Portillo calls to end life tenancies

Perhaps Mr Portillo would like to consider the disproportionate ratio of available social housing per head of population in the UK compared with other EU nations. The Netherlands is an example at the other end of the spectrum where I believe 1 in 3 homes is rented from a social landlord. There is a housing crisis in the UK and more and more we are relying on Private Landlords to accomosdate vulnerable families and individuals because there is insufficient capacity within the social housing market.

I think about this every day as part of my work and am not uniformed as I am sure is Mr Portillo. However, should we not consider that a more useable solution would be the expansion of the social housing stock. Many housing associations are currently “land banking” for the future as land prices have dropped considerably over the past 12 months due to the economic down-turn.

Re-investment in housing through both new building and the aquisition of foreclosed properties to let to vulnerable families, or indeed the families who had previously owned them surely are a more productive and practical solution that develops capacity. Rather than a “gatekeeping” approach that denies vulnerable families and individuals the access to safe and secure accomodation, and does nothing to develop capacity to meet both future need and existing demand which is currently well over subscribed.

Joe Molloy