housing associations would voluntarily agree to sell their homes to any tenants who wished to buy them.

24 September, 2015

5 per cent more households accepted as homeless compared to same quarter last year

New DCLG statistics for April to June 2015 also show that there were 54,430 acceptances in the financial year 2014/2015, up 4 per cent from 2013/2014.

23 September, 2015

23 September, 2015

Councils must view complaints as an opportunity to improve services, recommends Ombudsman

New report from the Local Government Ombudsman finds that, after investigating the fifth Ombudsman complaint into the sale of a council flat which took nine years, Lambeth Council was at fault because it had not progressed the sale for 13 months, for its poor communication about the lack of progress of the sale, and because, despite assurances to the contrary, it had not paid the £500 remedy it agreed in 2013.

23 September, 2015

House of Commons Library briefing on private landlord’s duty to carry out immigration checks

New briefing sets out details of private sector landlords' new obligations to carry out immigration checks on tenants, brought in by the Immigration Act 2014 and amended by the Immigration Bill 2015.