Many tenants are perfectly capable of taking more responsibility for the care and maintenance of their property: our new tenant cashback scheme will help them to do so.
Of course there are some important points to consider in the design of cashback schemes, including the need for proper insurance, and for landlords to keep an eye on the condition of their properties. We will explore all these issues in full as we pilot the tenant cashback scheme - and I applaud the innovative spirit of Home Group, Hastoe and Green Vale, the housing associations which have agreed to begin pilots.
We know, too, that the amount spent on repairs will vary from place to place - £1,000 per property is the average annual figure drawn from data collected by my department and the regulator. But we also know that there are hundreds of thousands of responsible social tenants more than capable of taking on repairs, and many imaginative social landlords which want to support them. As we extend the scheme further, we will make sure landlords have the scope to design schemes to meet local needs.
Tenant cashback has potential to make a real difference to millions of lives. I know that many housing professionals are motivated by exactly that ambition, and I look forward to their help in making this scheme a reality.
Grant Shapps, MP, minister for housing and local government
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Readers' comments (1)
WATT WATT | 28/04/2011 9:57 am
What would make a difference to tenant’s lives is:
social housing rents that don’t require a housing benefit / top up / put working tenants in to HB system;
social housing rents that don’t exclude transfer applicants from mobility (RSLs are only going to be interested in 80 % incomers, not existing tenants). The 80% rents will put / keep tenants in benefit system not liberate;
go back to drawing board and re-think 80% rents, and recently launched First Buy – same old in different wrapping;
realistic purchase schemes – not 10% share of £300k properties that tenant can never fully own.
Affordable should mean just that – based on earnings allowing complete ownership, not flimsy share of;
re-introduce a portable discount based for social housing tenants based on tenancy length and working circumstances allowing current tenants to move out and empty an occupied property for a waiting list applicant;
designate blocks of un-sold shared ownership properties that have been publicly funded to 60s age group plus (no exception except their carers) which might give that age group confidence to move out of their current under-occupied home;
proper regulation of RSLs including FOI act;
a dedicated programme of building fair rented genuinely affordable accommodation starting today funded by Government and RSLs sweating their assets – much of which attained through public money – grant or HB;
“imaginative social landlords” – your current policies result in imagined social housing.
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