Housing Today Focus - key issues in the housing sector

In Focus

A hidden housing hurdle: How sewage treatment capacity is stalling 30,000 new homes - and why it could get much worse

A growing number of water companies are objecting to planning applications for homes on the basis that there is not enough local sewage treatment capacity to cope, writes Joey Gardiner.

‘I went back into the workplace with a new lens’: Amplius’ CEO Julie Doyle explains how her grandson’s disability shaped her vision

Doyle talks about post-merger integration, her mission to create accessible housing and the importance of supporting families with disabled children. Alex Funk reports

Key takeaways from Housing Today Live and the Building the Future Conference 2025

Building’s flagship conference returned this year, bigger and better than ever, covering all things housing, infrastructure and development. From three keynotes and 10 panels, here are the main issues noted by our reporters

Labour conference 2025: Housing secretary puts style over substance while Starmer takes aim at Reform

The government’s announcement about new towns and the new housing secretary’s Trump-esque stylings put housing at the heart of the agenda at Labour’s conference in Liverpool. But there was little in the way of detail to back Steve Reed’s ‘build, baby, build’ slogan

Revealed: Top 30 Housing Champions 2025

Our list celebrates those housing professionals who are going above and beyond in their day-to-day roles to improve services for residents

Briefing: How private landlord giant Grainger is preparing to ride the build-to-rent wave

Grainger has spent the past few years pivoting towards build-to-rent to take advantage of the burgeoning living markets sector. As the firm registers as a REIT in order to attract investment, chief executive Helen Gordon explains her strategy

Could the shadow of Grenfell trigger more Ardmore-style collapses of housing contractors?

The contractor’s legacy housing business went into administration due to the weight of building safety issues on its books. Joey Gardiner asks whether we are likely to see other companies suffer the same fate

Key takeaways and talking points from the Housing Community Summit 2025

From the departure of Rayner and the rise of Reform, to boosting skills, new funding models and decent homes, attendees at this year’s Housing Community Summit were not short of topics to talk about. Here are the key talking points from Liverpool

What does the appointment of Steve Reed as new housing secretary mean for the sector?

Angela Rayner’s replacement held the shadow housing brief in 2021 and now he returns to the role in government. But although he has promised to ‘build, baby, build’, Reed lacks the influence on Keir Starmer that his predecessor had

The Reform party conference: what a Farage government would mean for housing, investment and ‘net-stupid-zero’

Despite being largely overshadowed by the resignation of Angela Rayner, the two-day event in Birmingham showed a party which is evolving from a protest group into an organisation that is seriously preparing for government. Tom Lowe looks at what a country led by Nigel Farage would mean for housing

‘Not just transactions’: Richard Blakeway explains how he wants to work with the sector to ensure complaints are a catalyst for real change

The Housing Ombudsman talks to Carl Brown about his drive for transparency and shared learning and tackling the ‘twin demons of denial and deflection’ in the sector.

The plan to cut the gateway 2 backlog: Key points from Tuesday’s parliamentary hearings on the BSR

This week saw an unusual amount of scrutiny of the Building Safety Regulator, with committees in both the Commons and the Lords examining the issue. Daniel Gayne watched the debates to find out where the troubled institution is headed