Shapps: New Rules to End Prejudices about Social Housing

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has claimed that new 'flexible tenancies' will help end long-held prejudices about social housing and ensure it once again becomes a springboard for success. Mr Shapps said the flexible tenancies will end the "lazy and patronising" perception that social housing is a dead-end option for life. He claimed instructions published this week will ensure that councils and housing associations will, for the first time, have genuine freedom to ensure that more people benefit from social housing. Starting next year, new tenants will now get the helping hand they need "for as long as they need it", rather than a single option of a home for life, ensuring more social homes are available to people who need them. Mr Shapps said for too long social housing has been seen by many as a second-class option, and these changes would restore its original purpose - to provide a flexible alternative to help tenants achieve their aspirations. Read more on 24dash.

Major Landlords to Offer Short-Term Tenancies

At least three major housing associations have said they will seek to introduce minimum tenancies of less than the default five years proposed in the government’s Localism Bill. A sample survey by Inside Housing of 25 of the largest associations in England - which own 767,000 homes between them, according to Tenant Services Authority figures - revealed 18 plan to implement fixed-term, rather than lifetime, tenancies in some form for new tenants, pending approval from their boards and councils. Three plan to keep lifetime tenancies and four have yet to decide. Home Group, Bromford Group and Trafford Housing Trust, which own and manage 80,000 homes between them, said they would offer two or three-year tenancies in some circumstances. Read more on Inside Housing.

MPs Rebel against Plans to Scrap Tenancy for Life

Thirty-eight MPs have signed a motion rebelling against government policy on scrapping tenancy for life. An early day motion, laid by Labour MP Austin Mitchell, and signed by members of the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, calls for a re-think of reforms to social housing. It says plans to introduce fixed-term tenancies and to charge tenants 80 per cent of market rent will ‘lead to increased rent arrears, evictions and homelessness.’ The motion criticises the new ‘affordable rent’ model of raising money for new affordable housing development by charging tenants up to 80 per cent of market rents. Read more on Inside Housing.