From the archive - week of 15 May

30 years ago

The Conservatives unveiled a radical overhaul of the rent control system as housing took centre stage in the party’s general election manifesto.

Under the proposals, the previous system for housing associations and private landlords was set to be scrapped and rents pushed further towards market levels.

Meanwhile, council tenants were set to be given a choice of landlords under the Tory plans, although the party also outlined a fallback position that would see the compulsory sale of council housing to form ‘housing action trusts’.

Other measures included the protection of mortgage tax relief and curbs on the availability of housing benefit. Labour, meanwhile, promised to strengthen tenants’ rights, increase housing delivery, and impose new construction standards to cover damp, insulation and space.

20 years ago

The long-awaited release of £5bn in capital receipts from council home sales formed a key part of the legislative agenda as Labour revealed its first Queen’s Speech in 18 years.

There was no detail of a timetable for the release of the cash or how it was to be distributed, but the Chartered Institute of Housing estimated it would create 200,000 new or improved homes. Councils with few or no capital receipts would also be allowed to increase their spending.

A Downing Street spokesperson said the amendments to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 would “revitalise social housing”. Despite the absence of a government timetable, Paul Jenks, housing chair at the Local Government Association, said he expected the receipts to be released within the five-year parliamentary term.

Elsewhere, Scottish Homes was under fire for offering only limited support to Scotland’s first black and minority ethnic housing association. Apna Ghar Housing Association struggled to launch for three years, with campaigners saying Scotland’s housing quango refused to back it. They said the offer of £5,000 in “seed corn funding” was insufficient.

10 years ago

An independent review of regulation recommended sanctions for under-performing landlords with more power handed to those living in social housing. Professor Martin Cave’s review was the first of the sector’s regime in three decades.

Professor Cave said that tenants should be paid compensation by landlords who did not fulfil their obligations. He recommended a series of graded sanctions for landlords, with the ultimate punishment being the compulsory retendering of homes where tenants were unhappy with services.

The Putting Tenants First report rejected the idea of self-regulation in favour of a ‘co-regulatory’ regime, under which landlords would send annual returns to a regulator and monitor themselves.