This meeting was scheduled to review the London Borough of Newham's preparations for its Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan and consider the findings of a recent inspection into the council's housing services by the Regulator of Social Housing.

Housing Revenue Account Business Plan

The meeting was scheduled to receive a report on the council's HRA Business Plan, which sets out its financial plans for managing and maintaining its social housing stock. The report was to provide an update on the current state of the HRA finances, as well as outlining the council's plans for new homes and for investing in its existing homes.

The report was to highlight the significant pressures facing Newham's HRA, which include:

• Inflation
• Interest rate rises
• Improvements needed in the condition and energy performance of the housing stock.
• Building safety regulation
• The council's commitment to increase the amount of social housing it provides.

The report was to explain that these pressures had been exacerbated by the Regulator of Social Housing's judgement that the council's housing services were non-compliant with the regulator's standards, and would require the council to accelerate its improvement works. The report was to point out that the council had allocated nearly £120m to capital investment in its homes over the next two years, and £25-£30m per year after that.

The report pack included the following information about what was to be discussed in relation to the HRA Business Plan:

• The recent change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to 1.7% may allow social housing providers to increase rents by up to 2.7%.
• The government's recent consultation on its rent policy for social housing, proposing a maximum rent increase of CPI+1% for the five years from April 2026. The council's analysis of this policy proposal was to be provided in the report.
• The government's decision to reduce the discount available under the Right to Buy scheme.
• The increase in the number of Right to Buy applications the council had received since the government announced the discount would be reduced.

The report was to explain that the effect on the HRA of the government's recent policy decisions would be analysed in the business plan when it is next updated.

Regulatory Update: Newham Council's Response to the Regulator of Social Housing Inspection

The meeting was scheduled to receive a report on the findings of the Regulator of Social Housing's recent inspection of Newham Council's housing services.

The report pack includes the regulator's full inspection report. In October 2024 the Regulator of Social Housing found that the London Borough of Newham had breached the Home Standard and was non-compliant with the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, giving the council an overall regulatory judgement of G4/V4.

The report pack says the regulator found that:

There is widespread agreement that the temporary accommodation issue and more widely, homelessness, is in a state of crisis in Newham.

The report pack says that Newham's homelessness strategy should focus on:

Recognition across the Council that it is a place-based and whole Council issue which requires urgent, collegiate, joined-up action.

The report pack explains that Newham has the highest number of people in temporary accommodation in London, and that this is a consequence of Newham's private rental sector.

Newham has more than double the national average of households living in the private rented sector (PRS). In 2021-22 there were approximately 4.6 million households within the PRS, representing 19% of all households in England. However, according to the 2021 census, Newham has 38.5% of households living in the private rented sector, putting it at the third highest in London, just behind Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

The report pack was scheduled to discuss how Newham was going to respond to the regulator's findings. It says that the council had established a 'Homelessness Response Programme' to address the issues raised in the inspection. This programme included projects to improve standards for people in temporary accommodation, improve homelessness prevention and increase the supply of affordable housing in the borough. The report was to provide an update on the programme's progress.

The report pack includes an appendix setting out the progress of each of the projects that made up the programme. For example, it says that a project to implement a new compliance regime for temporary accommodation was 'not started', and that a project to design a new service to support people to move on from temporary accommodation was in the design stage.

The report pack suggests that the council will continue to press central government to take action to address the national housing crisis.

However, the council does not have the powers or the resources to be able to address fully either the underlying systemic failures that are driving the growth in TA or the financial implications of the growth that we are now dealing with. Therefore, we are also lobbying central Government on a range of matters

In particular, the report pack says the council was to lobby the government to:

• Engage local authorities in developing a new national homelessness strategy.
• Increase the housing security of private rented sector tenants, for example by ending 'no fault' evictions.
• Provide more support to particular groups who are especially at risk of homelessness, for example care leavers.
• Incentivise private landlords to make homes available at affordable rents.
• Increase funding for homelessness services, for example by increasing Local Housing Allowance rates.