DCLG mulls housing green paper

Tamar Wilner and Richard Garlick, Regeneration & Renewal, 8 February 2008

It is understood that there have been discussions going on for some time at the DCLG about whether a new green paper should be produced, covering issues including the link between unemployment and social housing.

But as Regeneration & Renewal went to press it was unclear how the idea would be affected by the furore generated by a speech by new housing minister Caroline Flint. In the speech, Flint suggested that unemployed people could have to sign contracts stating their intention to seek work as a condition of their social housing tenancy.

Drawing on the rhetoric of the Department for Work and Pensions, which she left two weeks ago for the DCLG after a cabinet reshuffle, Flint said: "Social housing should be based around the principle of something for something".

She told a conference in London organised by think-tank the Fabian Society that, in providing social housing, the Government could expect tenants, especially young people, to seek work.

She also suggested that existing tenants who need to move to take up new jobs could be given higher priority in social housing allocation.

But her ideas were sharply criticised by opposition MPs and housing charities. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the contract plan was legally unenforceable. He said: "Ministers and local councils have a statutory duty to house homeless families with children."

David Orr, chief executive of housing associations body the National Housing Federation, agreed that work contracts would be impossible to enforce. He said: "Many of the jobs open to people, especially at the lower skills end, are insecure or temporary. Also, people with health problems, such as mental health issues may find there are periods when they cannot keep up their job."

The chief executive of homelessness charity Shelter, Adam Sampson, said: "It would mean a return to the workhouse, the destruction of families and communities, and would add to the thousands who are already homeless."

A DCLG spokesman refused to say whether it was willing to give social landlords extra funds to administer the suggested contracts.