Rob Gershon

Opinion: Self-regulation has failed the housing sector in the past – will it work to build homes? - HQN By Rob Gershon, HQN associate

In his latest article for HQN, @simplicitly.bsky.social looks at self-regulation in the housing sector asks: will it work to build homes?

hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion... #ukhousing

Opinion: Ding! Ground floor – patronage, soft furnishing and betrayal - HQN I want to make one thing clear at the start of this piece: the housing minister, Steve Reed, buckling once again under pressure from social landlords isn’t

Southampton man "faintly miffed" at social landlords lobbying to omit decent flooring from decent homes. (me for @hqnmedia.bsky.social) hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...

Ah, a world in which you stealth-cut child benefit and heavily subsidise pet ownership. The British people demand it

I am intending to make it to the end of my life without ever personally using AI tools.

Poverty is deepening.

🔎 Our #UKPoverty2026 report was launched this morning.

People in very deep poverty now make up the biggest group of people in poverty, at 6.8 million people.

This is unacceptable for the fifth richest country in the world, and it has consequences.

The inevitable outcome of the Camron/Clegg Osborne/Alexander project on poverty and productivity. Many of the policies that cause this are still being operated by our current government, too.

Like every MP who believes that 'claiming benefits' is easy or generous, Farage would not last two minutes down at the jobcentre. They assume everyone else is as corrupt and incompetent as they are.

anyway, I must get back to the long email my council landlord sent me about how most damp and mould is down to lifestyle, actually.

If we didn't need regulation, everyone would be a G1, V1, C1* and all the Tenant Satisfaction Measures would be brilliant and the Ombudsman would never find any maladministration.

*even more than usual.

And well worth remembering, as Neil has, that a great deal of the 'regulation' isn't just about building safety, it's specifically about how people are treated, their health and indeed their safety from their landlords. A landscape that is not resolved yet and blatantly cannot rely on good actors.

It is bold of the Tories, which oversaw one of the darkest periods in social housing policy to come out swinging on, of all things, regulation of the sector. Disrespectful attitude towards private renters & RRA not surprising given the Tories torpedoed their own manifesto pledge to improve things.

Think describing him as a political big beast is a little strange. There was so much ministerial churn with all the leadership changes and infighting that otherwise harmless MPs were promoted well beyond their abilities, him included.

Initially started to get annoyed at how wrong he is about all the detail of... everything, but what's the point? The long and short of it is he's prepared to see more people die for housebuilder profits.

Unless it actually happens.

Each morning I have been waking up to write each day's social housing advent calendar entry, and I've finally developed a kind of sleep pattern, which I've never had. Not sure it will permanently defeat my lifelong insomnia but it's kind of nice for now.

**** christmas

Rob's Social Housing Alphabetical Advent Calendar 2025 - HQN But I've decided to give the gift* of a look at the year in the UK housing sector through some daily snippets, loosely in the form of an advent calendar. Just

@simplicitly.bsky.social's Social Housing Alphabetical Advent Calendar 2025 is now up to 'R' – which could stand for 'Read it now'. Here it is hqnetwork.co.uk/news/robs-so... #ukhousing

Warning: the man's sheer enthusiasm for Christmas may overwhelm you

Also I hate Christmas.

For some reason I have decided to make a Social Housing Advent Calendar on LinkedIn for the main tidbits from the year, and even more foolishly I've decided to do it in alphabetical order. Thankfully @hqnmedia.bsky.social are making a compendium of the daily entries, so i don't have to.

Really the government has nobody to blame but themselves, having slid down the conditionality rabbit-hole long before the election.

I don't generally watch daytime TV but channel-hopped between the phone-in shows yesterday. The Cameron-era avarice was in full swing from most callers, incandescent with rage that some children's families might be able to afford to feed them now.

The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.

Partly conflicted about this by not being a carer any more but jfc.

Just feels like massive charity back-slapping for.. almost.. getting us back to square one. With Timms, Reeves and Kendall still lining up brutal cuts to the social security system in general I don't get what there is to celebrate.

I just spent more than 15 years making sure my income didn't cross the threshold to exclude me from carer's allowance. Why didn't all the other carers know about it? Either the DWP didn't tell them, or they weren't well informed enough by @carers-uk.bsky.social and others. I fail to see the victory.

One of the worst campaigns I can think of. Yes, it stops people being criminalised for overpayments, but it doesn't do anything to promote the value of care or resolve how undervalued it is by government and.. others.

All this means is that carers who used to qualify for carer's allowance - wrongly in the view of the government - won't get it any more. There won't be any overpayments, which is great, but all these carers now won't get any financial support at all.

More work needed on how many families won't get any more money because they'll still hit the overall household benefit cap.

Surprise (surprise).

Suspect however much it cost might have been better spent fixing some damp and mould.