Shapps announces radical social housing overhaul
Monday, 22 November 2010 12:13 PM
Housing minister Grant Shapps has today announced plans for "the most radical reform of social housing in a generation".
Once the changes come into practice, councils will be given decision-making power over tenancy arrangements. The length of a tenancy will be individually determined, with a minimum duration of two years, in contrast to the lifetime tenancies currently given to all tenants.
Shapps argues that this will free up social housing space for those who really need it and reduce waiting lists. However, this has been criticised by Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, who said: "Very few people go from homeless to self-sufficient within two years. The proposal for a minimum of this period shows the government's naivety in how quickly people are able to get back on their feet."
While the government is investing £400m in preventing homelessness, as of April 2011 some new tenants will be faced with rents of up to 80 per cent of the value of local market rents. This won't affect existing social housing tenants.
The mobility of social housing tenants is also a key area of focus for Shapps, who is implementing a new National Home Swap Scheme. He is also scrapping the Tenant Services Authority in favour of a new system of tenant panels, which landlords will be expected to support.
The plans represent an attempt to end what Shapps referred to as a "lazy consensus" in social housing, which has seen the number of people on housing waiting lists almost double in 13 years to five million.
Robb said: "The government's response to our affordable housing crisis has seen the poorest and most vulnerable in society penalised again and again in what begins to feel like a deliberate attack."
