Social Housing – the outline announcement in the CBR

The Chancellor has outlined the top-level plan for social housing, following yesterday’s reports.

He made the point that, a decade ago, only 1 in 10 households living in social accommodation had someone working. But, as of last year, the figure had risen to 1 in 3. A tripling of the number of council house occupiers who have jobs… and this in a time when there are huge waiting lists.

He has said that existing council tenants won’t have any changes…

… but that new council tenants would be assessed, and potentially have to pay about 80% of market rent.

 

There are, at the risk of oversimplifying, two reasons for his doing this:

1. Bluntly, the need to save money. The more council tenants pay in rent, the less that councils have to raise in council tax to pay for commitments.
2. The logic is that, if benefits are “too good”, then people tend to stay on benefits rather than try to find work. If benefits aren’t seen as an easy option, more people will try harder.

Of course, as an entrepreneur, I still have some problems with the idea that we should “find work”, as if jobs working for other people were the only way to make a living. Personally, I’d rather see a focus on “creating value”, whether that’s finding an employer who lets you maximise and leverage your talents, or by setting up a venture on your own.

So, now we know the outline. It might be a good time to start talking to your local councillor about what the private landlord can do to help the situation!