Housing Homeless is a duty, say Flint opponents

A defiant Caroline Flint last night stood by her controversial plan to make new council tenants seek work as a condition of their tenancy, even though the proposal was greeted with widespread condemnation by housing experts.

The Labour MP Austin Mitchell said: “She must have flipped,” while Downing Street said merely it welcomed the debate. Some saw this as an attempt by No 10 to distance themselves from the housing minister’s first political intervention in her new job, but the prime minister’s spokesman emphatically denied such an interpretation.

Flint told the Guardian on Monday of her idea that new tenants would sign “commitment contracts” agreeing to look for work as part of their tenancy conditions. If they failed to do so, they could lose their council homes and the contracts could be extended to existing tenants in future. A Department for Communities and Local Government spokeswoman said Flint was aware that her proposals, delivered again in a speech to the Fabian Society, were going to provoke a strong debate, but she did not see it as an option to leave a generation of young council tenants without pressure to seek work or train.
Flint, who is MP for Don Valley, said her proposals were aimed at tackling the culture of “no one works round here” and included opening up more job centres on estates. Critics said the proposal was unworkable since councils have a statutory duty to house the homeless. When asked whether Gordon Brown was in favour of the idea, his spokesman said: “[The prime minister] thinks, in principle, it’s a good issue to be debated.”

The shadow housing minister, Grant Shapps, said: “Ministers and local councils have a statutory duty to house homeless families with children and so they can’t boot them out of their houses without then providing alternative accommodation.”

However, other senior Tories said they were impressed by the proposals.

The chief executive of the National Housing Federation, David Orr, said: “Such a policy would be unfair and impossible to enforce. Many of the jobs open to people, especially at the lower skills end, are insecure or temporary. Also, people with health problems, such as mental health issues, may find there are periods when they cannot keep up their job.”

The chief executive of Shelter, Adam Sampson, said Flint’s ideas would send Britain back to the Victorian era. “What is being proposed would destroy families and communities and add to the thousands who are already homeless.

“We accept there’s a problem with some unemployed people shying away from work, but the government must find other ways to tackle the issue like revamping the housing benefit system.”

Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the Local Government Association, asked: “Who would not get a tenancy? A couple with kids where the man is workshy? A single mum who didn’t get much education and would actually be worse off by working because, despite family tax credits, that is still the situation for many? The woman, and it is usually a woman, who cares for a whole range of people in the family and in the community who hasn’t got time for a job but we would have to spend a fortune to replace her? If they did not get a tenancy, where would they go? On the streets?”

Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, said: “We are totally opposed to this proposal. Social housing now contains some of the most vulnerable people in society.

“Our experience at Crisis shows that encouragement and enablement – and not threats – are the way to help homeless and vulnerable people to build independent lives.”

Statistics reveal the number of unemployed council tenants has risen by 20% to 55% since 1981.