Latest news with #RhysMoore
Sky News
31-03-2025
- General
- Sky News
At least 91,000 new affordable homes could be built with cladding money, social housing providers say
Social housing providers are warning their ability to build new affordable and social rent homes is plummeting, thanks to the soaring costs of the post-Grenfell Tower cladding crisis. Some 72 people were killed in the 2017 tragedy, but eight years on, as many as 12,000 buildings are thought to be wrapped in the kinds of flammable materials that led to it. Work hasn't even begun on half of the affected buildings, with an estimated 7,000 at-risk blocks not yet identified by the government. It's thought the bill to remove those products across the country will run to the tens of billions. But Housing Associations - not-for-profit organisations who provide social rented housing - are excluded from most government funding. Instead the money for much of their remediation is coming from social tenants' rent and being diverted from other projects. The National Audit Office thinks it will have to spend £3.8bn in total to remove non-ACM, combustible cladding on buildings over 11m high. New research suggests that's the cost-equivalent of building 91,000 much-needed new affordable homes. It's as we're seeing a huge drop in the number of new social rent and affordable homes being built by these providers. Across England, the National Housing Federation (NHF) says affordable housing starts have decreased by 39% to 43,439 - the lowest number since 2016. In London affordable housing starts have collapsed by 90% in the year to March, compared to the year before. The housing association Peabody says they have already spent £300m on cladding remediation, and that bill will keep rising. At one of their sprawling development sites in east London, tower blocks spring from the ground. But only phase one of the 10-year project (905 new homes) is secure. Plans for the other 2,500 flats have been put at risk - precisely because of funds being diverted to building safety. "If we don't if we don't find a way of funding the future phases, then I'm afraid we would have to stop at the end of phase one," their chief executive Ian McDermott said. The numbers are stark: "Normally we build about 2,000 homes a year. This year we will build fewer than 100 homes. "It's at a time when one in 21 children in London are living in temporary accommodation, so the need for social housing has never been greater." The data seems to pour cold water on the government's pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament. "The numbers are going in the wrong direction," said Rhys Moore, executive director of the NHF. "I think it is now widely accepted that there is no way to meet the 1.5 million homes target without a significant increase in social and affordable house building." Earlier this month, a committee of MPs warned the government hadn't taken the risks seriously enough and called for a formal assessment to be published by the end of the year on the way remediation costs are impacting house building targets. Mr Moore is calling on the government to expand the Building Safety Scheme to include housing associations: "What we think is indefensible is that some of the poorest families in the country, social tenants, are having to pick up the costs with their rents, to make those buildings safe." Giles Grover, from End Our Cladding Scandal, agrees with that call: "Our campaign position has always been that social housing providers should have full and equal access to the funding." But unlike the housing associations and NHF, he's concerned about too much of their focus being on development. Throughout the cladding crisis some housing associations have faced criticism for their handling of building safety issues, particularly with regard to shared owners. Mr Grover said: "We do need to make sure that social housing providers focus on their core purpose, which is making those homes decent, making those homes safe, and actually treating people like vulnerable, shared owners with a lot more respect." If there's a safety issue, he said, "let shared owners sublet, let them sell - or buy back their flats. Because right now associations are just carrying on, wanting to be tinpot developers". A Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government spokesperson said: "We are determined to make Britain's homes safer and deliver change for residents who have suffered for too long, and it is right that developers pay their fair share. "This government will deliver 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change and just this week we committed £2bn to deliver thousands of new social and affordable homes. We continue to work closely with industry so we can deliver on our housing ambitions."
The Guardian
11-02-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Mental health patients with nowhere to go cost NHS £71m in England, report finds
A lack of supported housing was the biggest reason for delayed discharges from mental health hospitals in England last year, costing the NHS about £71m, according to a report. Analysis from the National Housing Federation (NHF) found that in 2023-24 there were 109,029 days of delayed discharge because mental health patients were waiting for supported housing, and the number of people stuck in hospital as a result of housing-related issues had more than tripled since 2021. In September 2024, waiting for supported housing was the single biggest reason mental health patients, fit for discharge, were unable to leave, accounting for 17% of all delays. This lack led to a strain on NHS capacity and a rise in patients being sent out of area for hospital admission, the report found. Rhys Moore, director of public impact at the NHF, said: 'Not only are tens of thousands of people, who deserve the opportunity to live a healthy, happy and independent life, being failed, but the shortage of these homes is increasing pressure on public services, increasing homelessness, and costing the NHS and ultimately the taxpayer more in the long run.' There are about half a million supported homes across England, but numbers are falling, and an NHF survey found that one in three (32%) supported housing providers in England have had to close schemes in the past year owing to financial pressures. Chris Hampson, chief executive of Look Ahead, which provides specialist supported accommodation in London and the south-east, said the industry was facing a 'perfect storm. 'Never in our 50-year history have we known challenges like it. We and others are having to withdraw from contracts and close services where we have been left with no alternative but to run them at a loss,' he said. 'In the last few years, it has got ridiculously tough – you've got inflation, recruitment costs, local government budget cuts. 'Yet there's so much demand, particularly post-Covid, around the mental health pressures we're seeing.' One resident at Look Ahead's Ibis Step-down, a supported accommodation centre in Newham, east London, helping people transition from hospital to independent living, said it was 'the best place for my recovery'. The man in his 30s, who asked to remain anonymous, had struggled with drug addiction issues and was evicted shortly before he was admitted to a mental health hospital ward where he spent a number of weeks. 'I feel like I'm much better off in here than in hospital,' he said. '[The hospital] felt like I was all right. The way we were talking, I could tell they thought, you're wasting my bed, you don't need to be here. But I had been evicted, I had nowhere to go. 'I was really struggling in there, it was noisy and stressful at times. Living here, I feel like I can breathe and start getting myself back together again.' Sophie Boobis, head of policy and research at membership charity Homeless Link, said there needed to be a greater understanding of how the NHS and supported housing crises were interconnected. 'A lack of sufficient and appropriate provision in the community is stopping people moving out of hospital, and then you get this cycle of people not being able to move in to get treatment because [hospitals] are clogged up,' she said. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Our healthcare system needs to understand it's got a stake in the delivery of these supported accommodation services. These are not separate issues. They shouldn't be seen as just a bed to discharge someone into, they also ensure that people stay well.' She said the solution was not just more funding for the sector, but more 'purposeful' spending of money on tailored accommodation for specific needs. The NHF report called on the government to integrate health and housing in its upcoming national housing strategy and NHS 10-year plan, and said integrated care boards (which manage NHS budgets in local areas) and housing providers should work together more. David Fothergill, chair of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said without long-term investment in the sector, 'many people remain in hospital longer than necessary, adding pressure to an already stretched health and social care system'. 'Councils are committed to providing high-quality supported housing, but years of underfunding have made this increasingly difficult,' he said. 'There is a clear need for a dedicated housing support fund and greater investment in preventative care services, and the upcoming spending review presents a crucial opportunity for the government to do this.' A government spokesperson said: 'This government has inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, including a shortage of supported housing. 'We are determined to turn the tide which is why we have committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, as part of our ambition to build 1.5m new homes. 'Our 10-year health plan, backed by a £26bn boost for the NHS and social care, will shift the focus of care from hospital to community and tackle delayed discharges by improving the links between the NHS and social care to free up hospital beds.'
