And the rest...

Trade unions

Unions came together in 2004 over civil service shakeups and to press for a fourth investment option for council housing, and this approach looks set to continue in 2005. No strikes are tabled yet, but there’s bound to be plenty of campaigning and potentially, further ballots.

There will be increasing militancy in the public sector, as the Gershon review of the public sector efficiency bites: more information on 100,000 civil service

job cuts and 20,000 relocations from London to the regions are due this year. Civil servants went on strike over the changes in 2004, and possible changes to pensions – including raising the retirement age to 65 and the end of final-salary schemes – are bound to rile them further.

Wales

Wales has an exciting year ahead. Stock transfer has been a non-starter since Wrexham council’s landmark “no” vote in April 2004, but this could be the year it takes off as councils are chivvied into finishing stock options appraisals. Keep an eye on Denbighshire and Swansea, which will be among a few authorities to progress towards ballots for stock transfer. There are bound to be fireworks along the way.

The Welsh assembly may introduce a deadline for getting homeless families out of bed and breakfast housing. The charity Shelter Cymru has said families, pregnant women and 16- and 17- year-olds should not be in B&B for more than 13 days, which would have councils pleading for more time. Wales will also be weathering the toughest cuts in Supporting People funding in the UK, with many providers warning they could be forced to close.

Arm’s-length management

This is set to be the year of the arm’s-length management organisation. By December, it is expected that half of all council stock will be managed by these fast multiplying, if ambiguous, bodies. Round-five ALMOs will be decided in April; bids for round six are invited in the autumn.

Many questions should be answered by a review of ALMOs’ future published by the ODPM this month, which will address uncertainties about their financial, legal and policy status. The ODPM should also shed some light on the hotly debated issue of financial flexibilities for ALMOs that have already met the decent homes standard.

Meanwhile, the Serious Organised Crime Bill, announced in 2004’s Queen’s speech, will give ALMOs the power to obtain antisocial behaviour orders.

Asylum and immigration

The asylum system lurched through 2004 and is set for more bumps this year. The National Asylum Support Service, the quango that provides temporary accommodation to asylum seekers, began the year with 7500 empty properties, as a result of government efforts to clamp down on the number of people seeking asylum.

Of NASS’ 22 contracts with housing providers, 14 will expire between March and November next year. A March review may mean numbers of places are slashed.

But previous cuts have resulted in chaos – remember the Home Office’s desperate scramble to house 5000 homeless asylum seekers last August?

Meanwhile, the government is starting to send home failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe. The difficulty will be tracking down the unknown numbers who’ve fled onto the streets (to avoid claiming “hard case” support and risk being sent to hostels anywhere in the country). There will also be more political wrangling over the fate of eastern Europeans, mainly Poles, who came to London to work and have ended up sleeping rough.