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Pete Apps

@peteapps.bsky.social

Inside Housing + freelance elsewhere. Author of Orwell Prize winning Show Me The Bodies - How We Let Grenfell Happen. https://peteapps.substack.com

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Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 3d ago

Paperback edition of Homesick: The End of London is out next week! I have an event at Waterstones on Gower St on October 6 with the excellent Holly Smith (who writes about tower blocks) if anyone wants to come: www.waterstones.com/events/homes...

Homesick: Peter Apps and Holly Smith in conversation | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones

Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Homesick: Peter Apps and Holly Smith in conversation today.

waterstones.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 3d ago

In this week's Substack - Grenfell housing director gets a permanent leadership role in Barnet; the Conservative housing benefit cuts are not credible, and more peteapps.substack.com/p/grenfell-h...

Grenfell housing director takes leadership role in Barnet; a PAS9980 dispute in Woolwich; boxing in Parliament and more

Round-up week on Pete’s Substack considers Laura Johnson’s move to a group director role with The Barnet Group as well as some other small plates from the world of social housing and building safety

peteapps.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · last wk.

Residents on a south London estate face eviction and rent hikes, as a small property firm who purchased the freehold from a housing associations looks to get a return Dig into the story and a cautionary tale about who housing policy now serves emerges: peteapps.substack.com/p/our-homes-...

Our homes are worth a fight: the story of the south London estate threatened with eviction

Quality Street was supposed to be the sort of initiative which changed private rented housing for the better. Now, its former residents face rental hikes and eviction

peteapps.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 4w ago

Interview with BSR chair Andy Roe on my Substack. He sets out his vision for moving to policing professionals rather than buildings - including managing agents and site supervisors: peteapps.substack.com/p/grenfell-i...

'Grenfell is unfinished business for me' - Andy Roe sets out his views on construction industry reform

We speak to the chair of the Building Safety Regulator about the shape of a future construction regulator. PLUS - thoughts on wildfires and warning alerts

peteapps.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In November, a lobbying firm approached me and asked to pay me to write articles critical of the Building Safety Regulator for newspapers. Filmed undercover, their staff admitted secretly paying reporters for copy in British newspapers friendly to their clients: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Lobbying giant filmed offering reporter payment for flattering client coverage in national press

Exclusive: Guardian investigation of CT Group uncovers practice that appears to seek hidden influence over public opinion

theguardian.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This model of building new homes is not serving us well. The dominance of the big builders needs to break – at least a bit – for any new model to truly flourish. Perhaps this case can be among the catalysts that bring that about www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

UK housebuilders have far too much power. Now a £4.5bn lawsuit could change that for good | Peter Apps

A legal case on behalf of some 700,000 people against the country’s biggest housebuilders could be a catalyst for much-needed industry reform, says Inside Housing’s Peter Apps

theguardian.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Safe to say that Grenfell survivor Ed Daffarn is not overwhelmingly impressed with the current housing secretary:<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HKmpFgUWgAAjHYI?format=jpg&amp;name=small" alt="Image"/>

“And nine years on from the fire, we’re still in the same situation as we were. The present secretary of state [Steve Reed] is probably the worst that we’ve ever had, worse even than [Robert] Jenrick. It’s a low, low bar but it’s the truth,”
Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Not much in this. Fixing legal gaps around the eviction of domestic abusers is good, but it can't be spun as a transformative housing policy and nothing else is remotely new. Also, the numbers he's boasting about come from programmes started by the prior govt www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A place where everyone has somewhere of their own, to thrive and feel safe – this will be my politics of home | Keir Starmer

Underfunding, systemic failure and awful Tory policies bequeathed us a public and private sector housing crisis. As a priority, we will now fix that, says UK prime minister Keir Starmer

theguardian.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Estate agents offering private landlords 'guaranteed rent' deals rake in millions every month from London boroughs to house homeless families. A mini-investigation by me for the @bigissue.com looks to a put a name to some of the biggest recipients: www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

How estate agents are earning millions housing homeless families

‘Guaranteed rents’ sees middle-man firms paid millions to help London local authorities find temporary homes for homeless families.

bigissue.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Going to do the occasional history post on Substack, largely guided by something I've read about housing and thought 'huh, that's interesting, didn't know enough about that previously'. This time it's the Glasgow Rent Strike open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...

The Glasgow Rent Strike and a fire in Manhattan

The first in a new (occasional) series of posts about history, and a look at the significance of a deadly blaze in New York where three residents were trapped in a single staircase building

open.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 5mo ago

There are small group of people whose views on housing I hold in such high regard that if I see them arguing a point, I naturally just think 'well I better cross the road to whichever side they're on, because I already know they're right'. Giles was probably top of that tree

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I'm extremely sorry to read this. I interviewed Giles many times and followed his writing for years. He was one of these people who shared his thoughts and expertise so generously...

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Fire alarms had been deactivated for eight months in the Hong Kong building which suffered a devastating fire last year. A fire safety professional noticed, but said 'it didn't have to do with our work' open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...

Haunting echoes of the Grenfell Inquiry in probe into devastating Hong Kong fire

The Wang Fuk Court inquiry has uncovered some disturbingly familiar failings. PLUS - PEEPs, the NPPF and an alternative plan for London

open.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Behind the fatuousness and oafishly offensive comments made by Simon Dudley on Grenfell, lurked a dangerous idea which tells us something about Reform and the pushback against fire regulations in general: peteapps.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

The fall of Simon Dudley - and what it tells us about the pushback against change post-Grenfell

Reform's former housing secretary's comments were almost cartoonishly offensive, but the ideology which sits behind them is also dangerous

peteapps.substack.com

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Next week, rules come into effect for residents who live in high rise buildings and would struggle to evacuate in an emergency. Seven years since the Grenfell Inquiry recommended this change, I've dug into what it means and why it's still controversial: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/resi...

Residential PEEPs: how will they work and are landlords ready?

Residential PEEPs will require landlords to identify residents in higher-risk buildings who may find it difficult to escape from a fire. But will they work?

insidehousing.co.uk

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 6mo ago

'It's fundamentally unfair to expect leaseholders to pay for cladding remediation when their building has already burned down' Latest Substack looks into an eyebrow raising dispute between burned-out residents and the GLA: peteapps.substack.com/p/its-fundam...

'It's fundamentally unfair to expect leaseholders to pay for cladding remediation when their building has already burned down'

The Greater London Authority seeks its money back at a block ravaged by fire - but leaseholders will pay if it succeeds. PLUS - heat soaked glass, fire doors and a review of Eviction by Jessica Field

peteapps.substack.com