We need change...

As readers of Inside Housing, I am sure you don’t need reminding that over the past 13 years, the number of families waiting for a council or housing association home has almost doubled. That has meant that there are now 5 million people in England left languishing in the queue.

As housing professionals, I know you are all too aware that the problem doesn’t just affect those waiting for a home - it also affects existing tenants. Far too many families who would like to move for family or employment reasons are effectively left trapped, convinced that the council will consider their needs less important than those of the record numbers of people on the waiting lists. The current system is far too rigid and offers no opportunities for a localist approach to meet local needs. This is only highlighted by the fact that in 2008, less than a quarter of new lettings went to existing tenants. I am looking to social landlords up and down the country to reverse this trend and improve the opportunities for their tenants to move.

That’s why I have launched plans for a national home swap scheme, which will be open to all 8 million social housing tenants in England who will for the first time be able to see details of everyone looking to exchange homes - not just in their area but across the country. This will put tenants firmly in control of where they want to live and much more able to move - whether that be for a new job, to be closer to family, or any other reason. It will strengthen tenants’ rights and security - they can move without losing their foot on the housing ladder.

We must also build more homes - which is why we will introduce a new homes bonus to reward councils which approve new homes and improve building levels that have been declining under the previous government and are at their lowest for any peacetime year since 1924.

But something also has to be done to make better use of our social housing, especially when we spend billions of pounds on building affordable homes and subsidise the rent by about £35 a week. The prime minister’s discussion in Birmingham has sparked an important debate over what that should be.

Let me be clear - as the prime minister was - that the coalition government is committed to protecting the tenancy agreements and rights of people already in social housing. But in the case of new tenants in the future, surely it is right to ask: just because somebody is in need at some point in their life and, therefore, gets a council home, do they necessarily need it forever?

This should be a matter for open debate - one that is very important to millions of tenants and the millions of people on the waiting lists. And as part of the debate which the prime minister has started, we want to hear from you as experts in the field who will, I am sure, have a wealth of experience to contribute.

Grant Shapps is the minister for housing and local government