Housing experts horrified by localism bill

Wednesday, 26 January 2011 8:59 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Proposals to force council housing tenants to move once their circumstances improve have been condemned by housing experts.

A panel of witnesses before the 26-person public bill committee scrutinising the localism bill were deeply critical of the government's intentions in an evidence session on Tuesday.

Richard Capie, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said he feared the administrative burden and the community impact of the change would have a devastating effect.

"You get what we've termed a revolving door of poverty," he said.

Homelessness charity Shelter's chief executive Campbell Rob said ministers would "create a disincentive for people to improve their communities".

"Why not give people security of tenure?" he pressed. "It gives them that sense of stability moving forward."

Crawley MP Henry Smith asked whether it was right that tenants whose children move out should be forced to move home into a smaller property, as is currently being considered by ministers.

Ongoing discussions about flexibility of tenure risked "closing off something we know very well works for many people", National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr replied.

"We have to make much more of our ability to move people around... but fundamentally the way to make people do that is to have a good offer, not to punish them because their children have grown up."

Concerns about the negative impact of the localism bill's changes on the housing supply were widespread.

Social housing levels at currently defined levels are likely to fall by as much as 130,000, Mr Orr said.

He predicted the total number of new homes would increase, but many of these would feature at the new intermediate rental rate of 80% of market value.

"Eighty per cent of market rent in most areas is still vastly out of the ability of most people to pay," Mr Capie added.

The localism bill committee has until March 10th to scrutinise the legislation. It proposes creating a new system of council housing finance, providing assistance to tenants to exchange their social rented property and the abolition of the home information pack.

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