Troubled Families Could Be Banned From Spending On Alcohol and Tobacco

Iain Duncan Smith has asked his officials to see if so-called ‘problem’ families should receive their welfare payments on smart cards, rather than in cash.  The cards would only be able to pay for “priority” items such as food, housing, clothing, education and health care. Duncan Smith wants to stop parents who are alcoholics or who are on drugs from using welfare payments to fuel their addictions.  The team of civil servants in his department have been asked to come up with proposals by the end of this month.  However the Government cannot currently stipulate how people spend their benefits money and the law would need to be changed to do so for certain groups.  One idea is for the 120,000 problem families who were identified in the Government’s riots review to be given the Oyster-style cards.  A source close to Mr Duncan Smith said: “There are people who are using benefits to fund a habit and children are going hungry.  “It is something that he is serious about – if he can make it work and he can legislate then he is very keen to do it.”  Read more on the Telegraph website.

London Council Offered Homes in Manchester and Walsall

Croydon Council has confirmed that it has been offered nearly 100 properties in Greater Manchester and Walsall by a property developer as it seeks solutions to the borough's housing crisis. The council recently called for a "serious debate" on the acute housing crisis facing the borough after a national newspaper claimed it was moving homeless families to Hull.
The council confirmed it was having discussions with councils in other parts of the country, such as North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Kent and Sussex, and said much of its spare capacity was taken by 58 households displaced during August's riots. Now it has emerged a property developer has offered the council nearly 100 homes to ease the housing crisis in the borough that has seen the number of households in emergency accommodation, such as bed and breakfasts, jump from 61 in 2008 to 300 in 2011. Read more on 24dash.

Report: ‘Housing Staff Should Police Riots’

Front line housing staff should ‘patrol the streets’ to prevent future riots, according to the official report into the summer’s disturbances. The recommendations were published in the communities and victims panel interim report into the riots which spread across England in August. The report was commissioned by the government. The report warned that without urgent action the riots ‘will happen again’ and continued ‘Local authorities should engage all front line workers (e.g. neighbourhood wardens) when there is a risk of rioting, for example to patrol the streets.’ It added that local authorities ‘should consider asking charities and housing associations to help prevent disturbances’. Social landlords immediately raised significant concerns about the recommendations. Download a copy of the report from the 5daysinaugust website.

Riot-Hit Council to Review Tenancy Rules

A council at the centre of the riots that swept England in August is considering changing its tenancy agreements to make it easier to evict badly behaved residents. Hackney Council wants to change the rules so it can evict tenants who are responsible for ‘anti-social behaviour, harassment, domestic violence or nuisance’ anywhere in the borough. The current agreement refers to ‘your home or any part of the estate or neighbourhood’ in relation to anti-social and nuisance behaviour. Hackney Council is seeking the views of tenants of its arm’s-length management organisation Hackney Homes on the changes. Consultation forms were sent out to tenants this week. Read more on Inside Housing.

No Evictions Campaign Targets Council Leader

Nottingham City Council leader Jon Collins was targeted by anti-evictions campaigners who demonstrated outside his home on Hucknall Road. Collins was singled out as having made threats to evict the families of those found to be involved in the August riots. Campaigners have also leafleted affected families offering practical support. They call the moves to evict council tenants “spiteful” and say they should be fought. Read more on the Nottingham Indymedia website.

Council Housing: Evictions – Parliamentary Written Answer

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) guidance has been issued to and (b) discussions he has had with local authorities on the eviction of council tenants from their homes if they, or their family members, are convicted of criminal conduct resulting from the public disorder of August 2011.
Grant Shapps: No guidance has been issued to local authorities on the eviction of tenants if they or their family members are convicted of criminal activities during the recent disorder. The Department for Communities and Local Government is however currently consulting on proposals to extend the existing discretionary ground for possession for antisocial behaviour to include tenants or family members who have been convicted of the sort of criminality witnessed during the recent riots, wherever that criminality took place.

Tenants to Be Trained To Take Control of Their Neighbourhoods Post-Riots

In a move designed to strengthen tenants’ say in the running of their local communities after the rioting earlier this summer, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced new training to give them the skills for running local 'tenant panels'. Mr Shapps said that the recent riots showed that when communities come together to take a stand against those inflicting damage and disorder, they can have a real impact; the new training and creation of tenant panels would put powers back into the hands of tenants and give them a greater say on the running of their local community. And he highlighted how more people came out to clean up after the riots than participated in the riots themselves. He said that nobody knows their neighbourhoods better than tenants themselves and giving them real power to take control of local housing, could lead to services being better shaped around individual and local needs, benefiting everyone. New powers in the Localism Bill propose to give tenants the opportunity to lead their local communities and be given a direct say on how the issues that matter most to local people - such as repairs, anti social behaviour and estate management - can be better tackled, by enabling tenant panels to consider complaints before referring them to the ombudsman. He announced that a registered charity The National Communities Resource Centre has been awarded £535,000 to deliver training and support to empower tenants to set up groups to lead on the management of their social housing. Read more on the CLG website.

Benefit Reform Is ‘Anti-Family’

Government proposals for housing benefit reform would break the prime minister’s pledge that all national policies should be ‘family-friendly’, leading housing organisations have warned. David Cameron announced that ministers will review domestic policies to ensure they pass a ‘family test’ as part of its response to the riots in England. Helen Williams, assistant director of the National Housing Federation, said plans to cut the housing benefit of social tenants deemed to be under-occupying their properties from 2013 will force 670,000 households into debt and should fail the test. She said: ‘It will hit families who want their adult children to come to stay and it will also hit foster families because foster children are not counted as part of the household for the purpose of housing benefit.’ Read more on the NHF website.

Housing Sector Launches Inquiry into English Riots

Social landlords and their communities are being asked to devise solutions that will help prevent a repeat of the recent riots in England, as part of a major new study. The Riot Report, launched by Inside Housing, the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation, will seek the views of communities and housing professionals across the UK to find out what steps can be taken to help prevent a repeat of last week’s violent scenes, which left homes and businesses destroyed from Southwark to Salford. The launch of The Riot Report, which will conclude by Christmas, follows a pledge by David Cameron to launch a ‘social fightback’ that would ‘turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in the country’ by May 2015. Read more and find out how to contribute to the debate on Inside Housing.

Charity Demands Policy Rethink In Wake of Riots

A charity has called on the government to rethink policies that might harm families in the wake of the riots across the country recently. Prime minister David Cameron said that he would look at introducing a ‘family test’ for new government policies to ensure that changes are in the interest of families. He also promised to help 120,000 of the most troubled families by the end of this parliament. But the Child Poverty Action Group said that proposals to cut benefits need to be reconsidered if Mr Cameron’s plan is to work. Imran Hussain, head of policy at CPAG, said: ‘If the government’s thinking about prioritising families, then it needs to rethink the policies harming families. Attacking child benefit, cutting tax credits and reducing support for childcare all flunk the family test, hurt families and weaken our society.” Read more at the CPAG website.

Shapps Backs Eviction for Rioting Tenants

Grant Shapps has pledged to support landlords who evict tenants found to have been rioting. The housing minister stated: ‘I will back social landlords who evict tenants involved in any rioting.’ Mr Shapps’ comments follow a statement from Greenwich Council saying the authority would seek to evict council tenants found guilty of criminal acts. Several other Councils have now followed their lead. Read more on Inside Housing.