This week’s HLINks: 23 - 27 November 2020
Welcome to #Jeremytalks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 27 November 2020.
It has been another bumper week of news and we are pleased to feature stories that we consider most relevant.
This week saw the government publish its Spending Review for the coming year. With much of the emphasis on post-Covid measures that will support the economy and stimulate growth, we are pleased to see some recognition of specialist housing and the allocation of £71m next year, via the Department of Health and Social Care, for the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund. Furthermore, the Disabled Facilities Grants allocation for councils will rise to £573million in 2020/21, up from £505million this year. We now await further details on other possible capital allocations. However, the Review was disappointing for the social care sector with only an additional £300 million set aside for adult and children services nationally.
In other news, with new Tier arrangements coming into force from next week in the lead up to Christmas, the government has updated its Covid-19 and supported living guidance and also released its Covid Winter Plan which includes specific reference to the test and trace arrangements for staff and residents in extra care housing from December. Also see details of the accompanying series of webinars explaining how this will work.
In this week’s HLINks, you can also read our curated round-up of other news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more, including reference to a new Action Deafness report on the benefits of designing and developing inclusively extra care housing for deaf people and those who hard of hearing.
And with 2 weeks to go, don’t forget to register for next month’s #HLINSummit2020. There are 10 #HAPPIhour sessions spread over 5 days week commencing Monday, 7 December. There is something for everyone! So, if you are interested in intergenerational living or want to find out more about designing accessible homes, want to understand what the digital future of the retirement market is or how can we embed greater leadership qualities to transform the housing and care offer for an ageing population, register now to attend our FREE virtual Summit.
Check this out on our website and register here to keep in touch with all 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, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult
Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.
You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here
Thanks for listening, stay connected and, above all, be safe,
Jeremy
In next week's news, in the lead up to the #HLINSummit2020 and HAPPI Awareness Week, we hope to publish a guest blog by Lord Best giving his insights into how, over a decade on, the HAPPI principles have transformed the dialogue about designing age-friendly homes for an increasingly ageing population. And next Friday, we will also be joining Housing Minister, Christopher Pincher MP, on the Homes UK conference platform where he will be announcing the winners of the Home of 2030 competition.
Lastly, the Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.
Stay connected, stay well and, above all, be safe!