Housing policy is easily the sexiest New Year’s party topic. But after 12 months of turbulence in Westminster’s Department for Housing and dizzying policy announcements – half-announcements, re-announcements, repackaging and rehashing – across the UK, does anyone actually know where we are with this most fundamental of issues? To help you navigate the murky waters, we have put together a handy quiz to test your housing knowledge. Clearly it will dazzle your pals, and you’ll be a better person for knowing it.
Click the photos for each question, grab a pen and paper and scroll down for the answers.
ANSWERS: 1. c) Dudley eventually backtracked but not before causing a media storm and intensifying scrutiny on the treatment of rough sleepers when the royals came to town.
- a) Izzi Seccombe, Chair of the LGA Community Wellbeing Board, explained: “We cannot duck this issue as a society any longer. Our green paper is the start of a nationwide public debate about the future of care for all adults.”
- All of them. In response to c) Mind quickly took to social media to “set the record straight” insisting that they were not in support of the system. And her claims about the National Audit Office required her to make an apology to Parliament.
- b) Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of Conservative-led RBKC wrote a letter to housing minister Kit Malthouse in October requesting the authority be given the powers to seize empty stock in the borough and use it for social tenants in a bid to crack down on growing waiting lists.
- a) The Homelessness Reduction Act became law, giving local authorities an added duty to work with homeless people to find a housing solution within 56 days.
- b) Celtic announced in May that free sanitary products would be provided for fans at matches after being approached by the On The Ball campaign about a trial.
- c) Milton Keynes was named ‘capital of right-to-buy-to-let’ earlier this year, with 70.9% of properties sold under right-to-buy now privately rented.
- a) After sleeping rough through the winter while working six days a week on his pitch, the 58-year-old managed to buy his dream Talbot Express campervan.
- a) There have been 17 housing ministers since 1997, with Kit Malthouse taking over the role in 2018 from ill-fated Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.
- b) Books – the refuse workers in Ankara saw books being dumped and decided to take our campaign to save libraries to heart. They ended up with a 6,000-book library in what was an empty brick factory for the rest of their community to use.
- c) When asked why the number of people ending up homeless was on the up, she replied: “In truth, I don’t know.”
- c) Bill joined Southbourne Ales, located just yards from his former pitch, to deliver brewery tours.
- b) The Tenant Fees Bill aims to axe tenant fees and just requires a third reading in the House of Lords and Royal Assent to become law.
- a) The number of homeless deaths was first counted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in October, finding that 449 people died while homeless since October 2017. The Office for National Statistics revealed they were working on their own experimental statistics in the wake of that figure being released.
- b) Social Bite’s Housing First programme will work to help 800 people with complex needs into sustainable homes before then supporting them through other issues they may have.
Numbers Round part I: a3, b2, c1 d4
Numbers Round part II: a) 300,000 b) 222,190 c) 47,355 d) 340,000 per year, with 145,000 of them classed as affordable homes.
