Council homes at risk in government shakeup
The UK government is currently looking into the situation regarding lifetime tenancies for council homes and the possibility of reviewing housing arrangements on a regular basis. The green paper announced today on social housing appears to indicate that a form of means testing would be instigated in the future and any tenants who could in theory afford their own home could find themselves forced out.
There is a suggestion by housing associations that the move to review use of the 2.8 million council homes still available in the UK is an attempt to deflect criticism of the government's lack of affordable housing. We may have the situation whereby a less well-off person or family are evicted from their home in order to make way for people in a worse situation than themselves. Quite how this is going to pan out in the long term remains to be seen as many who could be potentially affected may well have nowhere to go.
While these moves are still at a very early stage there is concern that we are starting to see a sea change in the government's policy towards council housing which could place many families and individuals in financially challenging situations.
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