Fed chief to lead Tory mobility panel
The head of the National Housing Federation is to lead a Conservative panel on social housing mobility.
NHF chief executive David Orr will chair a panel of experts looking at ways to help social tenants move house. This includes representatives from local government, the arm’s-length management sector, and tenant groups.
Yesterday shadow housing minister Grant Shapps used a speech at the NHF’s London headquarters to outline details of an affordable housing swap scheme, and announce that Mr Orr would be leading a group looking ‘to work with us to find new ways to inject housing mobility into the sector’.
The swap scheme would be based online, and would use an open format for data allowing entrepreneurs to access the information and set up ‘innovative housing-exchange services’.
Mr Shapps said these might include text messaging of suitable homes, or online tours of available properties.
‘Who knows what great ideas will spring up once we encourage real enterprise and innovation into the house-swap sector,’ he said.
Mr Orr said: ‘I am delighted to accept this invitation to chair the taskforce. It will be a serious opportunity to meet the aspirations of tenants who want to move.
‘I expect the taskforce to examine a number of ideas to make it easier for tenants to move throughout the country.
‘The Federation has already put forward its own proposals on how access to social housing can be improved for tenants wishing to move, whether that be to take up employment or because they’re overcrowded, or for any other reason.’
Earlier this year the Conservatives put forward the idea of introducing a Right to Move that would allow social tenants to force their landlords to sell their home and use the proceeds to buy them one elsewhere in the country.
This has come under fire from the affordable housing sector, and was described by Mr Orr as ‘unworkable’.
Mr Shapps acknowledged the sector is ‘apprehensive’ about such a scheme, and said it would start as a pilot. This will be separate from the housing swap scheme.
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Readers' comments (4)
Melvin Bone | 10/11/2009 9:03 am
Clever move from Mr Shapps.
Better to have people inside your tent.
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Bernard Townroe | 10/11/2009 10:19 am
And a tent is all many can expect from him!
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kass | 10/11/2009 10:59 am
"....Earlier this year the Conservatives put forward the idea of introducing a Right to Move that would allow social tenants to force their landlords to sell their home and use the proceeds to buy them one elsewhere in the country.
This has come under fire from the affordable housing sector, and was described by Mr Orr as ‘unworkable’... "
so Mr Orr, NHF chief executive, finds the first conservative mobility proposal unworkable, invites Grant Shapps to make a speech at (his) NHF’s London headquarters to present a new proposal, which now he thinks is workable and whose panel he can chair... If he wanted to be given the chair of a panel it surely worked very smoothly.
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anon | 10/11/2009 2:19 pm
Mutual Exchange already exists; is this a variation of the old half baked Thacherite idea ( never fully implemented) of freeing up council stock in inner london by moving "the dole scrounging feckless chavs" to sink estates up north and let them rot.
Mobility issue, like most others is governed by £, people on low incomes tend by definition to be stuck where they are.
By the way -What ever happened to the old NHF definition of affordable rent (i.e. 25% net average manual income)?
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