There is a lot in common between the policies on social housing announced today by Grant Shapps. None of the policies appeared in the Lib Dem Manifesto. Apart from better mobility, none appeared in the Conservative Manifesto, which promised to “respect the tenures and rents of social housing tenants”. Apart from the HRA reform and empty homes, none made it into the coalition agreement. The common thread is that they have all been thoroughly undemocratically arrived at and the British people were not told any of it at the Election.
The truth is that these policies have all been developed in the back channels of the Conservative Party. One document recommended virtually all the policies now adopted by the coalition. A Localis pamphlet written by the Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Stephen Greenhalgh, and John Moss, in 2009, called ‘Principles for Social Housing Reform’, proposed ending security of tenure, raising rents to market levels, and removing rights from homeless people. There is only one serious departure – Greenhalgh and Moss accepted that there would have to be a commensurate increase in housing benefit payments to enable rents to rise so high – and the government hasn’t taken that one on board.
Dave Hill in his London blog traces the contact between Greenhalgh and the Tory front bench. The more they met, and the more the front bench distanced themselves in public from the more extreme policies, the more committed they seem to have become to implementing them if they won.
There is little doubt that social housing has suffered from a great deception.
We will have more about the new policies on Red Brick shortly, but the government’s consultation paper can be found here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/1775577.pdf
The Tory back channel policies can be found here: http://www.localis.org.uk/images/articles/Localis%20Principles%20for%20Social%20Housing%20Reform%20WEB.pdf
And Dave Hill’s history can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2009/oct/05/stephen-greenhalgh-housing-policy-timeline
Those that like to follow the personalities in housing as well as the policies will be interested to know that Greenhalgh and Moss specially acknowledge the help of “two extremely influential couples” – Julie Cowans, co-author of Visions for Social Housing, and David Cowans, Chief Executive of Places for People; and Nick Johnson, Chief Executive of H&F Homes and Kate Davies, Chief Executive of Notting Hill Housing Trust.
As Stan Laurel once said, “Here’s another nice mess I got you into.”