Rent and Tenure reform

As part of the Government’s Compehensive Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne announced a new ‘affordable rent’ scheme, which would allow social landlords such as local authorities to charge new tenants a weekly rent up to 80% of market rates. Provision for this is in the Localism Bill currently progressing through parliament. 

The Government initially stated that it wanted this new programme to help deliver 150,000 new social homes to 2015, although recent bids by local authorities and housing associations for HCA funding under this programme have suggested that 170,000 homes may be built in total. It is not only new social homes that may be at 'affordable rents' - a proportion of existing social homes that become vacant will also be converted to 'affordable rent' homes.

The Government has confirmed that existing social tenants will retain their security of tenure, maintaining the ‘council homes for life’ which were introduced in 1980. However, it has also said that it will now give local authorities the right to issue 'flexible tenancies' to new tenants, which can be as little as two years long.

London Councils is lobbying to ensure that these reforms are intrduced in a way that works for tenants and boroughs