Tracy talked the Minister through the emerging findings of the NHC’s Pride in Place research, and discussed our Autumn Statement representation and levelling-up priorities.

Tracy said:

“I was delighted to meet with the Minister.  Our discussion covered the findings of the NHC’s Pride in Place research, and our Autumn Statement asks, including the need to uprate local housing allowance to avoid growing pressure on homelessness services in the North.  As ever, the Minister constructively engaged with our case, and I was pleased to hear her reflect on the breadth of the role NHC members play in communities across the North.  Following a busy party conference season, it was good to look ahead to the Autumn Statement and Kings’ Speech.”

Members can look forward to on-the-day briefings from the NHC on the contents of the Kings’ Speech on 7^th November, and the Autumn Statement on 22^nd November.

The Housing Ombudsman has released its Annual Complaints Review for 2022-23, providing key insights into the social housing complaints landscape. The review reveals a sharp increase of severe maladministration findings, with individual performance reports published for 163 landlords where the Ombudsman made most findings. The report highlights that social housing complaints have seen a huge spike due to poor property conditions, legislative changes, media attention, and the inquest into the death of Awaab Ishak.

The Annual Complaints Review provides a comprehensive assessment of complaints in social housing, including that the Ombudsman received over 5,000 complaints for the first time last year, a 28% increase on the previous year. The report also shows that more than half of the findings were upheld for the first time, with an increase in maladministration findings where service requests were not handled reasonably.

In many of these cases, landlords are making the same mistakes over and over again. This shows that with just a little bit of sharp focus on the important issues the Ombudsman highlights, the sector can get to grips with the problem.

The Ombudsman has again written to Chief Executives of landlords who have a maladministration rate of over 50% to bring urgent attention to the figures. However, this year the Ombudsman is also writing to five landlords who had no findings upheld, recognising their positive complaint handling approach. The review also looks at Complaint Handling Failure Orders (CHFOs) and key issues for the first time, with the Ombudsman issuing 146 CHFOs last year.

The Annual Complaints Review provides key insights and information into the performance of landlords managing complaints. Alongside this publication the Ombudsman are also hosting training and events to keep up to date with the latest policies and best practice.

Read the full review here

Read the resident-facing review here.

To access the Housing Ombudsman Training and Events click here

The conferences of both main parties took place in October. With this possibly being the final conference season before the next general election, both parties are beginning to flesh out their offer to the electorate, and both made important announcements in the areas of housing, rebalancing and net zero.  

 

Conservative Party Conference 

This year’s Conference Season saw the Conservatives go first, and any focus the Prime Minister may have wished to put on his government’s approach to rebalancing during his trip to the North West was ultimately overshadowed by his decision to scrap the Manchester leg of HS2.  

Rishi Sunak used his speech as an opportunity to present himself as the candidate for change in a future general election and announced new education reforms and an age-related ban on smoking. Housing was notable by its absence in the prime minister’s speech to his party conference, with Sunak only making a brief reference to housebuilding. But while he may not have given much focus to housing in his own address, members of his Cabinet did announce new policies relevant for housing providers over the Conference period and the fringe events had very active discussions on a range housing issues.  

 

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.2  

One significant housing announcement came from newly appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho. In her speech, Coutinho announced that £80 million would be made available “to insulate thousands of social homes”, through Wave 2.2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.  

An important condition of this new funding is that housing providers who previously received funding through Wave 2.1 will not be eligible for this wave. Applications for funding are expected to open from 20th November 2023, and further information is available here. 

 

Long-Term Plan for Towns 

The major housing-related announcement was Michael Gove’s ‘Long-Term Plan for Towns’. Fifty-five towns are set to benefit from the plan in total, which will see £1.1 billion collectively spent over 10 years with the aim of regenerating towns and attracting further private and philanthropic investment. 

Each town will receive £20 million in endowment-style funding and support, to be spent on local priorities such as regenerating high streets and ensuring public safety. Each of the towns named in the Plan will also be required to establish a Long-Term Plan for the town, to be consulted on with residents, and to set up a ‘Towns Board’ to bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities and the local MP to oversee the delivery of the Plan.  

Of the 55 listed towns, 25 are in the North: with ten in the North West, six in the North East and nine in Yorkshire & Humber. A full list of the towns, arranged by region, can be found in the table below: 

Towns listed in the ‘Long Term Plan for Towns’
North West	North East	Yorkshire & Humber
Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen)	Eston (Redcar and Cleveland)	Grimsby (North East Lincolnshire)
Chadderton (Oldham)	Jarrow (South Tyneside)	Castleford (Wakefield)
Heywood (Rochdale)	Washington (Sunderland)	Doncaster
Ashton-under-Lyne (Tameside)	Blyth (Northumberland)	Rotherham
Accrington (Hyndburn)	Hartlepool	Barnsley
Leigh (Wigan)	Spennymoor (County Durham)	Scunthorpe (North Lincolnshire)
Farnworth (Bolton)		Keighley (Bradford)
Nelson (Pendle)		Dewsbury (Kirklees)
Kirkby (Knowsley)		Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
Burnley

 

Labour Party Conference  

The Labour Party’s Conference in Liverpool saw housing take centre stage. Keir Starmer pledged in his leader’s speech that a Labour government would oversee the construction of 1.5 million new homes within the first five years of power, through a range of new policies to boost housebuilding. The self-professed “YIMBY” (Yes In My Back Yard) Leader of the Opposition pledged that Labour would reform the planning system to accelerate the approval process, and accepted that Labour would need to overcome local opposition if it were to meet its housebuilding goals. The housing policy proposals in the leader’s speech included:  

• A new generation of ‘new towns’ with homes built in Georgian design  
• Release of greenbelt land of low natural or environmental value, termed “the greybelt”, for housebuilding  

• A package of devolution measures to hand more power over planning and control over housing investment to regional mayors  
• A ‘planning passport’ to accelerate approval of high-density proposals on urban brownfield sites  
• New development corporations with power to remove ‘blockages’  

 

Affordable Housing 

Angela Rayner also vowed that a Labour government would oversee “the biggest boost to affordable housing for a generation”. The Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities pledged to strengthen the rules around Section 106 agreements and “prevent developers wriggling out of their responsibilities” to deliver affordable housing. Rayner said Labour would upskill local authorities on Section 106 negotiations, increase transparency around the viability process used to determine whether developers can provide their obligated social homes and “ensure developers could only challenge cases where there are genuine barriers to delivering these new homes”.  

Rayner also pledged to increase the flexibility of the Homes England Affordable Homes Programme, by increasing the proportion of funds that can be used to acquire existing homes. This follows the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) handing £1.9 billion back to the Treasury in July following departmental underspends, including a £600 million underspend on the Affordable Homes Programme.  

 

Labour and Net Zero 

There were no new major announcements in the area of domestic energy efficiency at Labour Conference. Ed Miliband did use his speech to re-commit to Labour’s Warm Homes Plan, which aims to insulate 19 million homes across the country, including 4 million in the North. Labour reconfirmed its pledge to invest £6 billion a year in home energy in the second half of the parliament, something the NHC called for in our Real Homes, Real Change showcase [link]. More information about the Warm Homes Plan is available here.  

 

Earlier this month the Northern Housing Consortium and partners were in Manchester and Liverpool, hosting breakfast roundtables previewing the findings of Pride in Place to political stakeholders. As Rishi Sunak unveiled his ‘Long Term Plan for Towns’, with an emphasis on community-led vision and collaborative working, and Keir Starmer announced a new generation of New Towns, built around prosperity, parks, and public services, the sessions proved timely for both political parties in outlining what northern residents look for in a great place to live.

Each session began with an overview of findings provided by Thinks Insight & Strategy, the research agency established by Deborah Mattinson, the Leader of the Opposition’s Director of Strategy. Although already rich in insights, a testament to the social and private rented sector residents who contributed, this was only a preview, with the full report being published on 9^th November at the Northern Housing Summit. Drawn from workshops held across the North, in Blackpool, Benwell, Skipton, Moss Side, and Knowsley, attendees discussed what residents had to say about Levelling Up, what contributes to local pride, and the role of both individuals and in agencies in building pride across areas.

Key themes included access to basic services, transparency and engagement, and the local environment. In Manchester at Conservative Party Conference, attendees including Local Trust, Centre for Cities, and the University of Manchester discussed the importance of social capital; centring around comfort and community, this was the way residents felt at ease in their neighbourhood, and the pride they feel in the connection they have with neighbourhoods and near-by friends. During Labour Party Conference, attendees in Liverpool, which included representatives from across local politics, honed in on the importance of green spaces for health, wellbeing, and sociability. Although universally popular, many neighbourhoods were unsure their green spaces were reaching their full potential, and more could be done to scope out community involvement in reaching that potential.

The Party Conferences were the last stop on the road to publishing Pride in Place at the Northern Housing Summit on the 9^th November. There attendees will be joined by Thinks Insight and Strategy, partners involved in the work, and participant residents sharing their views. We look forward to seeing you there.

Updates on the Pride in Place project can be found on the Northern Housing Consortium’s dedicated Rebalancing Webpage: