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Former Housing Minister Dominic Raab has called for “radical” housing reforms in an attempt to help renters get on the housing ladder and increase the rate of home building.
 
Attacking the Conservative failure to stand up to developers and ensure the construction of enough homes to tackle the housing shortage, Raab advocated a new Help to Buy scheme that would exempt landlords from capital gains tax when they sell their property to existing tenants.

One of the UK's largest and oldest housing associations has bought 55 affordable apartments worth nearly £17.4m. Durkan completed the sale of 55 residential units at the Britannia Music Site (BMS) in Ilford to Southern Housing Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, the apartments will be completed and transferred to Southern in September of this year.   The units are earmarked for shared ownership or for use under the London Living Rent Tenure developed by the Greater London Authority (GLA).  Following the transaction, Southern will own a total of 148 units at BMS having acquired 93 units in 2017.

Editor Victoria Galligan went along to the annual Housebuilding Forum to meet HAs, builders, architects and suppliers…

The Housebuilding Forum took place at the Slate conference hall in Warwick. As part of the university campus, the striking building – a BREEAM-certified design that boasts floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto a lake – was the ideal venue to get some of the biggest names in housebuilding together.

As well as hosting expert speakers, the organisers Stable Events line up 15-minute meetings throughout the two-day event to ensure suppliers and delegates can take the time to discuss their work and potential collaborations. The speakers and delegates ranged from across the public and private sectors, and suppliers were on hand to display innovative products and services.

The rapid growth of short-term lets such as Airbnb has been a boon to tourists and landlords, yet it could lead to the loss of private rented homes to the short-term lets market and displacement of long-term residents from their communities if left unregulated, new analysis from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has revealed.

The UK Housing Review 2019, suggests that Airbnb alone has over 77,000 lets in Greater London, 55.4 per cent of which are entire homes. The bulk of the lets are heavily concentrated in Westminster (8,328), Tower Hamlets (7,513), and Hackney (5,907) boroughs.

The G-18 window and door Installer of the Year has extended its premises yet again to keep pace with its continuing expansion.