On London Latest: Roots of an emergency

The struggles of housing associations. Plus net zero pressures, no Soho in Oxford Street plans, Cold War Ruislip, Julie Hamill's writing cafés and more

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Yesterday, I wrote about Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway's warning that the sheer scale of London's growing housing emergency can have a desensitising effect, including on those most responsible for addressing it.

Blakeway was speaking at a London Society event, along with a panel of three other housing experts. Also making urgent and insightful contributions were Kathryn Tombling of hosts BDP architects, Kyle Buchanan of Archio and, of particular interest in this edition of On London Latest, Heather Thomas, chief executive of Sapphire Independent Housing.

Sapphire, one of the smaller housing associations - it has fewer than 1,000 homes - was born under a different name in 1969, founded to assist Irish Londoners. Based in Kentish Town, it now provides general needs and supported housing to a broader group.    

Thomas's remarks brought home the huge pressures being faced by housing associations today. She described these as long-term systemic, rooted in the advent of the Right to Buy and worsened by more recent Conservative governments slashing grant levels and then requiring housing associations to reduce their rents - a move openly designed to cut the housing benefit bill.