Government consults on 'right to move' for social housing tenants

The Government is consulting on ways to make it easier for social housing tenants to move around the country to take up job offers.

Under the ‘right to move’ they would not have to re-start at the back of the waiting list for social housing when arriving in a new area.

Tenants relocating for work would benefit from either a new ‘reasonable preference’ category for housing allocations, or from strengthened statutory guidance that would direct local authorities to apply the existing ‘hardship’ reasonable preference category to include people moving for work or training.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “We want to make sure that people who have a social tenancy but need to relocate to a new community because of work or training will no longer find themselves back at square one – at the back of the housing waiting list in a new authority area.

“Councils will have to work together to make sure tenants across the country will not have to make the choice between employment and housing.”

The consultation proposes new statutory guidance requiring councils to set aside at least 1% of their stock for tenants who need to move because of work or training.

There will also be a new fund – of as yet unspecified size – to help some councils pilot new ways of helping those intending to move to their area for work.

The consultation paper noted that tenants may have felt “trapped” in their existing accommodation, since there was no clear expectation that councils should support those needing to move for work or training, and they would have lacked the local connection to a new area usually demanded for social housing.

According to the consultation, only 46% of social renters of working age were in employment in 2012-13, against 87% of owner occupiers and 74% of private renters.