The availability of three models for download from the HSN website will be announced at the seminar on 27 April. The models are: Household Projections & Current Market Position, Bramley Based Housing Needs and  LA Level Migration. They will be free to HSN Subscribers.

The HSN met the Tenant Services Authority last September to discuss opening access to the accumulated data on the National Register of Social Housing. Although the NROSH data collection was discontinued in 2011 by the TSA it contains a large volume of historic data which may be useful for some analysts. There is also the possibility of continuing NROSH data collection on a voluntary basis.

The Statistics Users Forum and National Statistician held a very useful event on 20 March bringing together GSS Heads of profession and representatives from statistics users groups to discuss how user engagement could be improved.

 Though response was limited, the consultation proposals aimed at improving the accuracy and relevance of the information collected on social housing sales and <

The broad thrust of the HSN response is that any changes to land use data must preserve the ability to analyse in detail the sources and contribution of land for new housing development, that  the rationalisation of forms into ELASH is largely welcome although there are serious concerns about loss of some data hitherto available from the HRASC Forms and that regional statistics time series are very important for a wide range of users and purposes and must

Bob Garland and Jane Hinton of the DCLG’s Neighbourhoods, Analysis and Innovation Directorate have joined the panel of speakers to talk about changes to the Department’s housing data collection.

The DCLG has now published its

Sitra has just published a Common Data Framework

Programme now on the website.

StatsUserNet is a new resource provided by the Royal Statistical Society for users of official government statistics.

Following representations from the Statistics Users Forum on the adverse effects on published statistics of excessive use of disclosure control procedures the Government Statistical Service has agreed to look more closely at the way disclosure control is used. See

The RSS has invited submissions for presentations to this year’s conference. The Housing Statistics Network would like to see some housing related items in the conference programme.

Speakers include Christine Whitehead and Connie Tang of the Centre for Housing and Planning Research at Cambridge University, Bob Line of De Montfort University and Charles Jarvis who will have moved from the Tenant Services Authority to the Homes and Communities Agency along with the social housing regulatory function by the time of the seminar.

The HSN Steering Group will be making a submission to the DCLG on its proposals to reduce collection of land use and housing statistics and drop regional statistics altogether. A draft submission will be placed on the website for comment later. It would be a great help in drawing up the draft  if you could post your brief comments on the proposals here. Keep it brief; stick to a few aspects of the proposals that you particularly like or dislike. If you have no strong views it would be useful to know that too.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on 11 January David Cameron stated, in response to a question on the impact of housing benefit reductions on homelessness, ‘What we have seen so far, as housing benefit has been reformed and reduced, is that rent levels (in the private sector) have come down, so we have stopped ripping off the taxpayer