Hot off the press: HLINks – our essential sector news, including two great new guest Housing LIN blogs, and so much more
Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending 21st August 2020.
In this week’s edition we bring you a selection of new Housing LIN resources. They include 2 new guest blogs. The first by LIFEstyle by ENGIE’s Paula Broadbent on Empowering our older generation by giving them energy to create their own future. The other by Honorary Professor at the University of Geneva, Roderick Lawrence entitled, Housing Matters for All, in which he sets out how to accommodate a growing diversity of activities, lifestyles and needs in our housing.
And a reminder: this week is your last chance to take part in our working from home survey. We have teamed up with the Workhome Project to take the pulse of home working in the UK's social housing. Whether working in social housing or a tenant, please share your experiences under Covid and complete online by 28th August.
In this week’s HLINks you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living through the lens of homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, and planning matters.
Check this out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN and @HousingLINews.
Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or require our expert advice and guidance, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.
You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here
Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,
Jeremy
This week’s Housing LIN guest blogs
Empowering our older generation by giving them energy to create their own future
Written by Paula Broadbent, Retirement Solutions Director, LIFEstyle by ENGIE, this Housing LIN blog articulates her thoughts on “To empower people, is to engage with them”. It describes how, as a company, ENGIE are ensuring that they understand what people aspire to in later life and the challenges they face, especially with the pandemic. She believes that this is essential in creating a future which meets their lifestyle expectation as well as need, including responding to climate change.
Housing Matters for All
In this new Housing LIN guest blog, Honorary Professor at Geneva School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, gives a preview to his recent book and calls on the need to accommodate a growing diversity of activities, lifestyles and needs in our housing. He highlights that overcoming the current applicability gap between research and practice, knowledge and action, is an important challenge for all those who wish to improve housing for current and future generations.
Coronavirus Update
Check out on our Coronavirus Info Hub for a range of Housing LIN practice briefings for the sector and links to other useful information and websites. Also, post or reply to questions on our discussion forum. It allows you to share information, raise issues and ask questions to solve a tricky issue.
For example, can you share your organisation’s COVID-19 risk plan in preparation for the 2nd wave or information about how you are engaging with residents?
Have your say – final week!
Take part in this Workhome Project survey on working from home
As a founding member of the Workhome Project, the Housing LIN is delighted to collaborate with the project to help find out more about you and your organisation’s experience of home-based work during Covid-19 for staff and residents. Please take a few moments to complete this important sector survey. The deadline is 28th August at 4pm.
Housing, Community, Disability, and Ageing
- Centre for Ageing Better: Impact report 2019-2020
- #HousingMatters: Episode 1, Gerry Foley interviews Rose Gilroy about the Future Homes Alliance
- Inside Housing: ‘Build, build, build’ is all well and good, but a truly sustainable recovery also depends on ‘care, care, care’
- Cardiff Uni Survey: Urban factors affecting the life quality of the elderly in the context of intergenerational communities in the UK
Design, Construction and Technology
Health and care
Dementia
Homelessness
Planning
- Disability News Service: Government’s ‘contempt’ for disabled people, as planning white paper ignores accessible housing
- TCPA: The Wrong Answers to the Wrong Questions: Countering the misconceptions driving the Government’s planning reform agenda
Opinion pieces and blogs:
Planning tracker
Older People’s Care Development – Local Development Plan Monitoring
In association with Tetlow King Planning, this document monitors current local authority planning consultations that may be of interest for those seeking to develop housing for older people. The tracker is updated fortnightly.
Wales
Welsh government guidance on COVID-19 can be found at: https://gov.wales/coronavirus
In other News:
- BBC News: Coronavirus: Funding boost for Welsh councils unveiled
- Cardiff University: The future of care in Wales: Resourcing social care for older adults
OPEN CONSULTATION
Mandatory quality standards for new homes
The Welsh Government wants your views on replacing the Development Quality Requirements (DQR) with a new standard. They are consulting on:
- the simplified approach to the new standard
- whether it is flexible to changing needs, is safe and secure and meets minimum space standards
- changing the name to Beautiful Homes and Spaces
Submit your comments by 1 November 2020
Scotland
Scottish government guidance on COVID-19 can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance
In other news:
- Scottish Housing News: Models of care and support on agenda at Social Housing Resilience Group meeting
Events
Housing LIN Events
Watch the highlights from our 3Rs conference with Foundations and ADASS
Other events
In light of the coronavirus outbreak we have cancelled all our upcoming regional meetings and training courses until further notice. We are currently exploring how to hold these events online, so watch this space! In the meantime, we are pleased to be involved/support the following virtual events:
- Appello Webinar: 4 reasons housing providers must revise their Telecare needs post COVID-19 (3 September)
- Healthy City Design 2020: International Congress & Exhibition (12 to 13 October)
- HRF Academic Conference - Happy Homes, Happy Society? (12 to 13 November)
Next week
And next week, we look forward to featuring a new report by the National Housing Federation, written by the Housing LIN, to coincide with their #HomesattheHeart campaign, and a new guest blog on Thirteen Group’s floating support services in Middlesbrough during lockdown and the impact on extremely vulnerable adults.
The Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.