Council houses for life to be axed

Published 24th Nov 2010

Council house tenants in England will lose their automatic right to a home for life, ministers said on Monday, under a shake-up of the social housing system they called the most radical in a generation.

Under the new rules, new renters will be offered fixed-term tenancy agreements of as little as two years and could be evicted after that time if their financial circumstances improve.

Ministers said the changes will give councils more flexibility to use their housing stock to maximum effect to drive down waiting lists they say have almost doubled to five million in 13 years.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said the proposals will make the system fairer, giving councils the option to offer flexible tenancies and greater local authority discretion to decide allocations.

However, Shapps said he still expected contracts of a "significant length" -- anything between five and 20 years -- to be the norm under the revised system. Some households will continue to get a lifetime tenancy.

The reforms would also allow councils greater freedoms to give social housing to people with a strong local connection to the area where they live.

Under the tighter rules, tenants will have the right to pass on their home to a spouse or partner on their death, but will no longer be able to pass it on to other family members.

The eight million existing social tenants will not be affected by the changes, which could be introduced as early as next year following consultation.

The government is also planning to increase the rent on social housing, with the extra money used to build new properties.

"If there is one huge criticism that I have got of the current system it is that we just aren't building the homes ..," Shapps told BBC television.

"What we are going to do is to make sure the money is channelled into building more homes, that's going to help more of those people off the waiting list -- it's just common sense to do something about this."

Source: ' Reuters '

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