Devolution and collaboration on the NHC agenda with conference slots  

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Our Executive Director (Policy & External Relations) Patrick Murray spoke at UKREiiF, the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, which took place in Leeds.

He joined the panel for L&Q’s session on ‘Perfect Partners: how housing associations and councils can work together to build the homes we need’. It looked at how housing associations can be the strategic partners of choice for local and combined authorities and help the Government meet its ambitious housing targets. As part of this Patrick outlined how Housing Partnerships are leading a new wave of collaboration. He also stressed the need for the right framework to support collaboration through devolution, and funding that supported regeneration as well as new supply.

Patrick also spoke at the Social Housing Finance conference, as part of a session on
‘National challenges, regional solutions: housing and the role of strategic authorities’ where he spoke about how North is leading the way with devolution.  

He shared what this means for housing in the North – including increased collaboration through Housing Partnerships. He also looked at how more local control of funding can make investment go further and better meet the needs of communities.
 

Bullwall guest blog – The Evolving State of Ransomware – The Risks, The Exploits, and the Defenses

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Ransomware has become the cornerstone of cybercrime, with attackers evolving their tactics to bypass defenses and cause widespread disruption. Organizations face significant challenges as ransomware continues to exploit weaknesses in security measures and operational processes. A more targeted understanding of these vulnerabilities is essential for mitigating risks and ensuring resilience.

Zero-Day Exploits: A New Era of Ransomware Tactics

Zero-day exploits represent one of the most significant challenges in ransomware defense today. These vulnerabilities, unknown to vendors and unpatched at the time of exploitation, provide attackers with a powerful advantage.

Traditional security solutions, such as signature-based antivirus programs or endpoint protection tools, struggle to identify and defend against zero-day attacks. By the time a signature or patch is developed, attackers have often already deployed ransomware payloads, leaving organizations scrambling to contain the damage.

The rise of artificial intelligence has exacerbated this problem. AI enables attackers to scale the discovery and exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities. With AI-driven tools, bad actors can automate the creation of malware variants, dramatically increasing the number of zero-days deployed in a short period. This capability not only overwhelms traditional defenses but also allows attackers to target multiple victims simultaneously, creating chaos at scale.

Zero-day vulnerabilities frequently target trusted systems, such as email servers or remote access tools, making them particularly difficult to detect. Organizations must focus on adaptive security measures, such as behavior-based monitoring and rapid incident response, to mitigate the risks posed by these advanced threats.

Unauthorized Access: The Gateway to Ransomware Attacks

Unauthorized access remains one of the most common starting points for ransomware incidents. Attackers often exploit stolen credentials or weak authentication practices to infiltrate systems.

Credential theft and misuse are particularly effective because they allow attackers to bypass traditional perimeter defenses entirely. Once inside, attackers leverage their access to disable security measures, escalate privileges, or deploy ransomware payloads on critical systems.

The increasing reliance on remote access technologies, such as VPNs and RDP, has only expanded the attack surface. Attackers use these access points to establish a foothold, often undetected, and launch ransomware attacks with devastating precision.

To mitigate these risks, organizations must strengthen authentication mechanisms, limit administrative privileges, and implement monitoring tools to detect and respond to unauthorized access attempts.

Early Indicators of Compromise: The Missed Opportunities

Ransomware attacks rarely happen instantaneously. Instead, attackers often leave behind early indicators of compromise (IoCs), such as unusual file access patterns, unauthorized changes to scheduled tasks, or attempts to disable security solutions.

Despite these warning signs, many organizations fail to act in time. The lack of real-time monitoring or automated responses allows attackers to proceed unchallenged, increasing the scope of damage.

The challenge lies in identifying these signals early and taking swift, automated action to contain the threat before it spreads. Organizations need tools that not only detect these IoCs but also act decisively to minimize the impact, isolating affected systems and preventing further escalation.

Containment Challenges: When Prevention Falls Short

Even with robust prevention strategies, no organization is immune to ransomware. Attackers are adept at bypassing traditional defenses, making it essential to focus on containment as a critical layer of defense.

The primary challenge with containment is the speed and scale of ransomware attacks. Once deployed, ransomware can encrypt files and disrupt operations within minutes, with new strains encrypting an astonishing 50,000 files per minute. Without the ability to isolate the affected systems quickly, organizations risk widespread damage and extended downtime.

A containment-first approach is increasingly recognized as a key component of resilience strategies. By limiting the scope of an attack to its initial entry point, organizations can protect critical systems and data, ensuring faster recovery and continuity of operations.

The Path Forward: Adapting to Ransomware’s Evolution

The growing sophistication of ransomware demands a shift in strategy. Organizations must move beyond prevention alone and adopt a comprehensive approach that integrates detection, containment, and response.

Key steps include:

  • Strengthening access controls and monitoring for unauthorized activity.
  • Focusing on early detection of IoCs to intercept threats before they escalate.
  • Implementing containment measures to minimize the impact of successful attacks.
  • Adopting adaptive defenses capable of addressing zero-day exploits and scaling incident response.

By addressing these challenges, organizations can reduce their exposure to ransomware and maintain operational resilience, even in the face of evolving threats.

 

Find out more about BullWall’s Ransomware Containment solution here.

Find out more about how BullWall’s Server Intrusion Protection solution reduces breach risk and enhances ransomware resilience by securing remote server access and critical server tasks here.

Find out how BullWall Virtual Server Protection for VMware, secures virtual servers by preventing unauthorized access and encryption attempts from external sources on ESXi hosts here.

NHC writes to Ministers to highlight urgent need for housing-led regeneration in the North

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We’ve written to Ministers, northern MPs and Mayors, ahead of the Government’s Spending Review to highlight the urgent need for action to support housing-led regeneration across communities in the North.

The Northern Housing Monitor, our state of the region report, found that 1.2 million homes don’t meet Decent Homes Standards in the North – a disproportionally high 33.8% of England’s total. The problem is most acute in the private rented sector where around 27% of homes do not meet the minimum standard. Almost 25% of the lowest income households are housed in the private rented sector, compared to 18% nationally – suggesting those on the lowest incomes are being forced into substandard homes.

Alongside this our recent research found that 126,000 social homes across the North are reaching the end of their life, and are in need of regeneration. Social housing regulation means social housing providers must prioritise maintenance of existing homes, so finite resources are available for building replacement homes.

The North also has 90,000 long term empty homes. Lower land values in the North mean regeneration schemes are more reliant on grant funding as it is harder to fund schemes based on land value capture or market sale.

Northern Housing Consortium Chief Executive, Tracy Harrison, said: “At the moment, there is no major Government funding to replace ageing homes and revitalise places. This needs to change as housing-led regeneration is essential if we want to address the problems, such as health inequalities, northern communities face due to being disproportionately affected by poor quality homes and places.

“We’re pleased the government has committed to building more new homes, but this must sit alongside replacing homes that are no longer fit to live in. The last Labour Government’s Housing Market Renewal programme provided funding to replace homes and revitalise places – we need to see something similar now.”

The NHC Spending Review submission, which was backed by housing partnerships across the North, called for:

  1. The next Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) to continue to support regeneration by permitting up to 30% of the fund to be used for the replacement, refurbishment and acquisition of homes on regeneration schemes. Flexibilities were introduced in the current AHP to allow Homes England to fund ‘replacement’ homes as long as there is an overall increase in the number of units on the site.
  2.  A new place-based housing regeneration fund of £1.37bn over 5 years, devolved to Mayors to support:
  • selective demolition, replacement or remodelling of properties that are no longer fit for purpose, including on sites that cannot deliver an increase in homes
  • property refurbishment and improvements to increase the quality and energy efficiency of properties
  • physical improvements to the area including improving connectivity and the overall attractiveness of a place
  • activity that will enable regeneration such as acquiring parcels of land or properties sold through the Right to Buy.

This fund could work in tandem with the Government’s ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’. This would be similar to the last Labour government’s twin-track approach to housing-led regeneration, where a funding programme for physical regeneration (Housing Market Renewal) was accompanied by funding for social infrastructure such as employment support and health initiatives (the New Deal for Communities).

You can find out further information about our Spending Review submission here.

The next Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) to continue to support regeneration by permitting up to 30% of the fund to be used for the replacement, refurbishment and acquisition of homes on regeneration schemes.

NHC gives evidence to Select Committee inquiry on land value capture

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Last week, the Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) Senior Policy and Research Manager, Tom Kennedy, gave oral evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, as part of their ongoing inquiry into ‘Delivering 1.5 million new homes: Land Value Capture’.

The inquiry is seeking to understand how land value capture mechanisms, such as Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), can play a role in delivering the government’s target of building 1.5 million new homes across this parliament. The inquiry is also seeking views on how mechanisms such as compulsory purchase can be utilised to support the government’s ‘new towns’ agenda.

The NHC had previously submitted written evidence to the Committee, which can be found here.

In both our written submission and the oral evidence provided to the Committee, the NHC was clear that:

  • Due to generally lower land values across the North of England, land value capture mechanisms, including both Section 106 and the CIL can and will inevitably play a smaller role than elsewhere. In the last 5 years, approximately 30% of new affordable homes in the North have been delivered through Section 106 agreements, compared to more than 50% outside of the North. To increase the supply of new affordable housing in the North, the next Affordable Homes Programme will need to provide a significant increase in the levels of grant funding available to providers.
  • The government can substantially improve the existing land value capture landscape, included through a new long-term rent policy and other incremental reforms, without introducing wholescale, disruptive changes that would negatively impact the new supply of affordable housing, at least in the short term.
  • Increasing local authority planning team resources would significantly improve current land value capture mechanisms, reducing issues such as delays in agreeing and signing Section 106 agreements, and opening up additional opportunities for local authorities to play a more active role in land assembly, including through making more use of compulsory purchase powers.

You can also watch the evidence session on Parliament TV here.

MRI Software guest blog – Urgent Call for Better Solutions as Temporary Accommodation Costs Spiral

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Deborah Matthews, Managing Director, MRI Living for Social Housing. MRI Software

Local Authorities are currently facing a challenging and ongoing budget crisis, with some spending over £500,000 each week on temporary accommodation. This situation is not only unsustainable but also deeply concerning, as it drains valuable resources and fails to provide the lasting solutions that communities desperately need.

The issue is prominently featured in the headlines: daily reports of families living in substandard conditions and local councils struggling to manage the demand. The consequences include damaged reputations, growing frustration among both staff and tenants and a sense of helplessness stemming from the chronic shortage of housing. Addressing the issue of housing shortages cannot be done overnight, putting councils in a difficult situation.

Housing Consultant and public and social housing policy and practice specialist Neil Morland commented “Bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation is the most expensive form of temporary housing for local authorities, with significantly higher costs than local authority/housing association stock, which offers much better value. From April 2023 to March 2024, local authorities in England spent a record £2.2bn on temporary accommodation, doubling from five years prior, and incurred a £1bn deficit. On March 31, 2024, a record 117,450 households occupied temporary accommodation.

Despite accounting for nearly one-third of temporary accommodation expenditure (£700 million), B&Bs represented only 15% of usage. The income generated from households in B&Bs covered only 40% of their costs, forcing local authorities to absorb the remaining 60%!

Other types of temporary housing, such as night-paid accommodation and private-sector leases, also incurred deficits.

Local authority and housing association stock comprised only 4% of expenditure but accounted for 24% of usage, resulting in a 30% surplus. This was the only type of temporary accommodation that generated a positive net expenditure.

Reducing the number of households occupying temporary accommodation is the best way to reduce temporary accommodation deficit net expenditure. However, high numbers of households continuing to seek homelessness assistance from local authorities, bringing down the levels of temporary accommodation usage are unlikely to happen in the short-term”

From a technology provider’s perspective, we believe there are opportunities for improvement. Many councils face challenges managing substantial expenses and intricate cases using traditional spreadsheets, which can lead to errors and overlooked priorities. We see this as an area where enhanced technology solutions could make the process more efficient and support councils in navigating their responsibilities more effectively.

“We understand the pressure local authorities are under—massive waiting lists, nowhere to house people, and no budget left to find alternatives,” said Deborah Matthews, Managing Director for MRI Living for Social Housing at MRI Software. “It’s at a crisis point, and it’s been that way for too long. Something needs to change now.”

As a leading supplier to the sector, MRI Software encourages councils to evaluate their processes and identify any inefficiencies that may be exacerbating the current crisis. Investing in smart, purpose-built, and, most importantly, affordable software solutions can be transformative. These tools can help councils manage temporary accommodation more effectively, track cases, and ensure that the most vulnerable individuals receive the assistance they need before their situations deteriorate.

“We know it’s a tough job, but we believe there’s a way to make it easier,” added Deborah. “There are technology solutions designed specifically to manage temporary accommodation, helping staff manage caseloads, track and prioritise needs, and keep people from falling through the cracks.”

As the government greenlights the 5,000 brownfield developments, local authorities must act quickly and make their internal processes more efficient. Investing in the right technology could make a big difference, helping councils stretch their budgets further and provide better outcomes for those in need.

Visiting members’ sites across South Yorkshire with DESNZ

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This month we had a great day taking colleagues from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) around members’ sites across the South Yorkshire region – highlighting the fantastic work members are doing to install green home upgrades and meet the net zero challenge. DESNZ colleagues included Selvin Brown (Director for Net Zero Buildings, Domestic),  who is responsible for social housing energy efficiency funding programmes such as the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) – previously the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).

The first visit of the day was in Sheffield where Sheffield City Council have used funding through the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) 2 government funding scheme to improve the energy efficiency of homes with a range of measures including air source heat pumps, solar panels, internal wall insulation and loft insulation.

Next up was Sanctuary‘s homes in Shiregreen. Sanctuary has heavily invested in the community and used government SHDF funding to install solar PV and other measures to retrofit all homes in the area that are below EPC C.

We then had the opportunity to visit the Let Zero show home in Tinsley – South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority is leading on the experimental Let Zero project, which is funded by Innovate UK. The innovative project aims to create a One Stop Shop service model for retrofit tailored to the needs of the private rented sector, which can be replicated across the country.

Finally, we travelled to Maltby and East Herringthorpe to see the fantastic work Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is doing to meet net zero targets. In Maltby, we spoke to residents who had benefited from the Council’s large scale project to deliver green upgrades to homes across the area. The £4.4 million project has upgraded 130 homes and was part funded by the SHDF Wave 1.

In East Herringthorpe, we saw the Council’s ambitious new council homes project which have been built to high energy efficiency standards and meet the demand for accessible housing in the community.

It was great to speak to residents and see first-hand the work our members are doing to upgrade homes and meet net zero targets, while putting tenant engagement at the heart of projects. The visit illustrated to civil servants responsible for energy efficiency funding the scale of delivery and ambition of housing providers in the North.

 

 

 

 

New NHC appointments to support better homes and places across the North

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We’ve boosted our management team with a series of appointments. The new roles will be instrumental in the delivery of our corporate plan, which launched earlier this month.   The new three-year plan sets out how we will deliver our vision to support members to create better homes and places across the North.

James Ealey, who was previously Executive Director of NHC Procurement has been appointed as Deputy Chief Executive.  James will retain responsibility for the commercial aspects of the NHC but will also take a wider role in the delivery of the new plan, making sure resources are prioritised where they will make the greatest impact. His appointment reflects the success of NHC’s business model where surplus from NHC Procurement – £2.5 million over the past five years – is invested into the NHC’s influencing work. Insight from the membership and policy team is used to deliver customer-focused procurement solutions.

Satty Rai, who has been with the NHC for 17 years, has been appointed Head of Housing Partnerships and will lead our work to support housing partnerships across the North. This includes providing secretariat services and bringing Northern housing partnerships together to share learning and best practice.

 

Kay Wiseman has been promoted to Head of HR & Wellbeing and will develop our employment offer, as well as overseeing the Unlocking Success Bursary, the NHC’s scheme to support people in social housing to access training or employment. Kay started her career at the NHC 19 years ago as an administrative assistant before specialising in HR. Kay was instrumental in the NHC’s Gold Better Health at Work Award earlier this year, which recognised its commitment to colleague wellbeing.

Liam Gregson has been announced as Senior Engagement Manager (Devolution and Place Lead). This reflects Liam’s recent work to support Mayoral Combined Authorities across the North, as well as his long-standing role as the NHC’s lead on rebalancing and Pride in Place. Liam will lead work to further develop the NHC’s offer to local authorities, alongside management of key policy engagement projects.

Tom Kennedy has been promoted to Senior Policy and Research Manager (Net Zero Lead). Tom’s work over the past year saw him shortlisted for the Thinkhouse early career researcher award and has enabled the NHC to deliver multiple research projects in-house including Brownfield First and Warm Homes, Green Jobs. He will play a lead role in developing the NHC’s internal policy and research capacity, as well as leading the NHC’s Net Zero work.

Chief Executive Tracy Harrison said:

“These new appointments build on the fantastic work colleagues have done over the past year to help members navigate a changing political landscape and engage with the new government.

“They will help us embed our new corporate plan priorities of moving the dial on Northern policy; delivering a tailored offer to our cross-sector member base; and providing the best possible services for members by recruiting, retaining and developing a talented, diverse and committed team of colleagues. All this will be underpinned by creating value for members through and with NHC Procurement.

“I’m confident we have a fantastic team in place to bring together housing in the North to develop insight, influence and solutions to create better homes and places. We want to make sure everyone in the North has access to a safe, warm home that’s affordable to them in a place they’re proud of.”

Deputy Chief Executive James Ealey said:

“NHC Procurement has gone from strength to strength, a reflection of the team’s ambition, commitment, and expertise, and this is only the beginning. We now have an exciting three-year plan in place to deliver a best-in-class procurement route for our membership.

“I’m delighted to take up this new role of deputy chief executive of Northern Housing Consortium. Our talented team demonstrate an unwavering commitment to support our members and their tenants, working together for the greater good.

“I’m excited as I look ahead to the opportunity we have as an organisation, to make a real difference to the lives, homes, and communities of the people we serve.

“I look forward to working with my fellow senior leadership team, as well as our fantastic colleagues, to fulfil this ambition.”

The NHC’s new Corporate Plan sets out how we’ll support members over the next three years to help create better homes and places.

Created by the full staff team alongside our member-led Board, the corporate plan has been shaped by insight from member engagement activity, by member perceptions research and by looking ahead to future challenges.

This new plan has three key priorities:

  • we will move the dial on northern policy
  • we’re all about people (your people and our people)
  • we create value

Further information about the Northern Housing Consortium’s new corporate plan is available here.

Northern Housing Monitor finds urgent action needed to address housing crisis in the North

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Our new state of the region report has been launched in parliament at an event attended by Northern MPs, members, government officials and other stakeholders.  

This year’s Northern Housing Monitor revealed the urgent need for more social housing in the North. It found that there are nearly 500,000 households on social housing waiting lists in the North – a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.  The number of households forced to live in temporary accommodation is also rising fast with a yearly increase of around 16%, with over 14,000 children in the region living in temporary accommodation. 

600,000 social rent homes in the North have been sold though Right to Buy and only 1 in 7 have been replaced. This contributes to a lack of social housing, increasing homelessness and people in the lowest income group being forced to rent in the private sector where rents are higher and quality is lower. A quarter of people renting privately in the North fall into the lowest income bracket and 1 in 3 children in the North live in households that are pushed into poverty after housing costs.

The Government has committed to the “biggest growth in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” with an ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes – 370,000 homes per year. This has subsequently seen housebuilding targets increase by 52 per cent in the North. However, the previous Government’s targets were exceeded in the North, so to hit the new targets the delivery of new homes in the North needs to increase by 27 per cent. 

The report revealed that as well as a need for more social housing, there is the twin challenge of a need to regenerate our communities with around 27 per cent of private rented homes in the North not meeting current Decent Homes standards. Rates of demolition in the North have dropped by around a quarter since 2019/20 suggesting the worst quality homes are not being replaced.

Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive, Northern Housing Consortium said: “Housing waiting lists are increasing and the number of people forced into expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation is skyrocketing. 3.6m people in the North are pushed into poverty after housing costs, demonstrating the urgent need for more social housing.  

“Housing associations and councils are ready to deliver the homes their communities need and to contribute to Government housebuilding targets and economic growth, but to do this they need the right resources. The Government recently announced a £2 billion top up of the Affordable Homes Programme, something we’d been campaigning for to enable our members to continue building. However, to make a real change, longer term funding is needed to build more homes and improve existing homes and places. Lower land values make building in the North more affordable. We are leading the way with devolution, which means in many areas there is already the infrastructure and collaboration in place to better target funding.  

“It is vital that action is taken urgently to make sure that everyone in the North has access to a good quality, safe home. I’m optimistic that with the right support from Government, the social housing sector in the North can make a real difference.”

To make sure everyone in the North has a good quality safe place to call home,  we’re calling on the Government to:  

  • Launch a new ten-year affordable homes programme announced at the Spending Review:  
  • With flexibility to support housing led regeneration schemes, so outdated homes that are not fit for purpose can be replaced by new homes that meet the needs of communities. 
  • Greater devolution of funding to make sure it is targeted effectively to meet local needs.  
  • Targeted support for local authorities to ensure they are set up to build new council homes.  
  • A dedicated funding stream of at least 1.37 billion over 5 years to support housing-led neighbourhood regeneration in the North.  
  • This would run alongside the recently announced Plan for Neighbourhoods, which supports social regeneration in specific towns.  
  • Unlock up to 320,000 homes on brownfield land in the North through a ten-year £4.2 billion programme to remediate all the North’s brownfield land.  
  • Make quality a priority: 
  • Confirmation of the new Decent Homes Standard and the right financial support to make sure existing homes meet the new standard. 
  • Continued investment in energy efficiency, which lowers bills for tenants and improves quality of homes.  Previous NHC research found £500 million of retrofit funding per year up to 2030 is needed for the North to upgrade all social homes to EPC band C, and from 2030 to £1 billion per year is needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of the North’s homes. 
  • Devolved combined funding for housing quality and energy efficiency so social housing providers can work more efficiently, and the funding is targeted where it’s needed most.   
  • Support for local authorities to drive improvements in the private rented sector. 
  • Make sure that housing associations and local authorities have the financial stability needed to invest in new homes. 
  • A ten-year rent settlement at CPI plus one, with the option of rent convergence where needed.  

The Northern Housing Monitor, our annual state of the region report is produced by Arc4 and supported by believe housing, Bernicia and Yorkshire Housing. It covers housing and poverty, housing supply, housing quality and regeneration, and net zero and fuel poverty. It is available on the NHC website, alongside the Northern Housing data bank.

Speakers at the parliamentary event included Member of Parliament for Huddersfield Harpreet Uppal, Lord Best OBE DL, Director, Social Housing at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Emma Payne,  Chief Executive of Bernicia Homes John Johnson, and the NHC’s Tracy Harrison.