The Business Magazine - South West & West Midlands’ Post

The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has endorsed a draft strategy that proposes a social housing levy of 3.3 per cent on all new builds, including single houses on new blocks, with the money raised to used to fund social housing projects. Not surprisingly it is being opposed by developers who are claiming it will impede the development of new homes by increasing costs. The same old rhetoric they always use when a new property tax is proposed. As pointed out in this article, whilst delivering more social housing is the responsibility of state governments, its local governments who are at the coal face of dealing with the issues associated with a lack of social housing. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable for them to try to raise funds to address the issue. Well done to the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for undertaking this bold initiative. More local governments should follow their lead. https://lnkd.in/g_yMvrTY #HousingIsAHumanRight #SocialHousing

So my route to being a registered social housing provider is going to be a longer journey than I wanted with a detour along the way. To become a registered social housing provider will take years to get approved, but we can still do good with working with local councils by becoming a emergency accommodation provider, so people will still have a place to go home even if it’s only for a year. So in order to become a registered social housing provider you have to be a non profit organisation, so that wouldn’t work from an investors point of view where they would want a return on their money. With the emergency accommodation route, it’s a guaranteed rent paid directly by uc, so any investors would get a return on their investment while we still help the councils to ease pressure on their social housing waiting lists. #investmentopportunity #housing

Eildon Housing Association has secured £18.7 million funding from Royal Bank of Scotland to build new homes in the Scottish Borders. https://lnkd.in/evYGKPux

A housing association in the Scottish Borders has secured £18.7m of funding from the RBS to build new homes. #ukhousing #housingassociations #finance Eildon Housing Association Lynn Mirley Martin McCourt

👏👏Exciting news from Social Housing magazine today: #Legal&GeneralAffordableHomes are reportedly in discussions with Registered Providers (RPs) nationwide about raising equity to address the sector’s funding needs due to the increasing costs of dealing with problematic legacy homes. Investors into the sector have often focused on acquiring new/newer homes or with higher EPC ratings. RPs on the other hand still have to deal with the high costs of retrofitting older legacy stock to meet energy efficiency, building, fire, and health and safety standards. This has been one of the factors leading to a reduction in development capacity in recent years. It's encouraging to see #LGAH looking to address this need and reinforcing their position as a long-term investor in the housing sector. This initiative would support RPs development plans and aligns with the new Government’s commitment to building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. #planforhousing #fundingsolutions #affordablehousing #housingfinance #buildingsafety #fundingretrofit #portfoliotransactions #BBhousing Louise Leaver Andy Spicer Rose Klemperer Andrew Shaw Jessica Church Rebecca Gibson Bevan Brittan LLP The article below requires a subscription to read: https://lnkd.in/e2m_yfQy

Link Wentworth welcomes the state government’s commitment to tackling the housing crisis in today’s budget. We commend the government for the investment in social housing - $5.1 billion over four years. Other initiatives such as the emergency housing and homelessness support services, the NSW Rental Taskforce and increased funding for maintenance of older social housing stock are all positive strategies to increase help to those most affected by the current crisis. Andrew McAnulty, CEO of Link Wentworth praised the Minns Government, Treasurer Mookhey, Minister Jackson and Minister Scully for such a clear statement of intent and significant investment towards providing safe, secure and affordable homes for all NSW residents. This announcement builds on the momentum of the past 12 months of planning reforms and the establishment of Homes NSW and the Rental Commissioner. “I encourage this landmark investment to be leveraged via community housing providers (CHPs) to layer funding sources and increase the new homes delivered with land from the state government and Federal Government Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). As not-for-profit organisations that reinvest surpluses back into housing stock for low-income residents, CHPs are well positioned—financially, strategically and ethically—to partner with government and private sector stakeholders, to increase the supply of social housing. Through a clear strategy to layer investment via community housing providers, the state government can make this critical and strategic investment go even further and provide more homes for those who need them most.” Rebecca Pinkstone Trina Jones Community Housing Industry Association NSW PowerHousing Australia Nathan Dal Bon Housing Australia Homes NSW #nswbudget #socialhousing #communityhousing #affordablehousing

There are warnings that house building will slow unless funding certainty is given beyond the current Affordable Homes Programme end date, according to JV North, a collective of 13 housing association and local authority members from across the North West. Usually government-funded programmes overlap, which allows housebuilding to continue without pausing, however, with less than two years left of the 2021/26 Affordable Homes Programme, and no clarity in sight, there is a risk that developments of over 50 homes or those that take longer than 12 months will come grinding to a halt. Concerningly, there was no announcement made in last month's budget, leaving a swathe of uncertainty over financial viability and delivery of existing and future projects. At present, the government has allocated £11.4bn to spend on grant-funded affordable homes between 2021 and 2026. This is split between the GLA, which administers it's portion within London and Homes England, for distribution of the funding allocation to the rest of the country. The plan was originally drawn up with a view to deliver up to 180K homes, however, due to economic, financial and policy headwinds impacting delivery, this is now expected to fall woefully short, leaving many providers concerned. With so many across the country being impacted by the cost of living and other factors driving the housing market into ever more critical territory it is imperative that the industry is given certainty and clarity over its delivery strategy. Big social housing schemes at risk over funding uncertainty https://buff.ly/4b7b0DJ #housingcrisis #funding #strategy

"The Housing Australia Future Fund has had massive over-subscription, if you like, demand is there, from social housing, community providers to pitch in," said The Prime Minister as he spoke alongside NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson on Friday at a newly refurbished social housing property in Russell Lea. Members of Faith Housing Alliance have submitted high-quality bids to the HAFF to provide thousands of new social and affordable homes. Each responds to the housing needs of local communities, with projects tailored to their urban, suburban, regional, and rural contexts. Demonstrating the capacity and capability of the faith housing sector, we need to see the NSW Government commit its own funding and resources in the state budget on June 18. Shovel-ready projects that may miss out on Round 1 HAFF funding are ready to be delivered to help meet NSW's housing targets and critically support people worst affected by the housing crisis. We're calling on the NSW Government to invest in an immediate and sustained increase in the supply of social and affordable rental housing - at least $2.08 billion per year to deliver up to 5,000 homes per year with wrap-around support for the next ten years. That's the scale of investment needed to ensure the people of NSW can live with security and dignity. #HAFF #housingcrisis #NSWbudget

“Albanese's $10bn affordable housing fund for low-income families paid more than $24m to external consultants and $6m in annual executive salaries last year, despite not having yet delivered a single completed house under the scheme. With Labor under pressure to deliver on its election pledge to build 40,000 social and affordable houses within five years, documents reveal that Housing Australia paid out more than $16m for legal, IT and “advisory" contracts last year. This was on top of more than $7m in the six months prior spent by Housing Australia which also pays its CEO a salary almost equal that of the Prime Minister at $560,000 a year. The documents reveal that 19 staff are employed by the agency on salaries of more than $300,000 a year including five whose remuneration is above $400,000 a year. The top paid executive, CEO Nathan Dal Bon is paid a total package of $557,000 a year. Mr Albanese's total package is $587,000 a year. Contracts listed by the agency show that between January 2023 and December 2023, a total of $16,613,428 was spent on IT, legal, advisory and other services.” Government in a nutshell. Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. https://lnkd.in/gciZAzAH

This article highlights the constraints faced by the #housebuilding sector and #housingassociations in delivering ambitious targets to bridge the demand of #affordablehomes, and how #privatecapital can help to fill this huge gap. "The last time the UK was building more than 300,000 homes a year – the rate that would be needed to hit the 1.5m homes goal – was in 1970, ..............funding cuts and restrictions on borrowing introduced in the 1980s were such that councils’ ability to build was weakened, which has meant they have not supplied more than 2% of new homes for more than 40 years. The bulk of development has been taken on by housing associations, which now deliver 78% of all affordable homes. " Birketts LLP https://lnkd.in/dMkckGyF