housing charities

Jonathan Hunt, director of client services, Charis

The cost of living and energy costs are still biting deep for households at risk of fuel poverty. When income is limited, the decision to switch off the heating is often made to ensure that there is food on the table. With less government support this year, and standing charges on the rise, this dilemma is damaging not just to the physical wellbeing of each member of the household, but also to their mental wellbeing too.

In our digitally driven society, it is easy to forget that there is still a meaningful proportion of homes that are not connected to the internet or have easy access to a laptop, tablet or smartphone. A recent Ofcom report found that six per cent of households were unconnected – not a huge percentage, but one that equates to about 1.7 million households.

By far the largest proportion of these homes without internet access had residents aged 75 and above, and included those households in the lowest income bracket and most financially vulnerable. It is not a far stretch to consider that a large majority of these are probably in social housing.

At Charis, a surge in users of its online Charis Shop which was launched in 2020 has led to an explosion in business growth. CEO Graham Ayres explains how the company is harnessing the impact of their new platform to help housing providers deliver hardship support rapidly and efficiently.

by Ollie Gray, business development director, Charis

When the EPG Energy Price Guarantee was introduced last autumn by the flash-in-a-pan Liz Truss government, it was set to run for two years, from October 2022 to September 2024.

We all know what happened to Liz - and her EPG promise was also cut short (maybe not quite as short as her tenure in number 10).

Looking back over the winter months of 2022/23, most of the funds and grants allocated to households to help them with rising energy costs have been akin to trying to stop leaking water from a pipe with a roll of tissue. Many households quickly achieved saturation when it came to what they could afford. Although, in part, this was due to the fact that energy prices increased beyond the additional support that was offered, it was also down to the fact that inflation was peaking at over 10 per cent, interest rates had shot up, and in general overall household income was squeezed on all sides, with no equivalent increase to household income.

At least 1 in 10 rental properties in England are likely to be advertised unlawfully by explicitly discriminating against people who rely on housing benefit, new research from the National Housing Federation and Shelter shows.

The analysis of around 86,000 letting agent adverts on Zoopla shows that 8,710 adverts for different residential properties in England say ‘no DSS’ or ‘no housing benefit’.