Content

On 28th August, the government announced increased oversight of the enforcement industry.  Private bailiffs will be held to consistent professional standards and those facing enforcement action will have access to an independent complaints process, strengthening the rights of the most vulnerable.  This aims to avoid families being pressured into repayments that leave them unable to afford the essentials of day-to-day life as they continue to repay what they owe. 

The legislation “creates an end-to-end case-management requirement” with “substantial resource implications which government impact assessments should fully recognise”.  In its submission to the National Audit Office's review of the quality of social housing, the trade body said that current guidance on Phase 2 “still lacks clarity and detail”, while its members had expressed concerns that it “will not sufficiently help them to navigate the increased complexity” of the expanded list of hazards.  More repairs were already being placed into urgent categories, increasing the risk of resources being drawn away from routine repairs, cyclical works and preventative maintenance.  The NHF called on the government to "monitor these wider effects across each phase, and ensure that the benefits of faster action on serious hazards are not undermined by deterioration elsewhere in repairs and maintenance services".  

In the light of the Grenfell Tower disaster, campaigners are urging the government to change the rules to ensure anyone found responsible for similar disasters in the future is properly held to account.  A report published by Common Wealth on 18th August claimed that Arconic, which made the Reynobond PE cladding considered the “primary cause” of the blaze’s rapid spread, was yet to make public a full accounting of where and to whom it sold similarly dangerous products.  According to the report, courts should have the option of imposing punitive damages in cases where “corporate illegality” or “reckless or negligent conduct” were found to have led to deaths.  It also called on the government to amend the Procurement Act to extend the current maximum five-year ban on bidding for public contracts and demanded that Arconic make public details of sales of other Reynobond products up to 2015.

Due to the scale of GLA Land and Property Limited's (GLAP) landholdings, the financial exposure involved, and the importance of its housing delivery role, robust oversight is essential to ensure transparency, accountability, and to drive measurable progress.  In a letter to the Mayor of London on 27th August, Neil Garratt, Chair of the Greater London Authority's Budget and Performance Committee criticises the GLAP’s current approach to financial and performance reporting, noting that “GLAP does not appear separately in your annual budget, and as a result it is not covered transparently by the quarterly monitoring the committee receives throughout the year”.  It recommended that GLAP should be included "as a distinct and transparent section of the GLA budget submission from 2027/28 onwards, and ensure that GLAP’s financial performance and housing delivery are reported on a quarterly basis from the first quarter of 2027/28”.

In April, Vico Homes purchased 435 "high quality, energy efficient homes across Wakefield and the wider Yorkshire region" from Sage Homes.  This followed the transfer of 390 tenanted homes from the for-profit provider to the housing association in June 2025, while the transfer of a third portfolio of homes was already planned.  In its accounts for 2025, Sage revealed that it had decided to "concentrate our services in areas where we have highest density".  It was therefore "investigating transfers to registered providers who are able to better serve our customers due to their local operational strength".

An investigation by the London Assembly’s Planning and Regeneration Committee concluded that three-quarters of social homes in the capital are considered at high risk of overheating.  A report, published by the Committee on 26th August, called on the Greater London Authority to produce a plan to reduce heat-related deaths, alongside a programme to retrofit homes with improved ventilation, shutters and other shading measures.  The report also called for higher overheating standards for the city as a whole, to be enforced via the planning system; greater use of ‘active cooling’ technology, such as air conditioning; and a naming system for heatwaves, similar to the system used for storms, to improve public awareness.

70% of the initial £6billion funding allocation will be for social rented homes.  This was confirmed by a post on LinkedIn by Tom Copley, the Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Residential Development.  The detailed allocations have not yet been finalised.

The number of unsold shared ownership homes developed by Platform Housing Group increased from 96 in June 2025 to 266 in June 2026, although 108 of these were reserved for sale.  In a trading update published on 24th August, the organisation said that, although shared ownership revenues were up on the previous year, "some schemes are being affected by demand and affordability issues as wider macro-economic volatility begins to have some influence on buying decisions".

Allocations to strategic partners were limited to £350million to maintain spending in the early years of the Programme within Treasury guardrails.  Therefore, some RPs received significantly less than their initial bids.  For example, Karbon Homes had originally submitted a Strategic Partnership Plus bid for £700million.  Sarah Robson of Karbon Homes told Social Housing that this reprofiling would "have a big impact, including on the number of homes delivered in the early years of the programme", while Robert Nettleton of Bromford Flagship LiveWest told the publication that "the level of funding awarded will reduce the number of homes we planned to deliver at social rent levels".  Two previous strategic partners, Riverside and Sovereign Network Group, were not given this status in the 2026/36 Programme, and will have to seek funding through Continuous Market Engagement.

The Coroner concluded that the kitchen window from which Aalim fell, which had a safety restrictor fitted, had been “subject to inappropriate handling”.  As a result of this, "although the OBVA restrictor was in itself a serviceable, properly manufactured part, correctly installed, it was no longer able to achieve any effective function".  He therefore declined to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report in this case.