02 May 2008
Housing association tenants have dismissed suggestions that they find it more difficult to get jobs because they live in social housing.
Just 5% of tenants surveyed by the Housing Corporation thought the fact that they rented from a registered social landlord made it hard to find work, compared with 16% who believed their attempts to gain employment were affected by where they lived.
The study of 1,400 tenants, members of the corporation's residents' panel, follows a proposal earlier this year from housing minister Caroline Flint that tenants moving into social housing should sign 'commitment contracts' demonstrating their willingness to seek work.
New housing association tenants are three times more likely than other households to be unemployed. A study in 2006/07 found that half of working-age tenants who moved into social housing lacked jobs.
Last year, RSLs spent £210m on training initiatives – half of which was paid for from public funds. But the survey suggests that most programmes are ignored by tenants.
Just 6% of the panel thought their housing association was doing anything in the community to help tenants find a job, or get a better one. Asked what services RSLs should provide, 23% said they should encourage business start-ups, with a similar number suggesting they should take on tenants as employees.
While just 15% of tenants thought that living in social housing affected their opportunities to succeed, 31% said it affected how they were viewed by other people.
'It would seem that there is a subgroup of tenants who feel disadvantaged by their tenure,' says the study, published by the corporation's Centre for Research and Market Intelligence.
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