The Sector Skills Council for the places where we live and work
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The Government has published a consultation paper called 'Local decisions: a fairer future for social housing' which describes a significant number and range of proposals for social housing reform in England.
Amongst a range of measures, the Government will introduce a new more flexible affordable rent tenancy. It will be offered by registered providers (typically housing associations) to new tenants at a rent higher than social rent and at a maximum of 80 per cent of local market rents that will be reviewed after an agreed period of time.
Through the Spending Review, the Government will invest £100m to bring empty homes back into use as affordable housing. The Government is consulting on using the New Homes Bonus to provide an incentive for local authorities to tackle empty homes as part of their strategy for meeting housing need.
The Government will introduce legislation to:
The Government plans to introduce a nationwide social home swap scheme.
The Government will introduce legislation to enable local authorities to fully discharge a duty to secure accommodation by arranging an offer of suitable accommodation in the private rented sector, without requiring the applicant's agreement.
The Government is seeking views on the reforms needed to enable local authorities and landlords to tackle overcrowding.
There will be a refocusing of regulation on the areas such as economic regulation and responding to serious service failures. The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) will be abolished and its remaining functions transferred to an independent committee within the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).
The Government will legislate to replace the existing Housing Revenue Account subsidy system with a new self-financing arrangement that devolves power to councils. In addition the scheme will have a mechanism to enable tenants and local taxpayers to hold their landlord to account for the cost and quality of their housing.
