The Government has announced that its overdue Social Housing Green Paper is finally due to be published on 24 July, ending months of speculation over its non-appearance.
In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, the former Housing Secretary Sajid Javid said the green paper would set out his ambitions and hopes for the sector. It came in response to criticisms that the Government was too focussed on housing for sale while social housing tenants complained of being stigmatised and taken for granted.
Since then the housing minister merry-go-round has spun several times with James Brokenshire now in post as the new Housing Secretary. Making the announcement Mr Brokenshire said: “It is essential that people living in buildings like Grenfell Tower are not only safe but they feel the state understands their lives and works for them. “There is no question that their faith in this has been shaken. Which is why, as well as strengthening building and fire safety, we’ll be publishing a Social Housing Green Paper by recess,” he added.
In his statement to the Commons last month, Mr Brokenshire also announced plans to publish a consultation into banning combustible materials in cladding systems on high-rise buildings. This supplements a consultation on banning desktop studies, a way the industry has in the past cleared the use of combustible materials in cladding on high rises without physically testing them.