FOI - Social Rents & Replacement Conditions

I’m looking for estimates of how many social rent voids individual GLA Investment Partners (IPs) are planning to sell off or ‘dispose’ of between 2016-21, (sales to the market, rather than stock transfers as social housing to other registered providers). I assume estimates are included in individual IPs Framework Delivery Agreements (FDAs) with the GLA for the 2016-21 Affordable Housing Programme, because according to the GLA’s Affordable Housing Capital Funding Guide (AHCFG), some of which is still current guidance, IPs were required to report estimates of disposals from 2015-2018 under the previous Mayor’s Housing Covenant. Presumably they still do, despite the fact the new Mayor has stopped ‘encouraging’ associations to dispose of social rent homes, unlike the last previous one.

Background: the current status of the GLA’s Capital Funding Guide isn’t clear. Some elements have been superseded and some haven’t. Although the guide was published in 2015 for the previous Mayor’s Housing Covenant (2015-18), most elements of it are still relevant, for example guidance on ‘low cost’ rent has not been replaced. This is a ‘live document,’ last updated in 2017. The new Mayor’s Funding Guidance for the Affordable Housing Programme 2016-21 refers to the 2015 guidance for a definition of start on site, so some elements still apply.

In 2016 the new Mayor stopped the conversion of social rent voids to affordable rents, but the updated AHCFG doesn’t mention this. The current Mayor cannot stop housing associations and councils from selling-off social rent flats but IPs possibly should still report their plans and monitor outcomes as part of GLA ‘Contract management’ as required under the Capital Funding Guidance 2015-18.

Question 1. If the GLA’s contracts with IPs for 2016-21, or programme reviews, record estimates of planned future disposals of social rent flats, can estimates be provided for all investment partners? (Of planned disposals to market from 2016-2021, by year if possible)

Question 2. If the GLA’s contracts with IPs, or programme reviews, do not record estimates of planned future disposals of social rent flats, why is that?

Although there is no longer an expectation for IPs to dispose of social rent flats, their plans would still inform part of their overall revenues to fund development programmes, and it would be useful public information. To record IP’s net supply of ‘low-cost’ rent housing, disposals of social rent homes would have to be subtracted from new supply.

To save time, I’m asking for estimates of planned FUTURE sell-offs of social rent flats to market, not historical figures. The MHCLG Statistical Data Returns (SDRs) records sales of social rent flats by providers to ‘non-social use,’ ‘open-market’ or ‘other’ (from 2011-2017/18) but this is historical data, and also doesn’t distinguish between disposals in London and other regions.

Disposal proceeds from sales of social rent voids

Under the GLA’s Affordable Housing Capital Funding Guide (AHCFG), some of which is still current guidance, if providers sell affordable rent voids then all proceeds have to be spent on building or acquiring new affordable rent homes. The guidance concerning sales of social rent homes does not place any restrictions on how providers use proceeds, so the assumption must be that:

a) Providers were free to spend these disposal receipts on any tenure.

b) or b, in practice they could have been required or encouraged to spend them on new affordable rent homes, but not intermediate or market homes.

Question 3: My assumption is that a) is the case. Is that right?

Question 4: is there any new guidance on this? Does the old guidance still apply? Could the mayor require proceeeds from sales of social rent voids to be spent on new rented units at:

a) existing social rent levels

b) London Affordable Rent (Target Rent)

c) Low cost rent of some kind with rent levels up to providers?

My assumption is that c) would be within regulations, and possibly b), given that the last Mayor imposed the condition about sales of affordable rent voids being replaced with affordable rent units. Perhaps government policy/agreements would not allow such conditions