24housing Magazine - December 2010

In this issue

• free 2010 - The year that shook housing

  2010 has been a monumental year for housing. The change in government has heralded a fundamental sh...

• free Decent Homes Diary: 'The plumbers are a surly bunch'

  Tenant Fanny Williams, not her real name, kept a diary of the Decent Homes work carried out on her Lon...

• free Dr Tim Leunig: Costly housing conferences 'enough is enough'

  Dr Tim Leunig, lecturer at the London School of Economics, courts controversy by calling for housing pr...

What a year it has been.

At the beginning of 2010, housing was enjoying something of an Indian Summer during the dying days of the Labour government.

Shamefully neglected for most of the preceding decade, Gordon Brown suddenly realised he had an election to win and poured money into a sector that had suffered more than most during the recession.

Under the Housing Pledge made as part of the Building Britain’s Future programme, Gordon Brown had provided funds for the first council homes in a generation.

There was also money available for stalled housing developments under the Kickstart programme and affordable housing providers were also enjoying their share of state handouts for new housebuilding projects.

Writing now those days seem like ancient history.

David Cameron and his coalition cronies have ushered in an age of austerity. In the space of six months, George Osborne used an emergency budget and a Comprehensive Spending Review to cut public spending and make inroads into the UK’s unsustainable deficit and the housing sector is now facing up to some of the biggest reforms it has faced in decades coupled with a 60% reduction in its budget.

24housing chronicles what has been a tumultuous year for housing in our review of 2010.
Now that there’s been time to digest and reflect on the impact of the CSR, we get reaction from across the sector and ask leading figures to predict how the housing landscape will look in 2011 and beyond.
Elsewhere in this issue Kate Murray explores the potential  ramifications of the shake-up to housing benefit while a special guest writer shares her Decent Homes Diary. Not for the faint-hearted!

To end on a positive note, 24housing is proud to be launching our Young Leaders Award series. Full details next month, but if you want to get ahead of the game and start nominating bright young sparks within your organisation, go to www.24dash.com/campaigns for more information and an entry form.

Jon Land
Editor, 24housing Magazine