Newsletters

This Update includes the following

Responsibility for fire safety moves to MHCLG

From 1^st April 2025 responsibility for oversight of fire safety was transferred from the Home Office to MHCLG. The change delivers on a key recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 report, which criticised the fragmentation of responsibility for fire safety in the construction industry and advised that fire and building safety should be overseen by a single department.

The change means MHCLG, which already oversees building regulations and housing policy, will also be responsible for fire safety guidance and regulations. This integration is expected to strengthen safety coordination and policy implementation, providing greater clarity and accountability in managing fire risk in residential buildings.

Recent Publications

Securing the Future of Council Housing – Establishing a ‘Green and Decent’ Homes Programme – Southwark Council (May 2025)

This policy proposal document follows the 2024 Southwark report ‘Securing the future of council housing’ which set out proposals for delivering a sustainable HRA Agreement with Government and was endorsed by 112 councils with HRAs. This latest document sets out 10 core principles required for the sector to address current challenges and deliver the wider objectives of building new homes, addressing energy efficiency and net zero as well as building safety and a new decent homes standard. The document highlights both the scale of the challenges facing the sector along with the ambition to tackle them.

Triaging repair reports – key learning around emergencies ahead of Awaab’s Law – Housing Ombudsman (20 May 2025)

This report aims to address a lack of consistency around what social landlords consider to be an emergency repair. A number of severe maladministration cases are examined where the landlord did not identify a repair as an emergency.

Lessons highlighted include:

• Lack of consistency in the way landlords define and approach emergency repairs
• Reports of ‘no access’ leading to closure of cases based on limited evidence
• Failure to make a connection between the circumstances of the person living in the property and its condition
• A pattern of temporary fixes being made but the permanent resolution being severely delayed creating potentially hazardous conditions
• Service failures around poor record keeping and poor communication, including poor coordination and the wrong trades being sent to do works.

The Tackling Stigma Journey Planner – published by the Stop Housing Stigma Campaign (May 2025)

This is a new flexible tool designed to help tenants and landlords work together on plans to tackle social housing stigma. The journey planner will particularly assist tenants and landlords work together to define what it means to comply with the standard that requires landlords to treat tenants with fairness and respect.

Tackling-Stigma-Journey-Planner.pdf

England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation – HCLG Committee House of Commons (April 2025)

This cross-party committee report focuses on the rising demand for temporary accommodation and the impact on the children affected. There are currently over 164,000 homeless children currently living in temporary accommodation which for many turns out to be very poor quality and far from temporary. The report makes a number of recommendations including:

• Mandatory inspection of housing by local authorities before it is used as temporary accommodation, and whenever new residents are placed in the property.
• New requirement for local authorities to notify the host authority before they make an out of area placement.
• A formalised system for notifying a child’s school and GP if they are moved into temporary accommodation. To
• A call for the government to ensure publication of its strategy on ending homelessness by July 2025 so meaningful progress towards tackling the crisis in temporary accommodation during this Parliament.

Simply about Supply? How Housing Issues vary by Region – Report by IPPR North (April 2025)

This report considers affordability, tenure, and quality issues by region to make the case for regionally responsive housing policy arguing that simply delivering more homes at current or 80% of the market rate (i.e. currently defined as affordable) will not resolve England’s housing issues. The author has summarised the research findings and produced a useful graphic identifying the different housing challenges facing each English Region.

Learning From Severe Maladministration Report – Housing Ombudsman (April 2025)

This latest report from the Housing Ombudsman examines what makes good communication in complaint handling. The report identifies the 4 key elements required for confident and appropriate communication:

• Timely
• Transparent
• Tailored
• Tone

With the implementation of Awaab’s Law less than 6 months away, the need for organisations to review their communications performance, both internal and external, verbal and written, is more pressing than ever. The way an organisation handles communication, provides an insight into organisational culture and values.

The report draws examples from recent casework on damp and mould to highlight the importance of each communication element.

This Update includes the following

New Association of Directors of Housing (AdOH) receives start-up funding from MHCLG

Proposals to set up a new representative body for council housing directors moved a step closer with the announcement of startup funding from MHCLG. The announcement was made by Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook at a housing Summit hosted by Sheffield City Council on 6^th March 2025.

The new association aims to deliver a more unified sector-wide voice on housing policy issues as well as improved outcomes through enhanced collaboration and good practice sharing. The proposals have the backing of the LGA and over 100 councils.

MHCLG funding is intended to cover initial work on recruitment and setting up arrangements. A steering group led by Louise Wood, service director for planning and housing at Cornwall Council and Hakeem Osinaike, strategic director of housing at Southwark Council, is in place to progress the project and establish the new body in 2025/26.

CWAG is represented on the steering group by Geoff Beales who as Chair of CWAG is working to ensure the interests of Councils with ALMOs are reflected in the new arrangements for representation in the sector.

Once the AdOH group is fully established CWAG members will need to consider whether to merge with the new grouping or continue to operate as a separate entity.

Commonhold White Paper

Recent Publications

Learning from Severe Maladministration Cases – Housing Ombudsman (March 2025)

The Housing Ombudsman has released its latest ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report, focusing on the ‘Big 6’ building safety compliance areas.

The 23 complaints involve safety in asbestos, fire, water, gas, electrics and lifts, with issues sometimes interfacing with other disrepair concerns. The cases show the human impact of key obligations not being fulfilled to individuals. By grouping these cases together, it is possible to map reoccurring points of service failure and identify areas for learning.

Complaints can act as an early warning sign for landlords to test whether this is an isolated issue or further action is required to prevent repeated failings impacting other residents.

This Update includes the following

Local authorities need more resources to focus on preventing homelessness.

In 2023/24 local authorities spent around £3.1 billion on homelessness of which £2.1 billion was used to provide temporary accommodation. Homelessness Prevention Grant funding amounted to about £440 million. In practice, the high numbers of people already in the homelessness system mean that local authorities use a significant portion of available resources to fund the provision of temporary accommodation, particularly in areas of poor affordability, rather than spending on homelessness prevention activities.

Recommendation: MHCLG needs to set out plans to incentivise and work with local authorities to improve homelessness prevention.

It is unacceptable that B&B accommodation is being used routinely to house people rather than as a last resort

As at June 2024 almost 6,000 homeless families with children were being housed in B&Bs, and almost 4,000 of these families had been there for longer than the statutory maximum period of six weeks.

Recommendation: MHCLG should strengthen its use of HAST advisers in supporting local authorities to reduce their use of B&B accommodation and provide support to local authorities with high rates of temporary accommodation to plan how to reduce their reliance on it.

Too many people are being placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local area

The homelessness legislation and code of guidance state that local authorities should, as far as possible, avoid placing households out of area, however, over the period 2018–19 to 2023–24, the number of households placed out of area increased by 42%. There is a lack of data around how far away from their local areas people are being placed and the wider consequences resulting from this.

 Recommendation: MHCLG should improve its data on out of area placements as a matter of urgency and use the data to encourage better coordination between local authorities, to minimise the number of households placed out of area and incentivise councils to use local providers.

The government is not considering the impact on homelessness when setting Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates

 Capping and freezing LHA rates have reduced the income households can derive from benefits in real terms and 45% of households now face a shortfall between the LHA they receive and the rent they pay. Also, local authority temporary accommodation funding is essentially based on the 2011 LHA rate and has not kept up with rising temporary accommodation costs.

 Recommendation: DWP should set out  for the Committee its justification for the levels of LHA it has set, both for individuals and for local authorities 

The homelessness problem is being exacerbated by a severe shortage in housing supply, and especially affordable housing.

 A significant ramping up of the affordable housing supply is required to achieve a substantial impact on homelessness levels, particularly in areas where homelessness pressures are acute.

 Recommendation: MHCLG should provide the Committee with an update on how its proposed new housing strategy will achieve practical improvements in the delivery of new homes, including targets for new and affordable homes.

Despite legislation designed to tackle well-established problems and gaps in regulation, MHCLG has made no progress in improving the oversight of the supported housing sector.

 The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act came into force in August 2023. This brought forward national standards for support and looked to give local authorities power to tackle poor quality supported housing in their area, yet by the end of 2024 the Act had not been implemented. Ongoing gaps in regulation mean landlords can provide costly, sub-standard housing with little support, supervision or care.

Recommendation: MHCLG should implement the provisions of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act as quickly as possible. In addition, both MHCLG and Homes England should detail why Homes England fell short of its targets for new homes (including affordable homes) in 2023– 24,  and what steps they are taking to ensure targets for 2024–25 and beyond will be achieved.

Update on the Renters Rights Bill

The Renters’ Rights Bill continues to make legislative progress having passed it’s second reading in the House of Lords on 4^th February 2025. It has now passed most of its legislative hurdles and is expected to become law in Spring / Summer 2025.

The latest amendments include:

Landlords will only be permitted to charge one month’s rent in advance (alongside a security deposit of up to 5 or 6 weeks rent). This will prevent landlords demanding multiple months’ rent in advance as a condition of agreeing a tenancy.

A new rule to protect students aims to end the practice of pressuring students into commitments early into an academic year.  Students will no longer be locked into an agreement where a lease is signed more than 6 months in advance of moving in.

Closing potential loopholes in rent repayment orders (RROs), ensuring superior landlords can be liable for RROs if an offence has been committed even if the rent was not paid directly to them, but through an agent or intermediate landlord.

Fees paid by landlords will directly fund the creation and work of the private rented sector Ombudsman, providing renters and landlords with access to an effective and fair dispute resolution service.

Summary of Main Measures in The Bill :

• The abolition of Section 21 notices.
• Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) will be replaced by periodic tenancies enabling tenants to end their tenancy at any time on giving 2 months’ notice.
• Rent agreed cannot be higher than advertised.
• Rent increases will be restricted to once per year (twelve months from previous increase).
• Tenants will be able challenge rent increases deemed above market via the First Tier Tribunal.
• Tenants have the right to request to keep a pet and that request cannot be unreasonably refused. However, the tenant will be required to have appropriate pet insurance.
• Landlords will be prohibited from discriminating against tenants who receive benefits or have children residing with them or visiting their premises.
• Awaab’s Law will apply to the Private Rented Sector (PRS).
• Decent Homes Standard will also apply to the PRS.
• There will be a requirement for Landlords to sign up to a Landlord Redress Scheme as well as a PRS database.
• No exemptions are proposed in respect of student housing.
• Landlord penalties  – up to £7000 for the first offence and £40,000 for more serious and repeat non-compliance.

Other Proposals for Improving Standards in the Private Rented Sector

The government has issued a consultation with proposals to raise the minimum energy efficiency standard required of privately rented homes in England and Wales to the equivalent of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C by 2030.

Currently private landlords are only required to meet EPC E in rental properties. The government claims that requiring landlords to meet the higher EPC C standard will save private renters £240 per year on average on their energy bills.

The consultation runs until 2^nd May 2025

Consultation on Right to Buy Reform

Recent Publications

Social housing sales and demolitions 2023-24 – Accredited Official Statistics (February 2025)

MHCLG has published a statistics bulletin setting out headline figures for changes in social and affordable rented stock in the year up to 31st March 2024. The bulletin also includes a figures for sales and demolitions compared with the output figures for new supply of social housing between 1997 and 2024.

Social Housing Rent Consultation

CWAG has submitted a joint response to the Social Housing Rent Consultation with the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA).

The response focusses on the importance of achieving a ten-year settlement based on CPI +1% plus an annual allowance for convergence.

Drawing on analysis undertaken by Savills for the social housing sector in December 2024 the response makes the case that whilst the proposed longer term rent settlement based on CPI plus 1% would be helpful, it would be insufficient to bridge the immediate funding gap between income and expenditure requirements and will need to be bolstered by additional measures.

The Savills research demonstrates that CPI +1% over 10 years with a convergence policy to bring all local authority rents up to formula would make a material improvement both in the short and longer term, bringing the national HRA to a cumulative surplus within 10 years (based on a convergence amount of up to £3/week). In practice therefore additional funding will be required to deliver newbuild  in the short to medium term.

Consultation respons

Rent Consultation Analysis – Savills

• Section 21 evictions and periodic tenancies

Section 21 evictions will be abolished alongside the introduction of changes to tenancy arrangements. Assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies will be replaced by periodic tenancies providing more security and flexibility for tenants who will be able to remain in their home until they decide to end the tenancy by giving 2 months’ notice. There will be limited exceptions for example, houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and designated student accommodation.

• Grounds for possession

Landlords will be able to recover their property where they wish to sell or move-in close family, however tenants will benefit from a 12 month protected period at the beginning of a tenancy, during which a landlord cannot evict them to move-in or sell the property. There are also new safeguards for tenants who temporarily fall into arrears and the mandatory threshold for eviction is increased from 2 to 3 months and the notice period increased from 2 to 4 weeks.   There are also various specified grounds for use in limited circumstances where accommodation is intended for a particular purpose and where the tenant no longer meets the conditions under which the tenancy was granted (e.g. supported housing).

• Rent Increases

New arrangements will be introduced designed to empower tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases (often used as a backdoor means of eviction). If a tenant believes the proposed rent exceeds the market rate, they can challenge this at the First-tier Tribunal which will determine what the rent should be, either confirming the proposed level or setting a lower figure.

• Private Rented Sector Ombudsman

Private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies will be legally required to join a new PRS Ombudsman. The service will be available free of charge to tenants and funded through a charge on landlords. Local councils will have the power to levy fines where landlords fail to join the Ombudsman.

• Renting with Pets

Tenants will gain the right to request a pet in the property. Landlords must consider these requests and cannot unreasonably refuse. However, landlords will be able to require pet insurance to cover any damage to their property.

• New Private Rented Sector Database

Landlords will be required by law to register with a new Private Rented Sector Database with penalties for those who fail to comply. The database will help landlords understand their legal obligations and provide information to tenants about landlord performance. It will also help local authorities to target enforcement activity. Landlords will need to be registered on the database to have access to certain possession grounds.

• Discriminatory Practices

New measures will address discrimination against prospective tenants in receipt of benefits or with children with financial penalties for those who fail to comply.

• Decent Homes Standard

The DH standard will be enforced within the PRS giving renters better value homes and removing the blight of poor property condition.

• Awaab’s Law

The Bill confirms that Awaab’s Law will be extended to the PRS, setting clear legal expectations about the timeframes within which landlords must take action to make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.

• Rental Bidding

Landlords and agents will be required to publish an asking rent for their property, and it will be illegal to accept offers made above this rate.

• Local authority enforcement

There will be a new requirement for local authorities to report on enforcement activity along with expanded civil penalties for non-compliance (including fines between £7,000 and £40,000)

• Rent repayment Orders

New measures will increase the deterrent effect of rent repayment orders making them easier for tenants and local authorities to access.

Review of Housing Policy Announcements

There have been a number of announcements relating to social housing policy in the first three months of the Labour Government:

Social Housing Quality and Professionalisation

The Secretary of State confirmed at the Labour Party Conference that Awaab’s Law will be introduced for the social rented sector this autumn, with plans to introduce it to the private rented sector at a later date, once the legislation is in place (see Renter’s Rights Bill above).

The government has also confirmed its intention to press ahead with the Competence and Conduct standard for the social rented sector to ensure tenants receive a professional service and are treated with respect and dignity. The timetable for implementation has yet to be confirmed.

The Secretary of State has also confirmed the government’s intention to consult on a new Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes, however no specific timescales have been indicated to date.

Measures to ensure decent homes for all – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Building New Homes

Since the election there have been a number of announcements to promote newbuild development and wider economic growth, in line with the Labour Manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 5 years.  These include:

• Consultation on a revised Planning Policy Framework to overhaul the planning system, opening up new areas for development as well as speeding up planning approvals and delivering wider economic growth. (for further details see August Newsletter)
• New Towns Taskforce to advise and support government aspirations to develop a programme of new towns.
• New Homes Accelerator programme to bring together key agencies, leveraging resources to unblock large development sites around the country where progress has stalled.
• Brownfield Land Release Fund will provide £68 million to 54 councils to fund demolition of empty buildings, site clearance and decontamination of industrial land.

The Autumn Budget on 30th October should provide more detail around funding for new social housing development.

Local Authority Housing Fund

The existing proposals for a third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund are going ahead as planned over two financial years (2024-25 and 2025-26). The £450 million programme announced by the previous government will be made available to councils to acquire better quality temporary accommodation for families at risk of homelessness as well as providing suitable housing for those on the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.

Right to Buy

The government moved quickly to announce new flexibilities for RTB receipts which will be in place for an initial period of 2 years, subject to review at the end of 2025/26:

• Councils can use up to 100% retained receipts to fund replacement homes, a significant increase from the previous 50% cap.
• Right to Buy receipts may be combined with section 106 contributions.
• The cap on the percentage of replacements delivered as acquisitions has been lifted.

A wider review of the RTB scheme is underway within MHCLG with a consultation due later in the Autumn. This is likely to focus on the level of RTB discounts, particularly the increased levels in place since 2012. The Secretary of State has indicated that the intention is to restrict rather than abolish the scheme.

Retained Right to Buy receipts and their use for replacement supply: guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Local Connection or residency rules

The majority of stockholding councils have allocations schemes which include a local connection or residency test as part of the housing application process. However, in line with Labour’s election manifesto commitment that UK Armed Forces Veterans will be exempt from rules which require a local connection to access social housing, the government has recently written to councils setting out the policy position with formal regulations to follow in due course. The government has also clarified that a similar exemption will apply to other priority groups where demonstrating a local connection can be difficult, including care leavers and victims of domestic abuse.

UK Armed Forces Veterans given social housing exemption – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Submission to the Autumn Budget and Spending Review

CWAG has linked up with ARCH and the NFA on a joint submission covering both the Autumn Budget and the Spending Review.

The submission sets out the scale of the current funding crisis facing many council Housing Revenue Accounts (HRAs) and outlines its origins including the abandonment of both rent convergence and the formula for annual rent increases agreed within the 2012 self-financing settlement. The requirement to reduce rents by 1% per year between 2016 and 2020 significantly undermined capacity within HRAs reducing council income by an estimated £2.4 billion (amounting to an estimated loss of £42 billion from business plans by 2042). In addition, the further cap on rent rises in 2023-24 is estimated to have cut income by £644 million.

The income shortfall created by these measures has undermined the capacity of business plans to keep pace with stock investment needs, a situation further exacerbated by the emergence of new expenditure pressures including the cost of compliance with the new fire and building safety requirements, the new consumer regulatory regime, the need to improve energy efficiency and progress decarbonisation.

Drawing on the latest Savills research the submission sets out the scale of the current funding shortfall in relation to the existing stock and calls for a longer-term strategy to address this whilst setting out the necessary conditions for councils to deliver on the government’s ambition to build a new generation of council homes.

Joint ARCH NFA CWAG Autumn Budget  and Spending Review Submission

Housing Policy Update

In a major policy speech on 30th July Angela Raynor, Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, set out how the new government intends to deliver on the Party’s manifesto commitments on housing. The Secretary of State has also written to local authorities setting out the detail of the government’s programme. Read letter here

Planning Reform

Reform of the planning system is regarded as the key to addressing current housing shortages and delivering wider economic growth. A consultation covering changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was issued to coincide with Angela Raynor’s policy statement. The consultation includes the following proposed changes:

• A new mandatory standard methodology for assessing housing need and a requirement for local authorities to plan for the resulting figure.
• A requirement to identify ‘grey belt’ land within the Green Belt, to be brought forward into the planning system.
• New “golden rules” for land released in the Green Belt to ensure it delivers in the public interest including a requirement that development should include 50% affordable homes along infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries.
• Broadening the existing definition of brownfield land and a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield sites will be approved.
• Raising building densities in urban areas.
• Clarifications around the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ including new safeguards against poor quality development.

Housing Targets

Mandatory housing targets are to be reinstated requiring all councils in England to plan for increased housebuilding in their areas. The target set out in the Labour manifesto of 1.5 million homes over the life of the Parliament has been uplifted from 300,000 homes per year to just over 370,000 homes per year. This reflects a change in the methodology for calculating targets to ensure development is proportionate to the size of existing communities, while adding an extra level of ambition in the most unaffordable areas. The target for London has been reduced from 100,000 homes to around 80,000 homes per year.

 Green Belt Land

Commitments to focus development on previously developed brownfield sites remain, however there is an expectation that in order to achieve housebuilding targets, councils will need to consider development on parts of the Green Belt that are of low environmental quality, referred to as the ‘grey belt’.

Social Housing

The Secretary of State confirmed that the government has ambitious plans for social and affordable housing, namely to ‘deliver the biggest boost to social and  affordable housing in a generation’.  Detailed plans will be brought forward as part of the multiyear spending review due to conclude in Spring 2025.

There will also be an announcement on future social housing rents as part of the Autumn Budget Statement on the 30^th October which will ensure council housing finances are put onto a secure footing with rent stability enabling councils ‘to be able to borrow and invest in new and existing homes’.

Right to Buy

The Government has announced a review of the Right to Buy including eligibility criteria and protections for new homes. A consultation on changes will be issued in the autumn. The increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012 will also be reviewed and changes implemented via secondary legislation.

Increased flexibilities on how councils can use Right to Buy receipts have also been announced. The following changes will come into effect immediately and will apply for 2 years initially, subject to review:

• Removing the cap on the percentage of replacements homes that can be delivered as acquisitions.
• Removing the 50% cap on the level of RTB receipts that can be used to fund the cost of a replacement home.
• Allowing councils to combine Right to Buy receipts with section 106 contributions.

Awaab’s Law

The Government has also confirmed that Awaab’s Law will be introduced into the social rented sector, with more detail and secondary legislation to implement this in due course.

The summaries below highlight the key policy areas and approaches as set out in the Party Election Manifestos:

Building New Homes

Labour

Plan to build 1.5 million new homes in England over the next parliament. Proposals include:

• Restoring mandatory housing targets and strengthening the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
• Prioritising a ‘brownfield first’ approach and a more strategic approach to the Green Belt which would allow the release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land under certain conditions.
• Building a new generation of new towns.
• Introducing new mechanisms for cross boundary strategic planning that will require Combined and Mayoral Authorities to plan strategically for growth in their areas.
• Reform of compulsory purchase compensation rules to improve site assembly and address the inflated price premiums achieved by landowners on land should planning permission be granted.
• Supporting local authorities to fund additional planning officers, through increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.

Conservatives

Plan to build 1.6 million new homes in England over the next parliament. Proposals include:

• Abolishing legacy EU nutrient neutrality rules to unlock development of 100,000 new homes with existing planning permissions.
• Fast tracking the delivery of homes on brownfield land in urban areas and setting up locally led urban development corporations.
• Raising housing density levels in inner London (to levels comparable with other European cities).
• Supporting small and local builders by requiring councils to set aside land for them and lifting Section 106 burdens on smaller sites.

Liberal Democrats

Plan to increase building of new homes to 380,000 per year across the UK. Proposals include:

• Building 10 new garden cities
• Reforming the Land Compensation Act 1961 to allow councils to buy land for housing based on current use value rather than a hope value basis.
• Improving planning outcomes by properly funding local planning departments, by allowing local authorities to set their own fees.
• Expanding neighbourhood planning across England.
• Expanding rural housing provision by encouraging the use of rural exception sites.
• Trialling Community Land Auctions to help fund vital local services and ensure local communities receive a fair share of the benefits of new development in their area.
• Encouraging development of existing brownfield sites.
• Introducing ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ planning permissions.
• Investing in skills, training and modern methods of construction.

Progress of Renters Reform Bill

After almost a year, the Renters Reform Bill finally completed its passage through the House of Commons on 24^th April 2024. Delays were due to concerns around the capacity of the Courts to process possession cases.

A significant number of amendments have been made including:

• Tenants will not be able to give notice that they wish to end a tenancy for at least 6 months after taking it on, rather than after two months as previously proposed.
• Abolition of section 21 “no fault” evictions will not take place until court reforms have been implemented (the Opposition continues to press for a clearer implementation date as the legislation currently leaves the timing a matter for Ministerial judgement).
• Provisions have been added to allow landlords to recover possession of properties let to full-time students at the end of the academic year to ensure these are available for reletting to students in the next academic year.
• The Minister also committed to undertake a review of local authority private rented sector licensing schemes with “the aim of reducing burdens on landlords”.
•  The Government will review the implementation of the tenancy reforms within 18 months of measures being applied to existing tenancies.  

The Bill has now moved to the House of Lords receiving it’s first and second reading in the on 1^st May 2024 and 15^th May 2024 respectively. Secretary of State, Michael Gove has stated the government’s intention to enact the legislation by the ‘summer’ with Implementation by the Autumn.

CWAG Organisational Update

Members will be aware that Southend City Council is planning to take on the Administrative Authority role on behalf of the group once all members have signed up to the Service Level Agreement. On transfer the policy officer post will transfer along with management of the group’s financial affairs.

In addition, the group has a new Chair. Geoff Beales from Colchester City Council has taken on the role on an interim basis as Anna Milner has stood aside from the position following the decision by South Tyneside to bring management back in house by 2^nd October 2024. The post will be subject to an election at the Annual General Meeting in September. Anna will stay on as an Executive Member until the AGM.

Government confirms CPI + 1% rent settlement for 2025/26

The Government has confirmed that the existing social housing rent settlement will be rolled over by a further year until April 2026. This means annual rent increases will continue to be capped at Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus one percentage point for 2025-26.  This early announcement provides greater short-term certainty effectively deferring negotiations around the longer-term rental settlement for the next government.