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From the archive - Gordon Brown plans housing market reform as part of bid to join the euro

Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week five, 15 and 25 years ago

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25 years ago

Twenty-five years ago, councils were bracing themselves for the introduction of new competition rules for housing. Confusion over what was going to happen made front page news in the magazine.

Compulsory competitive tendering was coming to council housing services – but no one knew exactly what would be included, or how the rules would work. Would services to run waiting lists, housing nominations or sheltered housing be included? Despite a tight timetable, central government had yet to say.

Councils worried they could be accused of acting ‘anti-competitively’ if they got contracts wrong.

Meanwhile, councils said they needed to be able to take quality into account, rather than just opting for the lowest cost option. They also wanted to be sure that tenants could choose to pay for a better service.

15 years ago

Fifteen years ago was a different time for the UK – not least when it came to the EU. Today we might be contemplating break-up plans, but back then Gordon Brown – as chancellor in Tony Blair’s government – was planning a reform of the housing market in order to bring about the conditions for joining the euro.

Mr Brown famously set five economic tests for the UK economy before we could adopt the euro, which in the end were never met. His aim was to reduce volatility in the housing market which he thought was standing in the way.

“Most stop-go problems that Britain has suffered in the past 50 years have been led or influenced by the housing market,” Mr Brown said. He promised reform of the market to correct this – although without giving details of what that would entail.

Mark Lupton, policy analyst at the Chartered Institute of Housing, believed there was a good chance of action as “Brown runs domestic policy generally”.

However, Peter O’Kane, head of housing at the Association of London Government, warned it could take at least 10 years to alter the market.

Picture: Getty

Five years ago

A Scottish housing association decided to write off unpaid bedroom tax from some of its tenants.

East Lothian told Inside Housing it would pay the bedroom tax for tenants it believed were unfairly hit.

Martin Pollhammer, chief executive of the association, said: “Trying to collect payments from people who have no means to pay them is a waste of our time and resources.”

About 23 of the 117 of the association’s tenants would qualify for having their debts written off.

The decision was to cost the association about £13,000 a year. The decision, a year later, by the Scottish Government (Scottish Parliament pictured above) to abolish the bedroom tax would have meant these costs wouldn’t accrue to East Lothian.

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