Caroline Flint’s Guardian piece has certainly sparked a debate. Her big idea – that access to social housing should be linked to an obligation to paid work – is clearly impractical; what about carers, seasonal workers, mature students? How can losing you home help you get work, when getting a job without a home is virtually impossible.
Don Valley, Ms Flint’s constituency, is a ‘pathfinder’ area. Housing is in such low demand that Government is spending money persuading people to live there. Doncaster’s elected Mayor doesn’t even have housing as one of his priorities. It’s a world away from Islington. Here we have 13,000 families on the council housing list, so only the most vulnerable have a hope of getting housed.
Should the youths who hang around on local estates be encouraged to work? Yes, of course. But they are less and less likely to be council tenants. Why should mum or nan be evicted because their younger relatives don’t seek work?
Access to social housing is rightly based on need not virtue. In fact, social housing was partly introduced to protect people from losing their home when they lost their job. Shop-keepers, servants, factory workers, farm-hands, were all at risk of exploitation; mess up your job, and you and your family lose your home.
We risk having not just a nanny state, but a parole officer state. Should needing state help in one area of your life, from housing to health, allow the state to dictate your lifestyle across the board? Too fat? Stay-at-home mum? Not saved a pension? No sympathy from New Labour.
Caroline Flint visited the Market Estate in Holloway last month. The PR talks about understanding the challenges for people living on an inner city estate. I wonder how those tenants (Labour party cheerleaders apart) feel now. Market used to be one of Islington’s worst places to live. Now politicians queue up to visit the rebuilt estate, negotiated by tenants, and delivered by Southern Homes – with £9M from Islington’s Lib Dem Council after Government funding fell short.
Many of the tenants who led that transformation were not in work; but they have made an amazing difference. Perhaps Ms Flint should pipe down until she can say the same.
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