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The beginning of the end for fixed-term tenancies in social housing
Housing associations’ decision to turn away from fixed-term tenancies is another rejection of David Cameron’s attempt to impose a new philosophy on social housing, says Peter Apps
David Cameron first announced plans to scrap lifetime tenancies for social housing in 2010. “There is a question mark about whether, in future, we should be asking when you are given a council home, is it for a fixed period?” he said in a speech.
“Because maybe in five or 10 years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won’t need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector.”
Well, perhaps this is the week that question mark is finally removed.
Mr Cameron always faced opposition. Prevented from axing them altogether by his coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, he instead made fixed terms an option for social housing tenancies from 2012.
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When he finally got unbridled power after the 2015 election, he proposed legislation to try to “phase them out” altogether – which would have given all new tenancies five-year terms.
This was upped to 10-year terms after strong opposition in the House of Lords, but it was never brought into force, and in the Social Housing Green Paper in the summer, it was dropped completely.
Now, as we report this week, housing associations are moving away from fixed-term tenancies altogether.
This started with L&Q in September, and has continued in recent weeks with Peabody and Sanctuary.
We reveal this week that Optivo and Thirteen Group will join them – and at least a dozen more organisations have this type of tenancy under review.
As the first five-year terms came to an end, this was always going to spark a review. Part of this is practical.
With many tenancies simply renewed as a matter of course, there is little point using the ever-stretched time of frontline staff to carry out this costly admin.
But a bigger part is about philosophy. L&Q has talked about the feelings of insecurity that come with fixed terms.
However much you reassure tenants that their term will be renewed, if they only have five years of security, a home does not feel like a home.
“Communities depend on residents’ security and ability to put down roots, as well as on that far more intangible quality: a sense of belonging. To get a social home should mean to get this”
Some associations will decide that fixed terms remain a useful option for certain tenants. But it now looks likely that their use, already in a minority of new tenancies, will dip to a tiny fraction.
The truth is that lifetime tenancy is defended because it has always been seen as a defining factor of social housing.
Communities depend on residents’ security and ability to put down roots, as well as on that far more intangible quality: a sense of belonging.
To get a social home should mean to get this.
Mr Cameron’s plans to reform the social housing sector took a different philosophical view: he wanted social housing to be a stepping stone to homeownership, to the extent that it existed at all.
Over the past three years, we’ve seen this philosophy eroded, with a more visible housing crisis and the Grenfell Tower tragedy pushing the government towards a more compassionate route.
There remains a long way to go.
But as housing associations move away from fixed terms, it appears that Mr Cameron’s vision for social housing may end up being as short lived as one of the tenancies he sought to introduce.
Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
