Housing changes - housing benefit, no council housing for life etc

26 replies

limonejelly · 10/10/2010 12:42

Have namechanged for this as I dont want to out myself in RL.

I am going to a housing related meeting this week in which these are the discussion points:

These include capping of housing benefits, withdrawal of council houses for life, partial devolution of priority setting for social housing lists to local authorities and devolution of affordable housing target-setting to local areas.

I think I have clarified what I think about it - am terrified that am going to go along and be completely out of my depth yet at the same time want to put my views across.

I just wanted to know if anyone had anymore arguments for or (mostly) against some of these things.

It is slightly confusing as its hard to speculate without knowing the outcome of the housing benefit changes - ie how many people will be moving to the outskirts of cities etc and therefore what provision will be needed in future.

OP posts:

Chil1234 · 10/10/2010 13:01

The end to 'council houses for life' issue is relatively easy to argue for, I think. Council houses are allocated strictly on need. If the need changes then the housing should match. Council houses for life implies that requirements never change and, as a result, we end up with big families in B&Bs whilst lone occupants sit in a big house that once housed their own big family. A five-yearly review of housing needs should be enough to let a tenant feel reasonably secure in their accommodation but, at the same time, everyone would know that they may be offered larger/smaller housing after that point or even be asked to move on to private rental if their income had radically improved.

Arrangements for existing tenants should be reviewed on a case by case basis to avoid the PR disaster of 'throwing little old ladies out of their home of 50 years' headlines. But the contracts for new tenants would be finite.

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