08 February 2008
New housing minister Caroline Flint provoked controversy this week by proposing that council and housing association tenants should be required to sign 'commitment contracts', showing they intend to seek work.
Speaking to the Fabian Society in London on February 5, Flint said it was time to tackle the 'no work' culture on some estates by requiring tenants who are offered homes to explain how they will develop new skills to make them more attractive to employers.
'Many social tenants have a real appetite for change and self-improvement,' she said. 'If we don't work together to unlock their potential, we are failing to live up to our responsibilities.'
Such tenancy conditions would not apply to elderly people or others incapable of seeking work, she added.
But her proposals were immediately dismissed as ill-considered and unenforceable. David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, which represents England's housing associations, said: 'Such a policy would be unfair and impossible to enforce. Many of the jobs open to people, especially at the lower skills end, are insecure or temporary.'
Sarah Webb, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, agreed that social housing should act as a springboard into training and work, but opposed any policy that destabilised vulnerable families by taking away their homes.
'Incentives to train, learn or earn will be more effective than punishment not to do so,' she said.
But Steve Douglas, chief executive of the Housing Corporation, welcomed Flint's speech and said it would give housing associations the opportunity to build on the measures they already had in place to help tenants find jobs.
Just under 12 months ago, a review of social housing by Professor John Hills concluded that the acute shortage of council properties meant tenants wishing to work often could not afford to move as they would struggle to find a new home.
In December, former housing minister Yvette Cooper announced plans for five pilot schemes that would offer tenants more help to find work.
She also suggested that tenants who accepted jobs would receive priority in finding a new council home, but the Department for Communities and Local Government has yet to give further details of either scheme.
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