As Labour Party leader Ed Miliband arrives in Salford today, we're sure he will be proud of Salford Council's ongoing drive towards the death of social housing.
First came the privatisation, or `transfer', of the remainder of the city's council houses to Salix Homes, then came its Housing Strategy with the emphasis on working with the private rental sector and private house builders on publicly owned land. Now there's a consultation on changes to Salford Council's allocation policy for getting a socially rented home.
There are twelve areas up for review which include putting families back into towerblocks, new residency tests and penalties which would kick people off the waiting list for twelve months...
FAMILIES INTO TOWERBLOCKS
While, despite the mistakes of the 1960s, there are already families living in socially rented towerblocks in Salford, the Council is now intent on making this official policy. Its Allocations Policy Review states: "It is proposed to introduce a policy of family re-housing into multi-story blocks with a maximum of one child per household where the child is under ten years of age, to a maximum of 10% in any identified block".
KICKING PEOPLE OFF THE WAITING LIST
If someone fails to place a bid for an `appropriately-sized property' within a 12 month period or refuses the offer of a `suitable' property they will be kicked off the waiting list for a year.
NOT ALLOWING PEOPLE ONTO THE WAITING LIST
The Council is proposing that only those who have lived in the city, in `non-temporary accommodation', for a year will be eligible to go on the waiting list. Of course, those probably in most need of being re-housed are precisely those people living in temporary homes. Meanwhile, the rule will be waived only for those in `non-temporary employment', despite the proliferation of temporary, zero-hours jobs.
Salford Council is also proposing to exclude anyone who has a gross joint household income of £60,000 or who has £60,000 in the bank, while it is proposing to maintain the "existing lists of excluded groups" those "with a history of ASB [anti-social behaviour], unactioned rents arrears, housing-related debt, failing to look after the property and people with serious offences"...which could include those falling into debt because of the Bedroom Tax or Salford Council cuts in Council Tax support.
There are a couple of good points too, like more help for those who need specialist housing and those moving on from supported accommodation but the main gist appears to target the reduction of the waiting list, or Housing Register in Salford, using social housing only as a safety net, ultimately producing ghettoes of the poor.
This fits in with Salix Homes documents in the run-up to the stock transfer ballot policy which stated that, post-privatisation, social homes would not be a home for life..
These included statements like "Salix Homes would have greater freedom, for example, in the range and types of tenancies provided and locations/lettings policy", and that there will be the "development of a new tenancy policy" which will "work to change the view that social housing is a home for life towards being a resource for a particular time". Also, that Salix will "Address circumstances where customers' income has improved and there is no longer a need for social housing" (see previous Salford Star article for more details click here).
Salford Council's latest `Homeless Strategy' states that 12.4% of households in the city, or 12,222 households, are on housing waiting lists, and that "The affordable housing need is estimated as just over 1,000 units per year".
Rather than build more social housing, there is going to be a lot less, both with the privatisation of social housing, the increasing use of the private rented sector and the change from `social rent' to the totally misleading and more expensive `affordable rent' (see here).
Meanwhile, the changes to Salford Council's Allocations Policy looks like an attempt to make the horrendous housing list figures look better, rather than an attempt to solve the crisis.
Salford Council currently has a public consultation on the allocations changes ongoing until 25th January. People can make comments by clicking here, downloading the Word document, making comments and sending it back to salfordhomesearch@salford.gov.uk by 25 January 2015.
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