QUALITY AND CHOICE: A DECENT HOME FOR ALL
The Housing Green Paper
In his forward John Prescott states: "Above all it is a Green Paper about quality and choice"
Whose choice tenants choice or government and their agencies choice? We cannot find our choice as an option as far as we can see this is Hobson's Choice. Our choice is to remain with our council under the same arrangements that we have now with proper funding from government. This option gives us the best option because along with other advantages like our secure tenancies we have the added ability to influence our landlord through the ballot box and the democratic process at local elections. This we feel gives us a very strong influence on the effective management of our homes. This is a very powerful incentive to concentrate the minds of elected members and officers to the needs and aspirations of not only it's own tenants but of the wider population of Doncaster in relation to the services our Council provides.
John Prescott goes on to say: " We have made a start by devoting an additional £5 billion in the lifetime of this Parliament to raising the quality of social housing" Big deal! Over the same period Gordon Brown will have extracted on average £1.4 billion per year out of council tenants through the continuation of the "Daylight Robbery" housing benefit scam he is operating.
The obsession with home ownership by both this and the previous Government is a major concern. Why is home ownership been promoted at the cost of a quality council rented sector? Of course people want to be homeowners if this is promoted as the be all and end all of society today. Be a somebody in life, be a homeowner not a nobody just a council tenant. Which would you choose when it is portrayed like this? When will someone in Government and its agencies promote the local authority rented sector as a flexible high quality provision of housing that a great deal of it is today. Yes there is no denying we have far too many substandard properties but who's fault is this, not local authorities like Doncaster who have always shown a very responsible attitude towards the care and maintenance of its housing stock and tenants. We feel the Government has the means to support Council Housing but what they lack is the will, maybe they feel like the last Government that there are few votes to be gained in this sector of the population come election time.
George Brumwell UCATT (At the time a Doncaster Councillor) at a Homes and Jobs Conference in Doncaster in 1990 stated: "There seems to be a stigma attached to anyone who wants to rent their home in this country. I cannot, for the life in me, see why this is so. People rent their homes for all sorts of reasons. Not all people want the bother of owning a home. Many people will never have the finance to be able to buy their home. Renting your home makes for better mobility of labour. Every other major country in the world has a thriving rented sector. Why does the UK put such high priority on home ownership?"
This statement could have been said today even though we have changed the Government the policy and attitude towards local authority housing is still the same.
A visiting overseas social housing expert stated: -
"In Britain house ownership has often been proposed as a panacea for a range of social, economic and psychological difficulties" he went on to say " To a large extent Britain has got a more humane and generous approach to housing than other, ostensibly richer societies. This is largely due to the size and quality of its local authority housing, which despite what its critics would say, is probably the best managed, publicly owned housing stock in the world." Quite an accolade, but sadly it is often the case that we do not always appreciate what we have until it is gone and it's too late then, there is no putting the clock back. Unless there is a major rethink in Labour policy this could be the epitaph to Council housing.
Over many years we have worked extremely hard with our authority to build up a strong working relationship that has brought with it a high level of tenants consultation and participation. At first when the Tenants Compacts documents came out we could not see why it was needed, what added benefits were in it for us, we already had involvement at the highest level. We have representation on the Environment Health & Housing Board, the Area Housing Panels, tenants forums, all housing working groups and down to individual consultation in areas where work was been planned. On reflection we thought it would give us the opportunity to revue what we had in place, look at any additions we thought would enhance our agreements with the Council and to formally lay out the agreed levels of involvement in the new document for all to see. Following a great deal of hard work and good will on the part of the working party made up of elected members, housing officers and tenants we were proud to launch our Borough wide Compact in the Mansion House on 21st June 2000. Why should we now risk all this plus our security of tenure, which we have had to fight every step of the way for? We have a quality service delivered by dedicated staff, all we need from government is a fair benefit system and proper funding so that our Council landlord can deliver what both they and tenants want. "Greater empowerment of tenants to enable them to exercise choice" says the document. Why does the word hypocrite spring so readily to mind? Choice, yes, as long as it's one of the governments chosen options for us. Thanks but no thanks.
The green Paper seems to confirm a desire on the Governments part to introduce compulsory licensing of houses in multiple occupation, this we feel is very welcome but we feel the Government should go further and have licensing for all private landlords, this would cut down on benefit fraud and other undesirable activities. We feel something should be included that makes sure that rents reflect the quality of property been let in the private sector similar to the point system that the local authority operates for its tenants. In our rents setting policy we operate a point system which means that those in the best properties with the most amenities pay the highest rents with those in the poorer quality home having this reflected in their rent levels. The Government deserve congratulations for trying to tackle some of the problems of the private rented sector but it is a minefield in which they will have to proceed with caution. With a shortage of properties to rent in some areas unfortunately too many people have to rely on these landlords for a roof over their heads and a threat of withdrawal of their accommodation before other alternatives are available would be a housing disaster for some of the most vulnerable people in our society today. The best of luck on this one.
Young people and their housing needs are at the present time affected by what is known as the Single Room Rent restrictions is an issue which we are disappointed that the government has sidestepped. There have been changes proposed but nothing that will help young tenants who find themselves having to pay a large part of their rent because it is so much greater than the housing benefit they are granted for such accommodation. They can find themselves in arrears and threatened with eviction and indeed in some cases on the street homeless, this can lead them into turning to prostitution and crime to pay their way. These most vulnerable people are easy victims to the drugs pushers as is shown in a part of Doncaster where we have a group of very young prostitutes who are heroine addicts and find themselves stuck in a spiral that they cannot get out of
More flexibility in lettings policy is very welcome, we have already been reviewing our lettings policy here in Doncaster, piloting innovative ideas in areas which are hard to let etc We believe that just because we choose to rent we should still have the freedom to choose the type and location of our homes the same choices as those who decide home ownership is for them so moves within the Green Paper to give greater freedom of choice is welcomed. In areas where there are long waiting lists and acute shortages of all types of accommodation this is going to cause serious management problems, more homes for rent at affordable rents need to be built and urgently.
The changes regarding homeless families and their rights in regard to housing waiting lists, allocations and choice still leaves areas of concern but is a step in the right direction. Allowing councils the freedom to nominate a length of time rather than the two-year period at present should give both councils and prospective tenants greater choice and flexibility in the period between when they become homeless and finally get a settled home.
In 1945 Minister of Health - Aneurin Bevan stated: "Before the war the housing problems of the middle classes were roughly solved, the higher income groups had their houses, the lower income groups had not. We propose to start to solve the housing problems of the lower income groups. The emphasis of our house building programme will be housing to let, that means we shall ask local authorities to be the main instruments for the housing programme". Local authorities like Doncaster responded positively to this action and this is when we had the large growth in our council stock especially the non-traditional type like BISF, Easiform etc. Many of these homes are a headache to local authorities today and we need reciprocal positive action from Government to our needs now. He went on to say the main disadvantage of such a policy was that, "You have colonies of lower - income groups living in houses provided by the local authority and you have the higher income groups living in their own colonies, this segregation of different income groups is a wholly evil thing from a civilised point of view". In certain respects the Right to Buy changed this as here in Doncaster about one third of what was council stock is in the hands of home ownership. Housing Association new build attracts two types of tenants because of their rent levels either those who can afford the higher rents or those who do not pay rents because of their income levels this if government is not careful will create ghettos of benefit recipients and not balanced communities.
A great deal of this Green Paper just tells us what we already know. Give us a fair deal, with the tools and resources necessary to carry out the job and we are confident that our Council landlord and ourselves will be able to make our corner of the world a much better place to live, work and play.
Moira Hood, Secretary.
