Latest news with #MinistryofHousing
RNZ News
an hour ago
- General
- RNZ News
'We have a real problem': Homelessness increases but by how much unclear
A makeshift shelter on Hobson St in central Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Amy Williams Homelessness has increased, but by how much is unclear, according to a government report. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development's latest Homelessness Insights Report relies on data collected in Census 2023, observations collected from government agencies, councils and the sector, and found homelessness had increased, but it was impossible to quantify the exact increase. The report defines homelessness as living situations where people are forced to live; without shelter, in temporary accommodation, shared accommodation with a household or living in uninhabitable housing. It also looked into what support people receive 60 days after they exited emergency housing. Thirty-seven percent were housed in social housing, 29 percent went into transitional housing, 19 percent received the accommodation supplement and the remaining 14 percent may be living without shelter, although that cannot be confirmed. From May 2024 to March 2025, 972 households were housed through the Priority One Fast Track, including 2055 children, the report said. In March, 32 percent of applications for emergency housing were declined, up 4 percent from the previous year. The reasons people were declined include: 'The need can be met another way' (34.3 percent), 'Circumstances could have been reasonably foreseen' (22.5 percent), 'Not eligible for a grant' (16.7 percent) and 'Not an emergency situation' (14.7 percent). In Auckland, outreach providers reported they were working with 809 "unsheltered" clients, up from 426 in September 2024. Whangārei District Council has seen an increase in the number of public reports related to homelessness from 680 in 2023 to 1066 in 2024. The report said at the current rate, they are forecast to reach over 1200 reports in 2025. "It's clear we have a real problem," Chris Bishop says. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone In a statement, Housing Minister Chris Bishop said the report confirmed what frontline organisations like the Auckland City Mission and Salvation Army had been saying: there are too many people in housing need. "Accurate numbers are difficult to pin down - people without shelter often move around and may avoid engaging with government services - but it's clear we have a real problem." he said. "The government takes this seriously. At present, over $550 million is spent annually across a range of programmes run by multiple agencies, including Transitional Housing, Housing First, Rapid Rehousing and many other support services." Census data between 2018 and 2023 period showed a 37 percent increase of people living without shelter, despite the use of Emergency Housing. Speaking to media, Green Party spokesperson for Housing Tamatha Paul said this confirms what many on the ground are saying. "Although the data might be inconclusive altogether, it does in part confirm what we are seeing on the ground, what frontline workers are seeing on the ground, and what people are saying when they're trying to access emergency housing," she said. "I'm glad that there's some more transparency around what we are seeing, and that there is information in that briefing that says this government intentionally ignored advice that their decision would make homelessness worse." Paul said a faster than expected drop in emergency housing numbers was to blame. "Now we know that the cruelty and the misery that underlined and underpinned that rapid decrease in emergency housing numbers also aligns with an increase in homelessness," Paul said. Speaking to media, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said there was a range of support available for people who were declined emergency housing. "That could be through housing support products like tenancy cover, bond cover, all sorts of things. It could be in transitional housing or Housing First," he said. Potaka said he was confident there was support for many people who had been declined, but admitted he was unsure sure of "100 percent" of those people would get support. In a statement, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the most significant jumps were in smaller cities. "In Taranaki, homelessness increased by 250 percent in just six months, and Whangārei is forecast to see 1200 reports of people who are homeless this year - in a population that is under 100,000 people" he said. "We have known homelessness has been rising since National came into government but Christopher Luxon, Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka have consistently denied it, ignoring everyone who gave them advice to the contrary." McAnulty said the rise in homelessness follows government decisions making it harder to access emergency housing.
New Statesman
a day ago
- Business
- New Statesman
This government will live or die by housing
Photo byAfter a summer break, Labour want to take on Britain's 'dysfunctional' housing and land markets. They want to make them fairer for those who want to buy homes to live in and less of a boon for 'speculative' investors. And although Labour's much-awaited long-term housing strategy will not be published before recess, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook has hinted that if year one was about laying the groundwork for Labour's housing plan, year two will be significantly more radical. It is a testament to the functionality of Pennycook's department – the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) – that it rarely makes headlines in the way that, say, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or Treasury do. Between them, Rayner and Pennycook have delivered on manifesto commitments by tweaking legislation in a quietly radical and efficient way. The Renters' Rights Bill will soon become law. Similarly, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is paving the way for urgent planning reform, which, though not radical for some because environmental considerations must still be factored into planning approval, will make clever tweaks to existing frameworks for delivering development, such as beefing up the compulsory purchase powers of public bodies to stop the sale of land for development at inflated prices. Leasehold reforms, similarly, have been amped up, and there is reportedly more to come. With legislative changes that former Tory Housing Secretary Michael Gove wanted but could never get through his own party, Pennycook wants to step things up and reform the housing market once and for all by 'addressing the financialisation of housing', and 'ending our overreliance on a speculative model of development that… constrains housing supply.' Punchy in theory, so how will it work in reality? Ministers are exploring ways to give people who want to buy homes to live in them, as opposed to as an investment, an advantage. This could include implementing rules that stipulate new homes can only be sold to local people who will live in them, as Cornwall Council have done to protect hard-won new housing developments and prevent new housing being sold to investors. Labour have suggested that they will similarly protect homes in their new towns. Developers who buy up land, obtain planning permission to build, but then, instead of actually building anything, sit on the land and wait for it to rise in value, will be penalised and blocked from planning permission in the future. The sites for a 'new generation' of around a dozen new towns, like those built post-war, have also been plotted on a map to be announced imminently. Pennycook is determined that these will be built out quickly and purposefully. Ministers are thought to be considering giving Homes England more regional power so that it can be involved in planning at a local level, ensuring that the right homes are built in the right places. New towns will also be overseen by development corporations with their own governance structure, taking some decisions away from local councils and putting them in the hands of bodies specifically tasked with getting things built. These public bodies will be able to invoke the new rules on compulsory purchase to get hold of land cheaply and build homes and infrastructure on it. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Rayner and Pennycook need to get this all over the line, and fast. The stakes couldn't be higher. Labour will be judged harshly on whether they can be bolder and go further than the governments of recent decades, who presided over an increasingly dysfunctional housing market and did little to nothing. But, more importantly, there is now not a single part of Britain which is not impacted by this country's sclerotic housing market. Since the 1970s, house price-to-income ratios have more than doubled nationwide, pricing younger generations out of homeownership, ushering in 35- and even 40-year mortgages, and trapping nearly 5 million households in an expensive and unstable private rental sector. That's more than the number living in social and council housing, which not only provides secure and affordable homes but also provides a return for the state through rent. None of this is new. The housing crisis was fast becoming one of the defining issues of modern life when Labour lost to David Cameron in 2010. But the situation is worse than it ever was. Week after week, new lows are reached. Housing makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. Rising homelessness is now such a grotesque new normal that it rarely makes a front page. So is the increasing number of homeless families, and, at last count, 164,000 children who are forced to live in temporary accommodation. That's anywhere from a hotel to a converted office block and, even, a converted shipping container. And, of course, these bleak statistics don't capture the misery of the people who can afford their rent, just as long as they don't put the heating on, let alone contemplate a holiday. They also don't tell the story of the anguish of young adults who can't afford family-sized homes, or who still live at home in their twenties and thirties, and those whose mortgages have recently jumped up due to higher rates, swallowing chunks of their disposable income in the process. The human suffering caused by expensive housing and homelessness also has an economic impact. Housing costs consume ever-larger amounts of public money. A rise in the number of lower-income households relying on private renting has meant that the Housing Benefit Bill is predicted to rise to £35bn by 2028. That's more than the total spend of many government departments. Temporary accommodation now costs councils £2.3bn a year. As the Chartered Institute for Housing has pointed out, these expanding bills mean only 12 per cent of government spending on housing in 2022 went towards new buildings, compared to 95 per cent in 1976. High rents and mortgage costs, relative to income, also mean that young people today, who are less likely to be homeowners than their elders, are spending disposable income that could be contributing to growth through either the consumption of goods and services or investment on their homes. In the end, those who do the reading draw the same conclusions about what William Beveridge described as 'the problem of housing' in this country back in 1942 – affordable housing is the only way to prevent people becoming homeless and unwell and, in doing so, reduce the pressure on the state to support them. Before he backed down on housing reform and bowed out, Gove had realised this. He started to talk about the problem that the impact of extractive 'rentier economics' was having in Britain. The phrase was not a borrowing from Gary Stevenson, let alone Friedrich Engels. Downstream from Adam Smith via Thomas Piketty, Gove said it during a 2024 interview with that leftie rag the Financial Times. The Tory grandee correctly identified that Britain's housing crisis would be the death knell for his party because younger generations were at the sharp end of it. After all, why would any young person vote Conservative if they have no assets to conserve? However you slice it, the housing crisis is emotionally and financially draining us all. Economists (like Smith and latterly Piketty) have pointed this out for centuries. Labour knows that fixing housing will be key to their electoral survival. But, more than that, they know that it is the right thing to do. With one year down and four left of Labour's first term, the clock is well and truly ticking. After all, imagine a baby born into homelessness, to a family with one bedroom emergency temporary accommodation when Labour entered Downing Street last year will be five and in need of space to grow and do homework and play in no time at all. [Further reading: Immigrants did not cause Britain's social housing shortage] Related
CBC
2 days ago
- Health
- CBC
Airborne fentanyl at some B.C supportive housing sites a risk to workers, says report
The presence of second-hand fentanyl smoke is so severe at some British Columbia supportive housing facilities that workers cannot escape "substantial exposure," even if they stay in their offices and don't venture into hallways or tenants rooms. That is the among the findings of tests conducted at 14 British Columbia supportive housing sites, results that contributed to the province's decision to form a working group aimed at tackling safety issues — including second-hand fentanyl exposure. The assessments, conducted by Sauve Safety Services for B.C. Housing, tested facilities in Vancouver and Victoria — finding elevated levels of airborne fentanyl even in the main office of all three buildings tested in Vancouver. In a statement, the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said it takes the concerns about possible worker exposure to airborne fentanyl seriously. "We'll be working with our partners to ensure providers can take fast action to protect staff and tenants in supportive housing," the statement said. Medical experts say breathing in the second-hand smoke poses similar risks to breathing in smog, and that the risk of overdose from it is extremely unlikely. In June, the province announced the formation of a working group to tackle safety in supportive housing, including second-hand exposure to fentanyl. The announcement of the group came after a number of recent incidents in the housing units, including a June 11 fire at the former Howard Johnson hotel in Vancouver that injured two people. The ministry said at the time that testing on the 14 facilities in Vancouver and Victoria showed some may be "more likely to have elevated levels of airborne fentanyl, above the limit WorkSafeBC has established." Details can be found in more than 600 pages of assessments conducted by Sauve. It recommended that all three Vancouver facilities improve ventilation to the main office, as well as mandate workers to wear respiratory protection in some cases and strengthen smoking policy enforcement for tenants. 'Grossly exceeded' regulatory limits In its assessment of the Osborn facility on West Hastings Street, testers found occupational fentanyl exposures over a 12-hour shift that "grossly exceeded applicable regulatory limits," including WorkSafeBC's limits. Airborne fentanyl levels at the other facilities in Vancouver — Al Mitchell Place on Alexander Street and Hotel Maple on East Hastings — also exceeded exposure limits in office spaces. The assessments also found higher concentrations in the air of fluorofentanyl, a "structurally modified" version of fentanyl that can be twice as potent as the original opioid, at all three Vancouver facilities. In the 11 tested Victoria facilities, some main offices were found to offer "protective environments" or had fentanyl levels below regulatory limits, while others exceeded them and created "significant health risks" for staff. 'Similar to smog pollution' Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist with University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, is an expert on addiction medicine and the medical toxicology of opioids such as fentanyl. He said that while he had not seen the specifics of the assessments, the main risk from second-hand fentanyl smoke is "breakdown products" that result when the substance is burned, which can be directly noxious or toxic to a person's airway surfaces. "It's actually very similar to smog pollution and can give people pretty significant irritation, coughing," Marino said. "[It] could exacerbate asthma symptoms, that kind of thing. And so that is a very real concern, I would say." However, he cautioned against overreacting to the threat of absorbing fentanyl or fluorofentanyl through the air, since the opioid does not suspend in an airborne fashion and any particles in the air must be carried through wind or physical motion. "For someone who's not using drugs, not ingesting anything in any way, the risk of a second-hand exposure, toxicity, overdose, whatever you want to call it, from fentanyl is pretty close to zero," Marino said. University of B.C. adjunct Prof. Mark Haden agreed, adding that he believes the problem of tenants smoking fentanyl in supportive housing is a direct symptom of drug prohibition — a more fundamental issue that should be tackled. "This is a completely predictable outcome of a social policy that we need to fix," said Haden, who referred to fentanyl in a health-care setting as a medicine. "We wouldn't have people using fentanyl in their rooms if they could go downstairs to some health facility and talk to a health-care worker or a nurse who provided these kind of medicines within the context of a health service." The province has said it is working with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, WorkSafeBC and B.C. Housing to develop new exposure reduction guidance at supportive housing facilities, with the focus on protecting the workers and tenants in these buildings.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
English Home Improvement Boom Fades with Approvals at Decade Low
Planning approvals for home improvements in England are at the lowest in a decade, the latest indication that high interest rates have tipped the housing market in buyers' favor and given them the pick of properties available for sale. Consents for householder developments reached 151,177 in the year through March, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data collated by Savills Plc show. That's 27% below the average over the past decade and an 8% drop on last year, the real estate broker said in a statement Monday.
ITV News
5 days ago
- Business
- ITV News
Government change flagship planning bill after pressure from MP expelled for rebelling
The government has changed its flagship planning bill to add better environmental protections in response to a campaign spearheaded by suspended MP Chris Hinchliff. Hinchliff had the Labour whip withdrawn on Wednesday for persistently rebelling against the government, just a day before the announcement than an amendment he put forward had largely been accepted. The change means that housing developers will now have to explicitly set out how they will protect the environment before a development starts being built. The government insist the changes they have put forward are different to the ones suggested by Hinchliff - but they've been accused of watering down the bill in response to pressure from MPs and campaigners. 'There are clear differences between the amendment we rejected and the one we put forward yesterday," a government spokesperson said. 'The previous amendment would have introduced unnecessary restrictions and impractical measures, while our changes will provide greater confidence that the right conservation measures will come forward at the right time. 'After carefully listening to the Office for Environmental Protection and other expert stakeholders, we have brought forward a comprehensive package of amendments to ensure our reforms deliver improved outcomes for nature whilst supporting our efforts to get Britain building.' Hinchliff's amendment was also supported by the three other MPs who had the whip withdrawn on Wednesday - Neil Duncan-Jordan, Rachael Maskell and Brian Leishman. It was the rebellion over the government's proposed welfare cuts that sparked the suspensions, and while Hinchliff voted against the government on the benefits reforms, he also organised a revolt against the planning bill. The government U-turned on its package of welfare cuts after pressure from swathes of Labour backbenchers - leaving all of the £5 billion-worth of planned savings wiped out. Despite caving in to the rebels on welfare, on Wednesday Prime Minister Keir Starmer suspended Hinchliff and three other MPs for "repeatedly break[ing] the whip". Three other MPs also had their roles as trade envoys removed. Hinchliff's amendment called for environmental plans laid out by developers and already included in the bill (EDPs) to include a schedule setting out "the timetable for the implementation of each conservation measure and for the reporting of results". In updates to the bill announced on Thursday night the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Levelling Up appeared to accept some of Hinchliff's changes. "We will also now require EDPs to set out the anticipated sequencing of the implementation of conservation measures – with specific reference to the timing of development coming forward," the department said. "This will provide additional assurance that EDPs will not lead to open-ended or irreversible impacts from development. "This would include detail as to whether and which conservation measures must be in place in advance of development coming forward, ensuring that no irreversible harm could occur to an environmental feature." A summary of the changes also confirmed rare species would also get extra protections: "Upfront conservation measures may be necessary in instances where a habitat or species is rare or fragile, requiring immediate action to improve its conservation status before development impacting upon it could be approved." In a statement Hinchliff said he "warmly welcomes" the changes and will now vote with the government on the bill. 'Ministers have now tabled amendments in the House of Lords that address many of the issues I raised. 'The key function of Amendment 69 - which I tabled in the Commons - was to ensure Environmental Delivery Plans result in genuine improvements to the specific environmental features identified as at risk. 'Last night's announcement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirms that the Government is directly tackling this point." Hinchliff said he was refused meetings with the relevant minister to raise his concerns. 'I wanted to engage constructively with the government, to raise views shared by millions of members of nature organisations, and to find solutions through dialogue," he said. "I hope in the future we can find consensus ahead of time and avoid confrontations. I look forward to voting with the government on a significantly improved Bill when it returns to the Commons. 'This episode underscores the need for a collaborative approach to politics - one that respects the role of parliamentary democracy and listens to experts, campaigners, and the public." The CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link also welcomed the changes, CEO Richard Benwell said: "Any change to environmental protection comes with risk, but the government's new amendments give stronger safeguards for UK wildlife and help ensure that irreplaceable habitats stay off the table for development."'It's rare for a government to bring forward a package of positive amendments before losing a single vote. "The changes today are testament to the strength of public demand for a planning system that will protect and restore nature, but they are also a positive sign of a government willing to listen to good environmental sense."
