Maggie Cornall
Maggie is the Director of Housing Services at Blackpool Coastal Housing, an Arms Length Management Organisation acting as Managing Agent for the provision of housing management services within the housing stock of Blackpool Council. She has worked in social housing for many years and has worked for a variety of landlords within the North West of England; local authorities, housing associations as well as working on behalf of a Housing Action Trust. Maggie has a firm commitment to furthering personal development and earned a housing degree and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has been a lecturer on two modules of a Certificate in Housing Level 3 course at the Blackpool and Fylde College. Outside work, she is the mum to three children with age ranges from 8 to 14 years old.
Rosa Payne
Rosa has been working in social housing for eight years across a range of operational and strategic functions and feel strongly that a decent and secure home makes a huge difference to people’s life chances. Her current role is Business Development Manager at Catalyst Housing Association, having previously worked as Head of Service Improvement and Customer Learning at Network Stadium Housing Association. She has previously managed the Mechanical and Electrical department for Network Housing Group, was the contract manager of a major PFI refurbishment programme for Partners in Islington and was a Housing Officer on a large estate in south London. She earned an MSc in Housing and Regeneration from the LSE.
Natasha Adams
Natasha has worked as a professional campaigner for 7 years’ experience coordinating NGO campaigns for social and environmental justice (with many more years experience as a grassroots activist). A skilled lobbyist & digital campaigner, she has specialised in activism as she believes deeper mass engagement and strong social movements are essential to driving change. Natasha currently works for ActionAid UK coordinating activism and also sits on the Council at Global Justice Now. She has previously managed campaigns for End Child Poverty and Concern Worldwide. Before she campaigned professionally, Natasha spent several years working in a women’s refuge in Nottingham.
Kevin Allen
Kevin’s interest in housing originated when I worked as a constituency caseworker for a Member of Parliament. He went on from there to become a housing advice worker for a Shelter Housing Advice Centre covering North Yorkshire and the City of York. Kevin also founded a private tenant group in his home town of Scarborough and secured a contract with the local authority to deliver a homelessness project which would go on to be a founding member of NPTO. HE worked for over 30 years as a civil servant for GCHQ, during that time he served on a national sustainable development consultation group, developed departmental health and safety polices and was an active trade union rep. Currently Kevin is self-employed as a CIEH accredited health and safety trainer and advisor and specialise in electrical safety and inspection.
No-fault evictions drive up homelessness
Section 21 is the leading cause of statutory homelessness. This law allows evictions with no reason needed, and this is one more reason why we should scrap it.
To some extent, this is stating the bleeding obvious. Since 2012, the end of a private tenancy has been the leading cause of homelessness cases accepted by local authorities, but until now no one has specifically pointed the finger at Section 21. Today, we’ve been able to demonstrate it.
Source: Ministry of Housing
Pressure builds on Natwest over benefit discrimination
Back in October, we learned that Natwest had asked one of its buy-to-let customers to either evict her tenant, who was receiving housing benefit, or pay a draconian fee to switch her mortgage.
The bank’s terms and conditions prohibited customers from letting to tenants in receipt of housing benefit. Yet another example of a bank discriminating against low-income households and fuelling the “No DSS” culture. But this time, 62% of the bank is owned by the government, i.e. us.
The landlord has started a petition urging the government to stop this practice by high street banks, and it’s nearly at 5000 signatures.
Lords send ministers away to fix fees ban
The letting fees ban has inched closer to being law. Yesterday a Grand Committee of the House of Lords went through most of the Tenant Fees Bill, line by line. There are still potential loopholes that could leave tenants vulnerable to exploitation.
Following lobbying by ourselves, Shelter and Citizens Advice, and amendments by peers including Baroness Grender and Lord Kennedy, the government has now agreed to examine them before the Report Stage.
Hammond Housing Horror
Despite repeated cries by the Chancellor that “your hard work has paid off”, the Autumn Budget was underwhelming in its efforts to address the housing crisis. In brief, nothing new for renters, a mixed bag for landlords, and support for first-time buyers moving into shared ownership. Several extra pots of cash for housebuilding but well short of what’s needed and nothing radical in terms of reforming the land market to funnel the proceeds of development to local communities and build more council homes.
What happens to rents if landlords exit the market? Nothing.
Today we publish new research looking at the relationship between the size of the private rental market and rents, in light of the credit crunch, landlord tax changes, and proposals for tenancy reform.
We demonstrate that:
- A fall in rental supply is matched by a fall in demand as renters become home owners
- There is no impact on inflation-adjusted rents – in fact they’ve been falling
- The experience of the past 14 years suggests rents are most closely linked to wages – i.e. what renters can afford to pay
- This should give the government confidence to press on with substantial reform to tenancies
Croydon council first to back End Unfair Evictions campaign
Croydon has become the first council in the country to call for the abolition of Section 21.