The Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced developments to give Gypsy Travellers the same rights and responsibilities as other mobile home residents if they 'play by the rules'. Seeking to reduce tensions arising from perceived 'differences' in planning rules for Gypsy Travellers, the reforms will also give the travelling community greater protection against eviction and local councils greater freedom to build sites based on need. For more details, please visit the 24dash website

Pickles has also announced developments to give Gypsy Travellers the same rights and responsibilities as other mobile home residents if they 'play by the rules'. Seeking to reduce tensions arising from perceived 'differences' in planning rules for Gypsy Travellers, the reforms will also give the travelling community greater protection against eviction and local councils greater freedom to build sites based on need. For more details, please visit the 24dash website

The Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced that the £32 million 2010/11 budget previously outlined to pay for new sites for Gypsy Traveller sites has been scrapped after an underspend of £15m for the period 2009/10. Whilst Gypsy Traveller groups claim that despite heavy demand for new sites, only 50-60 sites have been built due to the 'controversy' surrounding the scheme.

The Department of Health and the National Housing Federation are currently surveying all local authorities to find out about their work on older people and housing. Please use the following link complete the housing survey.

A new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has suggested that higher rates of self-harm amongst women from BME groups could be due to social problems. In the study sample, young black women were both more likely to engage in self-harm and be unemployed or report housing problems than white women. For more details, please see the Health Canal website.

A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has attacked the Coalition Government's budget, claiming a budget which hits poorest families hardest cannot be regarded as "progressive austerity". The report claims that cuts to benefits will see the poorest 10% of families losing over 5% of their income compared with a loss of less than 1% for the richest 10% of households. With black and minority ethnic families more likely to fall into this bracket, the budget is likely to have a significant impact on these communities. For analysis, see the Guardian website or for the full report, see the IFS website

Join in the debate with our new Better Housing email list. The list is designed to provide a forum to discuss current issues and research in housing. To join, visit the jiscmail website

New plans to cut a benefit which pays the interest on a mortgage from 6.08% to 3.67% are likely to have severe knock on effects on some of the UK's most vulnerable people, including those with disabilities or mental health problems. With expected savings of just £60m, there has been criticism from bodies including the National Housing Federation, who see the cuts as "particularly harsh way to try to bring public spending down". With many disabled recipients using the benefit to secure niche mortgages which allow shared ownership homes, it is feared that an end to the payments with deny the opportunity for independent living. For more details, please visit the Guardian website.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced a new scheme to ease housing shortages by paying councils a financial incentive for new builds. Without telling councils where to build, the New Homes Bonus will see the council tax raised on each new house matched by the government for six years. For more details, and the criticisms which have been levelled, please visit the BBC website.

Plans for more than 500 affordable homes in London have been saved after £50m was put forward by the London Homes and Communities Agency and the Mayor. With the majority of building work focussing upon larger homes, the developments are likely to have a positive effect on black and minority ethnic families. For more details, please visit the 24-housing website.

For more details on overcrowding in black and minority families, please see our up-and-coming briefing paper.

Comments from the Prime Minister David Cameron over the introduction of 'fixed term' social housing have threatened a backlash, not just from members of the public, but also from other members of the coalition government. Speaking at a question and answer session in Birmingham, Mr Cameron suggested reforms to the housing system which would end council house tenancies which lasted 'forever'. For more details, please visit the 24-housing website.

ALMOs could exploit the links and trust that they have built in communities to contribute to Big Society, for example, by working with GPS to improve access to healthcare. For more details, please see the 24-housing website.

Ambitious targets have been put in place by the London Delivery Board to cut street homelessness by 2012. Although supported by many homelessness charities, there has been emphasis on the need to acknowledge the complex causes of homelessness, not just as rooflessness but also as a result of mental health or drug problems. For more details, please visit the 24-housing website.

To see how homelessness can affect black and minority ethnic communities, please see Better Housing Briefing 15.

InsideHousing's 'What's the Benefit?' campaign has drawn support from leading Liberal Democrats, including Adrian Sanders, Mike Hancock and MP Bob Russell, who set up four early day motions challenging the proposed cuts to housing benefit. Questioning involvement in policies which hurt the poor, Mr Russell feared that the cuts could cause families to 'lose their homes and be forced to move from the communities where they live.’ With an announcement that the Work and Pensions Select Committee will scrutinise the implications of the changes, it is hoped that the committee will moderate policies which see local housing allowance rates set using the bottom 30 per cent of rents rather than the median. Furthermore, a limit of £400 per week for houses with four or more bedrooms, the Citizen's Advice Bureau have argued that cuts are likely to have the greatest impact on black and minority ethnic families. For more information, please visit the InsideHousing website and the CAB website.

A letter leaked to the Guardian has revealed a warning from Equalities Minister, Theresa May, that budget cuts could break human rights obligations outlined under the Equality Act of 2010. With many cuts likely to disproportionately affect women, the elderly, disabled people and black and minority ethnic communities, May drew attention to the risk of judicial action if cuts were deemed likely to worsen inequalities. For more details, please visit the Guardian website.

Home Secretary, Theresa May, has drawn criticism after announcing her intention to scrap a pilot project for 'go orders'. Providing the police with rights to remove violent partners from the home for 2 weeks, the scheme was expected to give victims time to seek help and provide alternate accommodation. For more information on housing options for black and minority women suffering domestic violence, please read Better Housing Briefing 9, or for more on this story, visit the Independent website.

Housing minister Grant Shapps is due announce a National Home Swap Database if that will allow tenants to register and swap social homes. With around 430,000 underoccupied homes, it is hoped that the swap scheme will enable those living in the 230,000 overcrowded social homes to gain access to accommodation more appropriate to their needs. For more details, visit the InsideHousing website.

New laws granting greater powers to the police to evict and arrest people for trespass on public land are threatening the eviction of Gypsy-Traveller communities. With changes to planning laws prevent retrospective permission to put caravans on private land, the coalition government have also removed the obligation to provide "pitches" within all local authorities. Set against a rising tide of anti-Traveller sentiment in Europe, human rights campaigners fear that these changes represent a new 'acceptable' face of racism. For more details, see the Guardian website.

Homelessness charity Thames Reach has produced the Routes Home website as part of the Mayor of London's campaign to end rough sleeping by 2012. Intended as a practical guide for outreach staff, the site provides information and guidance to help Eastern European rough sleepers back to their home country. For more information, visit the Routes Home website.

Circle Anglia are calling for a national tenant exchange scheme, after research showed that one in five social housing tenants in England want to move. Whilst the London-based organisation has focussed in particular on those tenants who wish to move to find employment, such housing exchanges have also been seen as crucial in tackling overcrowding, allowing underoccupied homes to be exchanged for smaller properties. For more information on Circle Anglia, please visit the Home Move website.

A tenant has been evicted by MHT London after his violent behaviour forced his wife and children from their family home. Using Ground 14A, Mr Hadjazi was removed from the four bed home and his family and wife were relocated. For the full story, visit the 24-dash site

One North West have published a short report to examine the likely impact of the Coalition Government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda. Prescribing a ‘radical shift of power from Westminster to local people’, there have been concerns that the BME sector and communities might be disproportionately affected by the developments. One North West are also conducting a survey and would like you to provide feedback on the Big Society agenda.

Runnymede have published a new report into the inconsistent costs for older black and minority ethnic people who choose to ‘return home’ for retirement in search of better standards of living. Although many people will have spent the majority of their lives living and working in the UK, the report highlights discrepancies in pension arrangements. With a freeze on pensions for those retiring in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Nigeria and Kenya, this stands in stark contrast to older people who choose to retire in Europe, who may often see an ‘uprating’ of their pension to meet local living costs. For the full report, visit the Runnymede website.

An action plan to cut severe overcrowding in London in half by 2016 has been described by the mayor as having made ‘great progress’. With 102,000 households described as ‘overcrowded’ and 11,000 described as ‘severely overcrowded’, the action plan aims to make the best use of London’s housing stock through a number of strategies, including the adaption and extension of existing homes, and providing tenants with the opportunity to downsize, move into suitably sized private sector homes, or move out of London. For more details, visit the london.gov.uk site.

Plans to cut housing benefit £1.8 billion a year by 2014/15 have been criticised by homelessness charities and housing associations who claim that changes could put people at risk of a ‘spiral of debt, eviction and homelessness’. It has also been speculated that cuts would force tenants out of more expensive areas, and increase the risk of ghettoisation. For more details, visit the Inside Housing website

A study by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has found that there is a huge divide between the green space available for ethnic minorities on housing estates and that available for white people. ‘Decent Homes Need Decent Spaces’ found that people stated they would be both happier and do more exercise if they had more green space. The report also encourages social landlords and local authorities to work with voluntary groups to improve underused spaces. To read the full report, visit the Public Property website.

The Department of Communities and Local Government has published the local authority tenant satisfaction statistics. Although rates of satisfaction were generally fairly high, with around 75 per cent of council tenants 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with the overall service provided by their authority, these rates were notably lower among black and minority households. In particular, mixed race tenants were less likely to describe themselves as ‘satisfied’, with 59.8% expressing satisfaction with landlord services and only 54.9% with the quality of their property compared to 77.1% and 75.3% respectively for white British tenants. For the full report, please visit the CLG website.

We want the Better Housing site to help you to embed race equality in your every day work. Help us to improve the site by filling in our short questionnaire - it should take no longer than 5 minutes. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference on 24th June, Housing Minister Grant Shapps confirmed that the Tenant Services Authority would be scrapped. Although the TSA's framework of standards is likely to be kept, the TSA's main duties, including landlord regulation and financial regulation are likely to be transferred to other organisations, including a trimmed down Homes and Communities Agency. For more details, please visit the 24-dash website.

Social campaigning organisation, 38 Degrees, are currently working with Still Human Still Here to urge the government to support the right for asylum seekers to work if they’ve been in the UK for more than six months. They argue that these changes will not only cut the cost of welfare by allowing asylum seekers to support themselves, but also will allow them to integrate into British society. Visit the 38 site to get involved in the campaign.

Join us on Twitter to get more information on our projects and publications and to see what issues are grabbing our attention in the news! Please find follow us at RaceEqualityFdn.

FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless, have recently published 'Ending Homelessness', a new guide to tackling homelessness in Europe

The handbook outlines the national homelessness strategies currently employed by five European countries, including Scotland and Finland, providing details of different approaches to tackling the problem. The guide also presents five key goals toward which European policy makers should be working:

* No one sleeping rough.
* No one living in emergency accommodation for longer than is an ‘emergency’.
* No one living in transitional accommodation longer than is required for successful move-on.
* No one leaving an institution without housing options.
* No young people becoming homeless as a result of the transition to independent living.

Please click here for the full FEANTSA report.

Nikki Chawda, Managing Director of Foundation Housing Association, has been shortlisted for the Asian Woman of Achievement Public Sector Award

Foundation Housing Association is the only BME specialist provider rated with two stars, and Nikki was put forward by her staff for her work in fighting for appropriate services and housing for Leicester’s BME communities. Read the full article here.

Linking black and minority ethnic organisations with mainstream homeless service providers

This paper argues that homelessness service provision to black and minority ethnic communities should be informed by in-depth knowledge and understanding of the causes, manifestations and perceptions of homelessness, and should address the significant barriers these communities face when accessing homelessness services. The paper also highlights significant differences between black and minority ethnic and mainstream organisations, and possible improvements that could be gained by forging stronger links between them, including increased awareness of homelessness services, access to early intervention and ongoing support to vulnerable individuals.

To celebrate the launch of the Better Housing site, the Race Equality Foundation will be giving members of the Better Housing community the opportunity to win an 8gb iPod Nano with Camera. Each month, one name will be selected from all site users who post on the Better Housing forum. We are keen to hear your thoughts and feedback, so please do get involved and tell us your thoughts on the briefing papers, resource collection or current issues. Post on the Better Housing forum now.

The Tenant Services Authority Standards came into force on 31 March, introducing co-regulation to actively involve tenants in the management of local housing services. Although understanding and responding to the diverse needs of tenants is one requirement of the Involvement and Empowerment Standard, a recent report on landlords’ progress in tenant involvement, diversity is still seen as a ‘challenge for policy and regulation’.

Consultation on the housing standards with black and minority ethnic tenants has shown that tenants do not feel fully engaged or consulted in housing involvement exercises. Racism and harassment, language barriers and a number of other factors can explain why black and minority ethnic communities are often seen as hard to reach or engage within tenant participatory activities. Better Housing briefing 5 gives examples of working practices that have increased the involvement of minority ethnic groups, including providing appropriate support for involvement. At the same time, involving tenants can help housing staff better understand minority ethnic tenants’ service needs and increase the confidence of BME tenants to access better services

The Involvement and Empowerment Standard is an opportunity for housing providers to ensure the diverse range of tenants are involved and participate in co-regulation. The challenge is to change the perception that tenant involvement happens primarily as a result of regulation and inspection frameworks, rather than real willingness.

Harnessing the talents of marginalised communities

This paper encourages social housing providers to forge meaningful relationships with refugee community organisations and others right from the start. Emphasising the importance of an equal partnership in strategy and decision making, the briefing also highlights the positive role that independent parties can play in brokering these relations by helping community organisations to harness their strengths within formal settings.

The Single Equalities Scheme sets out the Tenant Services Authority’s (TSA) objectives for the next three years, outlining its plans to work with social housing landlords and tenants to meet their duties under equality legislation.

Addressing each of the six strands of equality and diversity, the consultation document outlines the importance of promoting good relations and fulfilling tenant needs regardless of ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age, gender, or religion/belief. The deadline for consultation is 31 March 2010. For more detail and to view the consultation documents, please visit the TSA website.

The Housing Standards will come into force on 1 April 2010. Equality and diversity is specifically mentioned in the tenant involvement and empowerment standard.

For example, landlords must avoid discriminatory processes by ensuring that all tenants have the opportunity to contribute, and be involved in management of housing services. Furthermore, the Tenant Services Authority propose that a cross cutting theme of equality and diversity should apply to all six standards and that ‘registered providers must consider equality issues and the diversity of their tenants’ by incorporating choices designed to address the differences in tenants’ needs. How this is managed in co-regulation is likely to have a significant impact on black and minority ethnic communities. For further information go to the Tenant Services Authority website.

MONITORING THE ETHNICITY OF HOUSING SERVICE USERS: FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS?

In an evaluation of the impact of ethnic monitoring since its introduction 40 years ago, Briefing author Adrian Jones argues that whilst the reasons for monitoring are well understood, the evidence is that monitoring is not taking place in a regular, systematic and detailed manner.

Moreover, the key issue for many housing providers is how to “get beyond” the frontline figures from the monitoring exercise to actually identify, explain and (consequently) act on any potential areas of concern that may emerge.

The Marmot Review into health inequalities in England was published on 11 February 2010. It is a response to the Commission on Social Determinants of Health report, which recommended that national governments introduce strategies to tackle health inequity. Taking an evidence-based approach to tackling health inequalities, the Review acknowledges the role of socio-economic factors, such as income or education, on lifespan and quality of life. Whilst ethnicity is not mentioned as a discrete category in the report, the interaction between ethnic heritage and social inequities is apparent as a theme throughout the Review.

Ethnicity and coronary heart disease: making sense of risk and improving care

Cardiovascular disease is predicted to become the dominant cause of death and disability across the globe over the next decade. With an apparently disproportionate susceptibility to cardiovascular disease (and related conditions and illnesses such as Coronary Heart Disease, stroke, diabetes), the causes and prevention of CVD is of critical importance to minority ethnic groups. This paper examines the complex interplay between the biological, psychosocial and behavioural causes of CHD, and considers the need for culturally appropriate services to increase awareness of coronary risk factors and support healthier lifestyles.

Towards race equality in advocacy services: people with learning disabilities from black and minority ethnic communities

‘least often heard and most often excluded’   (DH, 2009, p. 14)

People with learning disabilities from black and minority ethnic communities are almost always under-represented in the client base of both voluntary and statutory service providers, suffering ‘double discrimination’ when attempting to access services appropriate to their cultural and support needs. This paper outlines the importance of advocacy in overcoming these obstacles to support, to tackle problems of racism and cultural stereotyping, and linguistic barriers, both in terms of service provision and a lack of specific terminology in some community languages.

The NHS Constitution, published in 2009, was designed to set out patients’ rights to NHS services, and provide a coherent view of ‘what the NHS does, what it stands for and the commitments it should live up to’.

Aiming to protect and enforce the values and principles of the NHS, the Constitution outlines 25 rights for patients, covering issues such as access to services and quality of care. Amongst other things, the constitution sets out maximum waiting times for services, and proposes that patients should have a choice on where they receive their care, including end-of-life care.

Consultation on the Constitution is currently underway, and although this does not end until 5 February 2010, from 21 January all NHS organisations must consider the Constitution’s pledges when making decisions about the services they provide to patients. The Race Equality Foundation was asked by the Department of Health to provide feedback on the implications of the Constitution for black and minority ethnic groups. We carried out a number of consultation meetings with black and minority ethnic service users, carers and third sector organisations, and discussed some of the experiences and barriers faced in accessing and having health care. These findings were presented to a meeting of the Constitutional Advisory Forum chaired by Sir David Nicholson, NHS Chief Executive.

To link to the NHS Constitution, please see the Department of Health website.