16th April 2013
The social housing sector spent £500 million on collecting rent in 2011/12, according to Housemark.
The provider of performance improvement and value for money solutions to the sector found this its members spent £300m during the period - almost £120 per property per year - and has estimated the cost to the sector as a whole at £1/2 billion.
And Housemark has warned that the figure is set to rise in the wake of the government's welfare reforms.
A recent survey by HouseM...
16th April 2013
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has today awarded a £38 million contract to modernise and grow the credit union industry.
The Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) is the successful bidder to deliver the DWP’s project, which is designed to help meet the growing demand for modern banking products for people on low incomes.
According to Graham Tomlin of Credit Union Solutions Ltd, ABCUL's bid should have been ruled out as it came in after the deadline set by the DWP.
A recent feasibility study showed that modernising the industry and helping it become financially self-sustainabl...
16th April 2013
Housing minister Mark Prisk has said that up to 10,000 new homes for private rent will be underway by 2015, as he announced the first 45 projects to be taken forward using the £1 billion Build to Rent Fund.
The minister said that the 45 new projects, a quarter of which are for London, will be the first step toward creating a more balanced rental market, driven by quality instead of demand.
The Build to Rent Fund is designed to help developers invest in homes built specifically for private rent...
15th April 2013
The average advertised rent fell by around 0.43% in the first quarter of 2013.
Prices stabilised during January and February after the Christmas slowdown before tumbling by a further 0.25% in March.
However, according to Move with Us, this is a relatively small change and, if examined as part of a yearly trend, suggests that average rents are stable and fluctuating at around £969 per month.
Advertised rents in Greater London fell to £2,181 per month in Q1, extending the current trend to a ...
15th April 2013
The government's cap on benefits begins today across four London boroughs.
The cap means that families in Enfield, Haringey, Bromley and Croydon will not be able to claim more than £500 per week, whilst single people will not be able to claim more than £350.
Housing benefit, jobseeker's allowance, and income and child support count towards the total welfare payments people can receive.
Disability benefits are excluded from the cap.
The cap will start to be rolled out across the re...
12th April 2013
Up to 85 percent of benefit claimants are concerned about the introduction of the government's Universal Credit (UC) welfare system, a new survey has revealed.
Turn2us, part of charity Elizabeth Finn Care, discovered a widespread lack of awareness over major changes that are happening to the welfare system.
It was found that over two-fifths (43 percent) of people claiming benefits that will be replaced by UC aren’t aware that their benefits will be affected.
And of those who are aware, ov...
11th April 2013
The tenants of a Dorset housing association have been given almost £30,000 to improve their community.
The money has been provided by Sovereign Housing Association’s Regional Panel for Dorset.
The Panel has provided the money to spend on projects or initiatives that benefit neighbourhoods where Sovereign has properties.
In November, it invited residents to bid for funds to improve the areas where they live, whether to carry out physical improvements or to get community projects up a...
11th April 2013
The Post Office is to launch a new current account this spring.
The new service, which the Post Office says will offer customers greater accessibility through the UK’s largest branch network, will initially launch in a small number of branches before a wider roll-out in 2014.
Almost three million customers already access Post Office financial services products through a network of over 11,500 branches.
The Post Office has a savings book of £17 billion and a range of products, incl...
11th April 2013
The most deprived areas in Scotland will take the biggest financial hit when the government's welfare reforms kick in, according to research commissioned by the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee.
The study, undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University, found that, when fully implemented, the welfare reforms will take more than £1.6 billion a year out of the Scottish economy - equivalent to around £480 a year for ...
11th April 2013
Over a third of Brits would not be able to pay their rent or mortgage for more than a month if they lost their job, new figures have revealed.
A YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults for housing charity Shelter found that 35 percent of respondents don't have the savings to survive longer than a month.
The figure represents eight million of the UK's working adults.
And 18 percent (representative of 4.4 million people) wouldn't be able to pay their rent or mortgage at all if they lost their jobs and cou...
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