Guardian UK: The 'localist' assault on social housing

The 'localist' assault on social housing
The localism bill sets the conditions for US-style mass private landlordism and a revolving door of housing need and insecurity

Glyn Robbins
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 May 2011


The localism bill, the legislative framework for the "big society", gets its third reading in parliament this week. Amid the furore over NHS privatisation, potentially far-reaching changes to planning, public services and particularly housing have had less attention. The Con-Dems are using the easy rhetoric of the golf club – cutting waste and bureaucracy, promoting individual freedom – as camouflage for an attack on the welfare state and the poor.

But the bill is riddled with contradictions. The aim of simplifying the planning system is nothing new; as a senior planner told me: "I've seen it all before." There's a legitimate debate to be had about planning and how disconnected it is from public concerns, but that's not what the localism bill is about. While trying to appease its core support by appearing to give more control over what gets built where, the government knows there's a chronic housing shortage. It wants to encourage developers by simplifying the system, while giving local residents the tools to delay and veto new homes. At the same time, local authorities are being offered cash to approve house building, but the budget for affordable housing has been slashed by 50%. Localism will create a lawyers' field day, but do nothing for the 5 million people on housing waiting lists.

The most cynical aspect of the bill is the expectation that communities will bid to take over and run public services, at a time when hundreds of libraries, children's centres and other vital facilities are being forced to close by the cuts. People won't feel "empowered", but may feel compelled to fill the gap. But the appeal to volunteerism conceals the bill's potential to allow the private sector, sometimes masquerading as "non-profit", to bid for public sector contracts and assets.

However, while the outcome of some of these reforms is uncertain, the most concrete impact of the bill will be felt by housing association and council tenants and the homeless. In the name of "flexibility" the government wants to force people out of their affordable rented home after two years if they "no longer need it". The bill will also allow councils to restrict access to housing waiting lists, thus reducing the figures for housing need by massaging the numbers. In a triple whammy, localism will also allow councils to house homeless families in the unregulated private rented sector. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/18/localism-bill-social-housing

The Cameroons would love to turn Britain into something resembling red-state, right-to-work America.