The reform of social housing report and proposition
Produced by the
Housing (The Cabinet Office)
Authored by
Housing
and published on
04 Mar 2013
Prepared internally, no external cost
Summary
This report and proposition recommends the introduction of formal regulation of social housing for the first time in Jersey and the establishment of a wholly States-owned Housing Company as part of the Housing Minister's coordinated transformation proposals.
A quarter of States homes and a lesser proportion of Housing Trust properties require improvement to meet basic Decent Homes Standards and this proportion will worsen significantly over the next five years unless considerable investment is made. This is particularly pressing for the States housing stock where current arrangements do not provide sufficient funding to enable existing standards to be maintained going forward.
Four key changes are proposed to achieve the necessary transformation:
establish a Strategic Housing Unit which for the first time will coordinate a cross-tenure Housing Strategy, set standards for social landlords and operate the Affordable Housing Gateway
create an independent Affordable Housing Regulator to ensure that social landlords meet Decent Homes Standards, are governed effectively and operate in the best interest of tenants
create a wholly States-owned Housing Association from the current Housing Department, able to borrow to invest in the current States housing stock to ensure it meets Decent Homes Standards
social housing rents to fair rent levels equivalent to 90% of the market rent value to remove the hidden subsidy received by tenants and fund the necessary investment in decent homes. Those on income support will be fully protected and subsidy will be removed according to the ability to pay
Given the significance of the changes proposed, this report sets out in some detail the strategic context for the proposed regulation and transfer, and summarises the relevant elements of the social housing review, which was published as a Green Paper in 2010 and subsequent White Paper “Achieving Decent Homes – An Affordable Social Housing Framework for the Future” published in April 2012 (R.47/2012).
Download the Reform of Social Housing report and proposition (size 324kb)
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