Welcome to the December issue of our social housing newsletter.
I would like to start by wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The Conservative Party has secured a comfortable majority in the general election and its manifesto included several key pledges on housing related matters such as:
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building at least one million homes over the next five years
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ending ‘no fault’ evictions
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extending the housing association 'Right to Buy' pilot to other parts of the UK
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simplifying shared ownership
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introducing ‘lifetime’ mortgages for home owners and deposits for the private rented sector.
Additionally, the Conservative Party has promised a Social Housing Green Paper and a Green Paper on Planning.
In this week’s Queen’s Speech, the Government announced it will introduce legislation to:
2020 (and beyond) will be a significant year for the housing sector.
In this month’s newsletter, we feature an article by Eugene Wojciechowski which reminds housing associations of the need to obtain all the necessary GDPR consents or risk a hefty fine. The articles gives guidance to our clients as to what they should do to ensure compliance and avoid penalties.
The second article by Rebecca Conway discusses the Government’s proposal to enable leaseholders to staircase a minimum of 1% instead of the current 10%. What does this mean for housing associations, and how should you prepare?
Finally, Mark Sellers writes about a recent case where the court held an automatically generated signature in an email footer was sufficient to create a valid and binding contract for the sale of land. Mark provides some guidance as to how you can avoid inadvertently creating a contract for the sale or purchase of land.
I look forward to seeing you in the New Year. |