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Rented Housing

The system is completely inadequate. Unfortunately, as long as the system exists, the Government will use it and there will continue to be perverse consequences. I do not think that the Government should set rents at a national level—that is the problem with the housing revenue account. I just hope that we can get out of it as quickly as possible, as it is a disaster. The previous two Housing Ministers recognised the principle that we need to do something about it; it is a question of finding the mechanism to achieve that. With regard to other issues that needed to be addressed, we mentioned the Hills report, and we look forward to the Government's recommendations. In relation to allocation policies, it is important that we make best use of the housing stock. There is a problem with under-occupation. We need to make transfers easier for people who have outgrown their family houses because their children have moved on and there are now only one or two older people living in them. If we can make it easier for them to transfer to purpose-built elderly persons' accommodation by building more such accommodation, that would be useful. I very much welcome Hills's comments about getting more recognition of such matters in housing allocation systems. I understand that that is very difficult to do in London, because the crisis is even more severe there, but in places such as Sheffield we could give more priority to people who want to move for good reasons. The classic case is the elderly couple who say, ““We look after our grandkids when their parents go to work and it would be easier if they lived nearer to us. A house has become available down the road and they only live four miles away. Why can't they move?”” Then suddenly they find that a homeless family who have been on the list for a few weeks turn up and occupy that house as the new tenants. Often, people just do not understand that. They say, ““Well, why couldn't that homeless family, who have been on the list for only a few weeks, move to the house that my son and daughter-in-law were in, so that they could move nearer to us?”” There is a logic to that thinking. We need more flexible allocation policies, because transfers have almost dried up. People know that if they are allocated a house as an ALMO tenant in Sheffield, they are almost stuck there. The chances of being able to move or of having a choice to move anytime in the future have almost gone. There are issues to be addressed in that respect. As has been said, decent homes has been a wonderful policy. The other day, I was with an elderly couple whom I have known for years. They moved into their pensioners' flat and then had the kitchen and bathroom done up and new windows put in. They think that all their Christmases have come at once. They are absolutely delighted. I saw the smiles on their faces and their great pride in their home. Sheffield Homes has done an excellent job; the quality of the work is good. We need to know where we are going from here, because ALMOs such as Sheffield Homes are thinking about their work programme for the future, and are again looking at reducing staff. It is always a problem in the construction industry that there are peaks and troughs in the work load, which make it impossible to continue such programmes. I welcome the setting up of the Tenant Services Authority. We had a good Select Committee evidence session with the new chief executive and chair the other day. I hope that they will drive up the quality of management in many housing associations; the Housing Corporation has not been tough enough on those issues. I welcome the commitment that they have given, which we explored in our evidence session, to try to link the funding of the building of new houses by housing associations to those housing associations that have a good track record of management. In the past, there does not seem to have been a great link-up and associations with poor management records often received funding to build more houses. I look forward to ALMOs coming under the TSA remit, to which I the Government are committed, perhaps in the next two years, so that we have a consistent regulatory approach. The TSA can do quite a lot to link housing associations and ALMOs together, so that there is greater co-ordination of management approaches, particularly on open space or in areas where housing associations have very few properties and do not have a local presence. In such circumstances, they can contract out their management to other associations or ALMOs. I hope that the TSA will encourage them to go about that process to improve management quality. We recommended that the housing ombudsman should cover all aspects of housing, including local authorities and ALMOs, so that there is a consistent approach in relation to the ombudsman service as well. I shall make a few comments about the private sector. It is such a mixed bag of housing of differing quality, and a more consistent approach is needed. I am pleased that the Rugg recommendations largely go along with our recommendation of a light- touch licensing arrangement for all private sector housing, which would be a massive step forward. At the same time, the Government should consider improving the licensing arrangements for houses in multiple occupation. The definition whereby there must be five persons or more, or three storeys or more, before an HMO qualifies to be licensed under the arrangements is far too narrow. Many HMOs in Sheffield do not have three storeys, but they still need to be part of the licensing arrangements. I hope that the Government will reconsider that. I hope that they will also accept the Rugg recommendation on the regulation of letting and management agents. It is perverse that if someone buys a house through an estate agent, they have access to a redress scheme, but if the same agent lets them a house, they do not have access to such a scheme. We should put that right. Another issue arising in the private sector is a particular problem in London. I think that we were all shocked when we went to the flat in Westminster and talked to the woman there. Her rent had just been increased to £400 a week for a property that had been built by the local authority with public funding. It had been bought under the right to buy, sold on to a private landlord and then passed back to the local authority to be let to a homeless family and managed by a housing association. [Interruption.] That is quite right. The public sector was paying £400 a week in housing benefit to keep the person in the property, which is absolute nonsense.