Home Swap Service to Tackle Welfare Reform

Social landlords are to set up a national mobility scheme to help tenants move to avoid the impact of the government’s welfare reforms and to find work.  The scheme, which the CLG is considering part-funding, is understood to have secured support in principle from around 15 social landlords.  Under the scheme, landlords in high-demand areas will work with those in areas of low-demand to see whether tenants can be moved.  A proposal document suggests the service could help those hit by the bedroom tax and benefit caps. It could also help people who want to move for work or are homeless or living in overcrowded conditions.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Welfare Changes: Explanatory Video

Barnet Homes - which manages 15,000 properties on behalf of Barnet Council - has produced a short film to explain the under-occupancy rules that will reduce housing benefit payments for hundreds of the borough's residents from April 1.  The film - 'Benefit changes: What you need to know' - sets out how the imminent bedroom tax will affect people and what options are available to them to cover any shortfall in their rent, such as advice on exchanging homes.  The film also covers the benefit cap and the advent of Universal Credit.  View the film on youtube by clicking on the Barnet Homes logo below.

Homeswap Direct Offers Fresh Opportunities for Social Tenants

The Government's new national 'HomeSwap Direct' scheme will make it easier for tenants living in a council or housing association home to find a new property in another part of the country. HomeSwap Direct will mean that for the first time there will be a system in place across the whole of the UK, meaning that tenants looking to move, whether for a job, to be near family or to a property better suited to their needs, will be able to see all the available homes across the whole of the UK, not just those on the website subscribed to by their current landlord. Some councils such as Kettering already run localised schemes but Homeswap Direct will link them all together across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Read more on the CLG website.

Home Swap Database to Be Shelved

The government has quietly shelved plans for a single national database of social tenants looking to move home. As part of its green paper on social housing reform published this week, the Communities and Local Government department confirmed that it would launch a national home swap scheme to improve mobility for tenants. But officials have privately admitted that there will be no national home swap database as the government originally planned. Data will instead be shared between private companies which are already offering exchange schemes. Read more on Inside Housing.

Report of the Mobility Taskforce

The Mobility Taskforce came together in autumn 2009 at the request of Grant Shapps to develop proposals to increase mobility for social tenants. Recommendations focus on creating opportunities for people to move by making the best use of existing homes. They are about improving existing tenants' chances of moving through mutual exchanges (or swaps) and transfers. The report has now been published by the NHF and a copy can be downloaded from its website by clicking on the logo below.

Social Housing Exchanges - PWA

Grant Shapps MP: What information is held on the number of social housing tenants in each local authority area who have requested an exchange in the last 12 months?
Ian Austin MP: There were 14,300 local authority dwellings let through mutual exchanges between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008, reported through the 2007-08 Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA). The 2008-09 HSSA will be published on 26 November, 2009. Information on registered social landlord dwellings let through mutual exchanges is not collected centrally.

Social Rented Housing - PWA

Grant Shapps MP: What consideration has the Department given to the introduction of a national social housing exchange (a) programme and (b) website?
Ian Austin MP: Trends in social housing exchanges are monitored through the 2007-08 Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA); the Department has no current proposals for the introduction of a national scheme.