Housing associations that serve black and minority-ethnic communities have said they will not be able to build the larger homes needed by their tenants unless the ODPM brings forward changes to the rent restructuring regime.

In November last year, the ODPM announced it would postpone changes to the regime for a further year to 2006/7 in order to allow for extra discussion. The changes would have enabled housing associations to increase rents up to 20% on houses with three or more bedrooms.

The postponement of the changes was a blow to BME associations – which tend to have a higher proportion of large families as tenants – because the increased rental income would have made the building of houses with three or more bedrooms more viable.

Instead, BME associations are finding it difficult to justify the expense of building larger homes.

Ian Weightman, chief executive of east London-based Spitalfields Housing Association, which provides 500 homes for the Asian community in Tower Hamlets, said delaying the changes deterred BME associations from building large houses.

He said: “It definitely discourages associations from developing larger four-bedroom properties, which are particularly in demand among the Bangladeshi community we provide for. Rather than build a four-bedroom house, it makes more sense to build a three-bedroom property with a one-bedroom flat above it. It could lead to larger families splitting up.”

Source

Housing Today