Local Authority Householders To Face A Requirement Test

[copycat]

Its about time some action is taken against people who belive a local authority house is their right for them to occupy for the rest of their lives. tenants should be assessed and those people who can afford private housing should be forced out with room for those who desperately need the social help of society.

 

hopefully some Manx politicians willtake note of this and do something to get the un-deserving out of property that can be put to a more deserving use.

 

Lifetime social housing may face curbs

 

By Nicholas Timmins,Public Policy Editor

 

FT Published: February 21 2007 02:00

 

A lifetime in social housing should no longer be an automatic option for people in need, Ruth Kelly signalled yesterday, as she responded to a report into the low-cost homes crisis.

 

The communities secretary said some new tenancies might be awarded only for a limited term. She is also proposing that priority be given to people moving home in pursuit of work. Ms Kelly's comments came as the government-commissioned report spelt out the degree to which the subsidised rents of social housing, and its concentration in deprived areas, had become a barrier, rather than the intended aid, to social and economic mobility.

 

More than half of all those of working age in council housing, housing association and registered social landlords' accommodation are not in paid work - a proportion that is high even after allowing for factors such as disability, age and lone -parenthood among social housing tenants.

 

One in eight home moves each year were work-related, said John Hills, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion, in his government-commissioned report.

 

Among the 4m living in social housing, however, he said the "striking statistic" was that only a few thousand a year moved home.

 

High house prices had put home ownership beyond the reach of many tenantsand the turnover of social -housing had plummeted by a third as more homes had been let to younger claimants who did not work and do not move.

 

He said housing needed to be more closely linked to training and employment opportunities in order to improve people's incomes, and tenants needed regularly to be offered options such as various forms of shared equity when their circumstances improved.

 

A key point was that "what initially appears as a housing problem may have its roots in problems in the labour market," said Professor Hills. That needed to be tackled, he added.

 

He ruled out some of the most radical options - ending lifetime tenancies for social housing, or allowing all rents to be set at market levels with housing benefit taking the strain.

 

Both approaches would exacerbate, not solve, labour market problems, he said. But one of his suggestions is that tenants in the north and other lower-cost regions might receive less subsidy towards their rents.

 

While not commenting on that point, Ms Kelly agreed that "social housing must work better as a platformfor social and economic mobility".

 

She made clear that existing tenants would keep their lifetime security of tenure. But, for new applicants, she said consideration should be given to whether temporary accommodation for teenagers tied to welfare-to-work programmes, or rent deposit schemes to help people into private renting, or shared ownership for couples who broke up might be better alternatives than secure social tenancies.

 

"We should consider whether the social sector should be seen more as a stepping stone at a time of change in their life" than a lifetime arrangement, she said.

[Juan Kerr]

You mean the other thread people have been discussing for days?

 

http://www.manxforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16500

 

Never let that stop you starting one though MCB.

[TerryMcCann]

Yeah you're definately not MCB are you

 

How could I have been so mistaken

[ans]

You suck at the internet MCB