SOLUTIONS TO EXEMPT ACCOMMODATION: Additional powers for councils to clamp down on high rents and poor service according to LGA
Local councils could hold the key to a better regulated, cost-controlled exempt accommodation sector, if offered greater powers according to Cllr James Jamieson, Chair of the Local Government Association. Cllr Jamieson told the audience at Commonweal Housing’s fifth and final Experts on Exempt webinar, So What Next? Solutions and Challenges, that additional powers will help…
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POSITIVE INVESTORS MODEL: Exempt accommodation needs “value-driven” approach to stem the “Wild West gold rush”
The exempt accommodation sector has been exploited by some investors, creating “corrupt structures” that allow providers to “maximise profits at the expense of people with additional needs”, exempt accommodation expert and author Michael Patterson said. Patterson spoke at Commonweal Housing’s fourth webinar in its Experts on Exempt series, making the case for a “values-driven approach”.…
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REGULATION AND CHARTER OF RIGHTS: exempt regulation “from another age” says RSH
Regulation covering exempt accommodation is not fit for purpose according to the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH), with Deputy Chief Executive Jonathan Walters believing it “from another age”. Walters told listeners of the third Commonweal Housing webinar on exempt accommodation as part of the Experts on Exempt series that, given much of the legal and…
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REFORM NOT ABOLITION: Vulnerable people are not getting the support that “they deserve for the money that is being paid” but we must “build on the good things” of exempt sector
The government is determined to “drive out the minority of landlords who provide poor-quality accommodation and insufficient support” in the exempt accommodation sector, but concedes that “there are no easy solutions” as Cathy Page, Head of Housing with Care and Support at the newly named Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), laid out…
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ISSUES WITH EXEMPT: Exempt accommodation “slid into the gap created by poor policy choices” that sit at the heart of housing crisis
The housing crisis in Britain in-part emerged due to poor policy choices around housing access, with the exempt accommodation sector becoming a clear victim of an “iniquitous and difficult to navigate system” that has allowed exploitation and profiteering to flourish, Thea Raisbeck, Honorary Research Associate at the University of Birmingham, claimed at the Experts on…
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Commonweal wins Gold IADA Award for 2021 Annual Review
In It Together, the 2021 annual review from Commonweal Housing, has won a Gold Award at the International Annual Report Design Awards. In It Together celebrated the achievements of Commonweal’s partnerships with frontline organisations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, serving those hit hardest by the housing and coronavirus crises. The report presented a range of recommendations…
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