The Daily Telegraph reports – here ,
“People who are employed or are actively seeking work will take priority, ministers are to announce.
In a major shift in policy, Coalition ministers want to stop those who are hard-working being disadvantaged when social housing is allocated.
The move was attacked by campaigners last night for threatening the vulnerable. But it comes just days after Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, proposed giving council housing to those who deserve it rather than those who want “something for nothing” and do not put anything back into their communities.
Grant Shapps, the housing minister, said that he will present local authorities with a new “allocation policy” document. It will give much greater freedom to councils to decide who they put at the top of housing queues.
He said the present allocation policy guidance was too rigid and stacked against people who aspire and who work hard. Mr Shapps said: “Up until now, access to council housing has too often been blocked for hard-working families who do the right thing.
“When someone strives hard to hold down a job, I simply don’t see why this should count against them when it comes to their housing. That’s why I plan to change the system of allocating homes to allow councils to actively support those in work, as well as continuing their duty to look after the most vulnerable in society.”
Under the revised policy, someone who has a job and has held it for two years, would be given more points to rise up the housing queue. Those who are unemployed and show little inclination to find a job (how this can be proved we don’t know – AC) would drop down the queue.
It is the latest attempt by the Coalition to tackle what ministers believe is an acute unfairness in the way council housing is allocated. Mr Shapps has already announced that he intends to stop anyone earning more than £100,000 from staying in their council home unless they pay a proper market rent, rather than a subsidised one.
Some councils are already trying to bring in the policy of rewarding those who have jobs in a bid to bring down housing benefit bills.
In Manchester, people who volunteer (for what? AC) or who work or have been good tenants in the past are given priority in council housing allocation.
In London, Newham council is bringing in a similar scheme.
Westminster Council is following suit by prioritising those with jobs and allowing them to leapfrog those who are unemployed, a system that was used in the heyday of council housing in the 1950s.
Alastair Murray, deputy director for Housing Justice, said: “Our concern is that housing is a basic human right and shouldn’t be contingent on someone’s capacity to earn a living.
“Quite a lot of homeless people do work but the kind of work they are able to do is quite unstable so they may not be eligible.
“There is a danger of stigmatising people who are already vulnerable.””
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You can’t help feeling that British politicians seem to be dreaming of a revival of the days of ‘model workers’ housing, like Port Sunlight.
………………Dad comes home from a hard day’s work installing solar panels to tend a row of runner beans in his cottage garden. A golden retriever stands at his side. Apple-cheeked Mum, fresh from her Call Centre, greets her well-scrubbed children, as they do homework for their Free School Business Studies course. There is a well-deserved half pint of mild (2,9% alcohol) in the fridge, and 2 litres of Dutchy of Cornwell Dandelion and Burdock. As they sit down to the meal (selected from the ’5 a day’ portions of meat and veg) together the family talk about the Community Project. Sponsored by Tesco and the Daily Express, they help out with the volunteers who’ve replaced the local Hospital Canteen staff. At that moment Emma Harrison drops in to see how they’re getting on……
This won’t bleeding happen.
Update: Harpy on Attacks on the Unemployed – here.
