Report backs end to secure council tenancies | Communities | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Report backs end to secure council tenancies | Communities | SocietyGuardian.co.uk: "Report backs end to secure council tenancies


Matt Weaver
Tuesday February 20, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Council tenants could be forced to prove they still need their homes in regular means-tested reviews, it emerged today.

The proposal, part of a radical shake-up of housing outlined in a government-commissioned report, would end the right to a home for life by giving people fixed-term tenancies of between one and five years.

Under the plan - which the document admits could 'sound outlandish', tenants would be forced to pay more for their home be asked to buy a stake in the value of the property if their circumstances improved.

If children left home, their parents would be forced to move to smaller properties.

The report, written for the government by Professor John Hills, of the London School of Economics, says such system would help free up homes to those who most need them.

'The ability to move 'empty nest' couples or single people might be a way of reducing overcrowding,' it says.

It concedes that the possible loss of a secure tenancy would be 'controversial', but adds that such a move could be needed in order to 'make better use of very scarce and pressured resources'.

The communities secretary, Ruth Kelly, who c"