Local homes

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 | By Jules Birch

The debate about immigration and housing is as much about perceptions as facts. 

And so, depending on your point of view, it’s obvious that immigrants are jumping the queue even if the facts demonstrate that it’s a myth that they are.

I’m not sure how much difference ‘enabling local authorities to give more priority to local people and those who have spent a long time on a waiting list’ will make in practical terms. 

Housing minister John Healey has been making it clear that this does not mean ‘changing the requirement to give priority to those in serious housing need’. Doing so, as the Conservatives argue, would probably be illegal.

‘Local homes for local people’ is also potentially contradicted by another part of the reform package - expanding choice-based lettings to make it easier for tenants to move around the country to look for work. 

Which brings me back to perceptions. The study for the Local Government Association and Equality and Human Rights Commission last year that showed that only 2% of people in social housing were born outside the UK and also identified that the vast majority of new migrants go into the bottom end of the private rented sector. 

But it also provided one reason why tenants may perceive there to be more of a problem than the allocations stats imply: some of that private rented sector is former right to buy council homes. How are nearby tenants to know that the family of Poles in the flat along the corridor is renting privately rather than jumping the queue?

And they could even be renting from other tenants. Which is why, in terms of making more homes available, a third part of the package, a crackdown on illegal subletting, could have just as much impact. Nobody knows the true scale of the problem but it is thought to be widespread, especially in London. 

The most recent annual report of the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative outlines how Southwark recovered 30 homes, with another 19 in the pipeline, that could be reallocated to genuine tenants. But it also invited the government to review the fact that illegal subletting is not a criminal offence (obtaining a tenancy by deception is).

Those 20,000 extra new homes in the next two years will also help perceptions - even though not all of them are for rent and they will not be enough to stop the waiting lists rising. Freedom for local authorities to build will also help since it will start to make local politicians less impotent on tackling the issue. 

But perceptions are also created by the terms of the housing debate in mainstream politics and the media. Once coverage of this package dies down it seems a fair bet that both will continue to be dominated by home ownership and the aspiration to it. Little wonder that myths have the chance to become facts. 

One place to start could be the low-cost home ownership programme. For years it has been a way for the government to show that it is in tune with voters’ aspirations to home ownership and for housing associations to generate cash. It could be - and marketing and eligibility rules could be changed to reinforce the message - about local homes for local people.