Housing Minister
-
Latest property news
Sajid Javid heads up the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Housing has been put at the heart of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) after Sajid Javid was today given the title of Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Until now Sajid has been simply the Communities Secretary but, it is believed, PM Theresa May wants to raise housing up the political agenda and be seen to be doing something about the ongoing supply crisis. It’s not clear how his role will work with the new Housing Minister, Dominic Raab, and who will be responsible for what within the newly-named government department. The cabinet reshuffle comes at a perilous time for Sajid Javid – who must now steer the tenant fees ban through parliament following a debate on the subject this afternoon in Parliament. “We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement today. Housing strategy should be at the forefront of the Government’s thinking,” says Richard Lambert, CEO at the National Landlords Association (NLA). “However, we hope that this works out to be more than just rebranding exercise, and that Mr Javid and his department will look to address the housing crisis by genuinely working across all tenures, not by fixating on building more homes.”
Read More » -
Regulation & Law
Government reveals HMO and ‘rogue agent’ crackdown
Housing minister Alok Sharma is to proceed with plans to significantly widen HMO licensing in the UK, and has also published the range of criminal offences that will soon trigger letting agents and landlords being automatically banned from the sector. The new measures will introduce significant additional responsibilities for landlords, letting agents and property managers, and stiff penalties for those convicted of certain criminal offences. The HMO measures, which apply to England and are to be introduced in April 2018 – assuming parliamentary approval – will see some 160,000 additional properties brought into licensing. The proposals frame these as those housing five or more people from two or more separate ‘family groups’. This significantly widens the range of property types included within HMO regulations, which used to only include properties with three or more storeys. Now, apartments and smaller houses will have to be licensed if they fit the new criteria. Enough is enough and so I’m putting these rogue landlords on notice – shape up or ship out of the rental business.” Alok Sharma, Minister for Housing Also, bedrooms offered by landlords and letting agents within HMOs will soon have to meet a new minimum size standard of 6.52…
Read More » -
Guest Blogs
Letters
To keep our economy strong, drastic policy changes are needed from the Government to support our struggling housing market...
Read More » -
Latest property news
New Housing Minister is Alok Sharma, MP Reading West
The new Minister for Housing and Planning is Alok Sharma, MP, Reading West. Mr Sharma retained his seat with a majority of 2876 in last week’s election. First elected in 2010 for Reading West, with one of the largest swings to the Conservatives in the country, Alok has served as a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, a member of the Commons Science and Technology select committee, a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and from 2012-15 as a Conservative Party Vice Chairman. Alok was appointed in 2016 as the Prime Minister’s Infrastructure Envoy India. He also serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who has overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office. Alok is also Co-Chairman of Conservative Friends of India. Prior to entering Parliament, Alok qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, and then worked for 16 years within investment banking, first with the Japanese firm Nikko Securities and then SE Banken, where he held senior roles based out of London, Stockholm and Frankfurt, including serving as a member of the bank’s Corporate Finance Global Management Committee.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Minister comes down hard on rogue letting agents and landlords with £30k fines
The government has published details of a tough new system of civil penalties to tackle rogue letting agents and landlords. From today onwards these enable local housing authorities to issues fines to both landlords and their agents of up to £30,000 for a range of housing offences. The measures are part of the promises made in last month’s Housing White Paper to “create a bigger and better private rental sector”. “These measures will give councils the additional powers they need to tackle poor-quality rental homes in their area,” says Housing Minister Garvin Barwell (pictured, left). “By driving out of business those rogue landlords that continue to flout the rules, we can raise standards, improve affordability and give tenants the protections they need.” Offences covered include: Failure to comply with an Improvement Notice; HMO offences Failure to licence houses in areas where such schemes are operating Failure to comply with management regulation for HMOs. These new powers, which were introduced by section 126 and Schedule 9 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, are designed to offer an alternative to councils to the costly and often lengthy process of prosecuting rogue landlords and agents. The penalties will be applied through a…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Minister’s controversial ideas to beat housing crisis
Gavin Barwell, the Housing Minister has been airing some interesting views about the UK’s housing crisis and how it can be resolved.
Read More » -
Latest property news
5-minute briefing: Barwell’s housing plans
Housing and Planning minister Gavin Barwell has confirmed that he is to undertake a significant review of the government’s housing plans within the next four weeks that will swing government policy away from its previous mania for home ownership and take a more realistic approach that includes the private rented sector. Speaking at a RICS reception at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this month he confirmed a White Paper is in the offing and made it clear he wants to ‘stabilise’ the rental market. On the other hand, he also plans to make more land available to build homes on and turn more planning ‘permissions’ turned into ‘builds’, a dig at the big builders for not keeping up with demand. Initiatives within the rented sector are likely to be bad news for letting agents as only two levers of control are available to the government. These are to either make tenancies longer and more secure, something the Residential Landlords Association and Shelter have been pushing for, and to back the spread of Build to Rent. Agents have been resisting longer tenancies and many say their tenant clients like the flexibility of short-term, rolling contracts. But Barwell doesn’t agree and as recently as August he said…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Fresh cash boost to tackle rogue landlords
The Government’s approach towards private landlords risks hurting tenants, a major property consultancy has warned, after the Housing Minister Brandon Lewis last week announced a £5 million cash boost for local authorities to tackle rogue landlords in their area. Forty-eight councils will share the funding so they can take on the irresponsible landlords that force tenants to live in squalid and dangerous properties. It is hoped that the cash will also allow councils to root out more ‘beds in sheds’. Since 2011 almost 40,000 inspections have taken place in properties with over 3,000 landlords facing further enforcement action or prosecution. The funding will allow local authorities to carry out more raids, increase inspections of property, issue more statutory notices, survey more streets and to demolish sheds and prohibited buildings. The Housing Minister said last week that the funding is part of a package of measures that will ensure millions of tenants get a better deal when they rent a home. Mr Lewis (left) said, “Many private rental tenants are happy with their home and the service they receive, but there are still rogue landlords that exploit vulnerable people and force their tenants to live in overcrowded and squalid accommodation. “We…
Read More » -
Latest property news
New measures to clamp down on rogue landlords
Fresh proposals designed to crackdown on rogue landlords who force susceptible tenants to reside in substandard, overcrowded properties, have been announced by the Housing Minister Brandon Lewis. The suggestions made by the DCLG and the Housing Minister intend to make it easier for local authorities to raise standards in houses used as shared homes by extending mandatory licensing to smaller and medium sized properties, in order to bring an end to callous landlords who exploit their tenants and charge them extortionate rents to live in cramped conditions. The existing rules apply to homes of three storeys, but it has now been suggested that the rules also apply to more shared homes, including those that are one-two storeys, as well as poorly converted blocks of flats and flats above and below shops, while Mr Lewis also wants to set a minimum size of rooms in line with existing overcrowding standards. Additionally, the Government is reviewing the information requirements when applying for a licence in order to simplify and speed up the process. The discussion paper is available to view at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/extending-mandatory-licensing-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-and-related-reforms. Responses are due on 18th December 2015. The Housing Minister (left), who was a keynote speaker at The Negotiator Conference…
Read More » -
Housing Market
Housing completions soar in England
House building in England is now at its highest level since 2008 following a significant rise in the volume of new homes being developed, new Government figures show. In the year to June, 131,060 residential properties were completed, a rise of 15 per cent on the same period a year ago. The latest quarterly house building statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show that between April and June, the number of completions rose by 22 per cent year-on-year. The Housing Minister, Brandon Lewis (right), welcomed the figures, but admitted there was more to do, vowing that the Government would “deliver 275,000 affordable homes by the end of this Parliament”. However, the number of new homes being started dropped by 1 per cent over the year, to 136,320, and by 6 per cent on a quarterly basis. The data was described as “encouraging” by Henry Gregg (left), the National Housing Federation’s(NHF) Assistant Director of Campaigns. But he also said that it was crucial that we as a nation continue to increase our efforts “to build the homes that are desperately needed”. He commented, “Last year alone we built less than half of the homes needed, pushing house…
Read More »
