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Can your home keep you healthy?

Published: 07/10/2019 Last Updated: 07/10/2019 15:31:22 Author: Jonathan Drake Tags: Blog

Thanks to advances in medicine, improved accessibility to healthcare, and people generally choosing to live healthier lifestyles, we as humans are living longer than ever before. However, as highlighted in the recent NHS Long Term Plan, the success of the NHS and Social Care system today means while we are all living longer, it is often with chronic multiple illnesses. In Salford, where I work as ...

Published: 08/08/2019 Last Updated: 08/08/2019 12:04:56 Author: Jonathan Drake Tags: Blog

I recently took part in a study visit organised by the Disruptive Innovators Network (DIN) to visit the Netherlands and Belgium. Joining me on this trip was Greig Lees, one of our Board Directors. DIN is a network of social housing providers that want to make a difference to the communities they serve through innovation. The trip allowed us to look at how our European counterparts are investing in ...

Published: 09/05/2019 Last Updated: 09/05/2019 11:08:18 Author: Jonathan Drake Tags: Blog

The housing crisis won’t be solved by building alone, but converting and repurposing empty buildings into homes can make a valuable contribution, writes Jonathan Drake – and the private rented sector could play a crucial role in thisIT was a proud moment for Salix Homes to learn our private sector leasing arm – Salix Living – has been shortlisted for this year’s North ...

A housing strategy for the future

Published: 16/04/2019 Last Updated: 16/04/2019 15:02:45 Author: Jonathan Drake Tags: Blog

The end of this month will see Greater Manchester’s much-lauded A Bed Every Night project draw to a close.The pioneering initiative launched by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham last November has given more than 1,600 homeless people a warm place stay during the cold winter nights.Of those, almost 500 have now been supported into a permanent home, making a huge impact on the homelessness ...

Published: 11/10/2018 Last Updated: 11/10/2018 13:31:04 Tags: Blog

I regularly get asked by colleagues and tenants about what goes into my role as the Leasehold & Private Sector Leasing Manager at Salix Living, so much so that I’ve been meaning to write a blog covering a typical working day for some time. We’re still a relatively small team so trying to find the time has been a challenge, but this week I managed to find a few spare minutes to get ...

Published: 27/09/2018 Last Updated: 19/10/2018 12:02:15 Tags: Blog

Theresa May’s announcement on 19th September to provide an extra £2 billion to build more social housing is to be welcomed. However, this still doesn’t deal with the here and now problem of too few properties being available for those on the housing waiting list. A key reason for this situation is theLocal Housing Allowance(LHA) rate was frozen for four years from April 2016. Mea ...

Published: 20/09/2018 Last Updated: 20/09/2018 14:15:51 Tags: Blog

Having read the report by academics at the University of York released this month The Evolving Private Rented Sector: its Contribution and Potential,funded by the Nationwide Foundation, then those of you that read my blogs will know that I am in total agreement with the conclusions of the authors of this report.I have advocated for a long time that there needs to be a fundamental review of the pri ...

Published: 30/08/2018 Last Updated: 28/08/2018 15:47:40 Tags: Blog

Last week it was announced thatfive of England’s leading lettings agents actively discriminate against tenants in receipt of housing benefit.This is a shocking and inexcusable statistic and one that goes against the values this country claims to uphold, but one that sadly does not come as a surprise.Everyone deserves a roof over their head and a place to call home. To actively prevent some p ...

Published: 14/08/2018 Last Updated: 15/08/2018 11:57:24 Tags: Blog

Working on Salix Homes’Mii-Home projecthas often made me consider what social housing services could look like in 10 years’ time. Technology will be at the forefront of allour services and the housing practitioners of the future will have to be as adept at technology as they are with people. Below are my thoughts. These are not tomorrow’s world ideas as most of them are happening ...

Published: 23/07/2018 Last Updated: 22/08/2018 13:06:42 Tags: Blog

The first Salix Living Landlord Forum was held at our head office, Diamond House on the evening of Thursday 19th July. It is always a risk that such an event turns out to be a flop, either because no-one turns up or because the content of the presentations holds no value for the audience. Our speakers were all experts in their field and covered topics ranging fromUniversal Credit,Salford Council&r ...

Published: 10/07/2018 Last Updated: 10/07/2018 10:23:05 Tags: Blog

What is an affordable rent?The answer to the question is needed more than ever given most commentators are now saying we are in an affordability crisis. Deteriorating affordability is a major cause of our growing housing crisis, with an inadequate housing supply coupled with rising demand. This crisis is further exacerbated by long-term economic and policy changes in our society such as stagnant r ...

Published: 25/06/2018 Last Updated: 26/06/2018 10:34:46 Tags: Blog

We are in the grip of a housing crisis. We need to build more homes. This is the cry we keep hearing. Yet we have needed to build more homes since the 1970s. The people born in the 1970s have grown up and had children, and now their children are having children. Three generations have passed and still we are not building enough homes. In Greater Manchester we need to build an extra 10,000 new home ...

Published: 28/02/2018 Last Updated: 26/06/2018 10:25:42 Tags: Blog

The changing employment profile of a social tenant over the last generation from a job for life, high skilled role to a part-time and zero hours, low-skilled role is an impending crisis for social housing. The level of automation taking over the low skilled, repetitive jobs is increasing year on year from supermarket checkouts being replaced with self-serve checkouts, to autonomous driving technol ...

Published: 21/02/2018 Last Updated: 10/07/2018 10:07:56 Tags: Blog

Salford Housing Options Point (SHOP) has listened to what private landlords and estate agents want from a support service and have created the new and improved PRIVATE ASSIST.This scheme has been designed with the tenants and landlords needs in mind and will offer relevant support in order to create achievable and sustainable tenancies.Don’t lose money on empty properties! Thousands of appli ...

Published: 02/02/2018 Last Updated: 26/06/2018 10:24:45 Tags: Blog

While the Chancellor’s announcement in his budget speech of financial support to increase new house building is welcome, this still does not address the ‘here and now’ problem for housing. His ambition for housing is positive to see but only because we are in the grip of a housing crisis in the UK. It is generally accepted that the housing market is broken meaning there are not e ...

Published: 30/01/2018 Last Updated: 26/06/2018 10:27:45 Tags: Blog

It is anticipated that the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in April 2018 will place increased pressure on local authorities, in particular those services linked to homelessness relief duties as the act will significantly increase the number of households to which a statutory duty is owed. At the same time, the changes to the way the temporary accommodation management fee is now allo ...

Published: 12/01/2018 Last Updated: 26/06/2018 10:28:27 Tags: Blog

The recent announcement by NHS bosses to cancel non-urgent operations, treatments and appointments for the rest of January to try and ease some of the pressure on hospitals made me think that in housing we talk about the need for more homes but this is actually misdirecting the debate on the future of housing in this country. Instead we should be talking about building the right type of home, one ...

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