Housing & Planning Act:

Setting the scene Gavin Smart

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• The political landscape

• Government priorities for housing

• The main measures in the Act

• Underlying themes

• What does all this mean for housing

organisations and the services they

deliver?

I’m going to cover

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• Government in a hurry

• Deluge of policy ideas

• Now in implementation

phase

• Significant investment for

housing but in an overall

context of fiscal constraint

• See social housing as

ripe for reform

• Keen to deregulate HAs

& return to ‘private’ status

The new political landscape

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• Increase overall supply of new homes

• Reverse declining home ownership

• A very different vision for social housing

Stronger focus on efficiency

A ‘spring-board’ to help tenants into home ownership

Social housing only for those in greatest need

• Reduce government spending, particularly on

welfare

• Improve life chances: regenerate up to 100 of the

worst housing estates

Government priorities

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“Housing fat cats' hypocrisy: Furious backlash at PM's

right-to-buy revolution... from housing chiefs with

lavish homes and six-figure salaries” (Daily Mail)

“Housing associations

are failing, says George

Osborne” (The Times)

What are government’s perceptions?

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• High Value Asset Sales

• Voluntary Right to Buy – “home ownership

criteria”

• Pay to Stay & fixed term tenancies (2-10 yrs) for

LAs

Voluntary for HAs

• Changes to the HA regulatory framework

• Starter Homes

• Measures for rogue PRS landlords

• Planning & CPO changes

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• Package of welfare cuts – including applying LHA

rates to social rented tenants

• 1% rent reduction for social tenants

o HA loss £3.85bn, LAs £2.6bn

o Supported housing exempt for a year

• Significant change in focus of support

for new affordable supply

• 135k new Shared Ownership homes

by 2020

• Stamp Duty & tax changes for PRS

landlords

Other related changes

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Drive for home ownership - HVAS, RTB for HAs etc

Drive to increasing housing supply

Fixing HA classification (+ targeting efficiency)

Rationing & targeting housing support

E.g. Pay to Stay, LHA, fixed term tenancies

Efficiency agenda and perception of social &

affordable housing

• Inefficient, wasteful, doing the wrong things etc.

• HVAS, rent cuts etc

Preference for deal making

Govt in a hurry and no is not a good answer

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• Fewer affordable homes to rent

• A tougher development environment?

• How do you take tenants with you?

Some tough choices to be made

• Income collection more challenging

• Strong focus on efficiencies/innovation to offset

loss of income Cost savings

Efficiency & effectiveness

New things to master – HVAS, RTB

What does it all mean? (1)

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• Significant changes to the way

we manage tenancies

Pay to Stay and Fixed Term Tenancies

• Harder to house people receiving benefits

Longer void periods? Rent loss? Harder to let

homes?

Who will house the poor?

Ethical and moral dilemmas?

What does it all mean? (2)

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• A lot of soul searching:

What is your organisation there to do?

What are the ‘must dos’ versus the ‘nice to dos’?

• Reviewing your partnerships

The right ones?

Delivering value?

• Avoiding knee-jerk decisions

What does it all mean? (3)

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• Greater risk to be managed

We are much more pro-cyclical

• Taking a long term view:

5 – 10 – 15 years…and beyond

How is your client base likely to change?

How might government/governments change?

And what will that mean for what you do and the way

that you do it?

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• Understand the problem and come up with

solutions that can be delivered

• Base comments/representations on evidence

• Showcase how our ‘offer’ supports key

government priorities:

Contributing to new housing supply - including

affordable home ownership

Development/regeneration boosts economic growth

Activities to help people off benefits and into work

Supported housing services reduce pressure on

NHS and social care budgets

Can we change perceptions?

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• Scope for shared/joint service delivery?

Or at least ‘back office’ functions?

• Develop a commercial offer?

• Mergers? Mega-mergers?

• Stock rationalisation & stock swaps

• Share learning and collaborate to drive

innovation and value

• Future policy changes…?

• Be like Bruce?

And what are the opportunities?

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• Commenting based on evidence:

High value asset sales/RtB

Combined impact of policies on supply of social

rented homes

Impact on LA HRAs/ self-financing

• Making the case for affordable homes to rent

• Raising concerns about LHA cap

• Member updates and webinars

What is CIH doing?

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• Are you a CIH member?

• Do you have views you’d like to share?

• Why not join our member opinion panel?

• Contact: sara.graves@cih.org

Finally…