Councils to be allowed to recognise "local connections" in housing policies
Councils will soon be free to acknowledge “local connections” in their policies for allocating social housing, according to the Housing Minister.
Grant Shapps told the Sunday Times: “It causes a great deal of concern and is very problematic for social cohesion when people find they aren’t provided with any preference when they are actually in the area they have lived in a very long time.”
The minister said need would remain a criterion but that councils and housing could be allowed to take into account “the desire of local people” in developing their policies.
He added: “Apart from a limited number of prescribed cases – homelessness, for example – there should be flexibility to write your own waiting list criteria or your own housing allocation criteria.”
The broadsheet suggested that town halls would be given freedom to write their own rules for waiting lists under a package of proposals to be unveiled this Autumn.
The reforms could, the Sunday Times claimed, see:
- An end to the “council house for life”
- Rewarding people with a history of working, with local authorities allowed to scrutinise applicants’ records of National Insurance contributions
- Forfeiture for tenants found to have illegally sublet their council properties
- Councils able to take account of demographic factors, and
- Less prescription from central government about who should and should not be included on the list.
The proposals will be put out for consultation before being included in the Localism Bill.
