Local decisions: a fairer future for social housing Paul Downie Deputy Director – Housing Management and Performance

2 We need to reform social housing to: Strengthen localism Protect the most vulnerable in society Reduce dependency Make better use of resources Make the system fairer

3 Case for reform Waiting Lists 1.8 million households on waiting lists There are around 50,000 households living in temporary accommodation in England Unemployment Fewer than half of social tenants of working age are in work Overcrowding A quarter of a million social homes are overcrowded, while over 400,000 are under-occupied Mobility Fewer than 5% of social sector households move within the social sector each year compared to almost a quarter of private renters

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5 Tenure New local authority flexible tenancy: minimum two years. Existing tenants’ rights protected Flexible tenants RTB & right to exchange Right to one succession for partners; landlords can give additional succession rights LAs to publish a strategic policy on tenancies Secretary of State to direct on the tenancy standard

6 Social Housing Allocations  Local authorities to determine who should qualify for housing waiting lists. Rules on eligibility set centrally. Existing tenants not in housing need - out of the allocation rules. Protection for the vulnerable provided by the statutory ‘reasonable preference’ criteria

7 Homelessness New flexibility to end the main homelessness duty with a PRS offer Applicant consent not required Minimum 12 month fixed term tenancy Must be suitable Right of review /appeal Duty recurs if unintentionally homeless within 2 years LAs can still end duty with social housing

8 Affordable rent Affordable Rent set at up to 80% of local market rents Local Authorities will continue to have a role in nominations Affordable rent tenants will be eligible to apply for housing benefit. Ministerial statement published 9 December DCLG and HCA will be setting out further details on affordable rent shortly.

9 Empty Homes The New Homes Bonus Inclusion of empty homes to bring empty homes back into use. Removes one of the arguments against new housing – that local authorities should first fill empty homes before building new. £100m capital to tackle empty homes Providing renovation works and management support bringing over 3,000 empty homes back into use.

10 Reform of social housing regulation The TSA will be abolished and its functions transferred to the HCA Stronger mechanisms for tenants to hold landlords to account and drive up service delivery Local mechanisms will be used to address routine problems Regulation will in future be refocused on: proactive economic regulation reactive consumer regulation – setting clear standards and responding to serious failures against them

11 Council housing finance HRA Subsidy replaced with a 'self-financing' system from 2012 Need for annual subsidy ended by one-off reallocation of housing debt between councils In future, councils fund own stock from own rents All councils get more to spend on services than under current system Policy document in early new year setting out detailed policy and financial parameters