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What's New
Welfare Reform
A briefing note gives an overview of the potential impact of changes to entitlement to Housing Benefit for social housing tenants of working age who under occupy their homes (dubbed by some as the "bedroom tax").
Action Plans
The partnership has identified 6 key priorities for 2012-13 which will form the basis of the 2012-13 Action Plan
An annotated version of the 2011-12 Action Plan shows progress at the end of the year.
Under occupation
13 housing associations are working with the Perfect Fit project to pilot a case working approach to under occupation in 2012-13.
In 2011-12 Perfect Fit operated on a part time basis in SE London and moved 22 under occupying housing association tenants to smaller properties. The scheme is also still involved in re-housing 30 under occupuiers into proeprties in Kent.
Tenancy strategies
A recommended template represents a common starting point for boroughs drafting the part of their Tenancy Strategies that applies to housing associations.
Housing for older people
On March 27th (morning) we held a seminar at Lewisham Civic Suite about designing and funding new housing for the over 60s. Presentations and papers from the event are available.
Shared ownership
On March 10th the New Homes Show was held at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. The show was an opportunity to find out about shared ownership homes in SE London and beyond - over 1,100 people attended.
A workshop on the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation was held on January 6th. This included presentations from the GLA and from Climate Energy.
A follow up workshop may be held once the government's response to consultation about the Green Deal is known.
THE 2011 SELHP CONFERENCE WAS HELD AT LEWISHAM CIVIC SUITE ON DECEMBER 6TH
All the presentations and publications from the conference are now available.
The latest Housing Market Bulletin covers April to October 2011. It indicates that house prices have increased in most areas and that private sector rents have continued to increase (an estimated 6% overall during the 6 month period).
On November 25th (10am at Lewisham Civic Suite) we held a workshop about the the relationship between tackling empty homes and the New Homes Bonus.
A briefing paper summarises the relationship.
In September the Partnership endorsed a checklist of actions for boroughs.
The workshop included presentations from CLG, Liberata and LB Bromley.
The partnership has revised its Wheelchair Homes Design Guidelines. The revisions are intended to provide more clarity. The main changes are summarised in a briefing paper.
Comments are welcome on the Interim advice to Registered Providers about lettings to "Affordable Rent"
Shared ownership sales
The annual review of shared ownership ('New Build HomeBuy') sales in SE London suggests that purchasers had slightly higher salaries than in previous years and that the percentage of purchasers who were existing tenants had continued to decline.
Review of programmes
In July we completed a review of 3 successful programmes - extensions and de-conversions, Settled Homes Initiative and Homes Out of London. Comments - or suggestions about how aspects of these programmes can be sustained - will continue to be very welcome.
The continuation of the Out of London programme (30 homes in Kent targeted at under occupying tenants from London) has recently been confirmed. The provider is Town & Country Housing Association.
Review of 2010-11
The partnership's main activities in 2010-11 are summarised in a simple one page review
Accessing the Private Rented Sector
A report on accessing the Private Rented Sector in SE London was produced on behalf of the partnership by Housingdelivery in conjunction with LettingFocus. The report's recommendations include the development of a sub regional 'portal' in order to faciliate contact from landlords.
HCA Framework and "Affordable Rent"
We consulted on draft guidance from the boroughs in the partnership to Registered Providers about the HCA's framework for new affordable housing.
The HCA has since made headline announcements for the 2011-15 programme in London.
Social Housing Fraud Initiative
40 delegates attended a workshop held on 2 March 2011 to share the outcomes of the pilot scheme across Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Southwark and to explore the models of delivery used by partcipating RSLs/LAs.
Please follow links to presentations given by:
Richard Bellis - Affinity Sutton
Rachael Tiffen - National Fraud Authority
As of Dec 2010, 63 properties had been brought back into use through the SELHP Social Housing Fraud Initiative.
In early 2011 Nina Morris (SELHP Overcrowding Co-ordinator) worked with Hexagon HA to pilot an approach to working with under occupiers and overcrowded households. Read the review of the pilot to find out more.
Links, documents and briefings relating to recent consultations and changes in government policy have been put together on a dedicated page of this website.
The partnership continues to seek to understand the implications of the introduction of "Affordable Rents" - i.e. the notion that new affordable homes and some re-lets would be charged at up to 80% of market rents.
Based on the Housing Market Bulletin (see above) the profile of rents at different percentages of market levels and their relationship to Local Housing Allowance and target rents has been modelled.
An audit of private sector empty homes was carried out in all boroughs in 2010. A report summarises the findings.
A "PrOMPT" review of rough sleeping was carried out in 2010 and a report has now been finalised. The report suggests for example that relatively few rough sleepers in SE London have come from an "institutional" backgrounds such as the Army and the care system.
SE London Strategic Housing Market Assessment
The Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) consists of a number of different reports. The following have now been published - though please note that they have yet to be endorsed by LB Bromley.
13 'sub group' reports have also been published - please refer to our Strategy page for these.
A commentary for Planning Officers has been produced by the SELHP Co-ordinator.
Following the completion of the main SHMA reports we have also:
Summarised the housing requirements of older people
The SE London Inter Borough Nominations Protocol was revised in 2009. A brief one page guide summarises this.
Links to CLG documents and consultation papers can be found on our Strategy Group page.
