[KF] Social housing residents would benefit from the opportunity to move home through a national mobility scheme, according to a report published by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and eight leading housing associations.
Research to inform Mobility Matters: Exploring Mobility Aspirations and Options for Social Housing Residents has found that out of 4 million social housing households nationwide, nearly 680,000 expressed a strong desire to move to a different home, of which 128,000 would like to relocate to a completely different part of the country.
The report concludes that a national mobility scheme would offer residents additional housing options to meet the needs of changing households. It would also help make the best use of existing social housing stock by freeing up much-needed larger family homes, encourage economic mobility, promote community cohesion, and assist in creating opportunities to improve quality of life.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Trevor Beattie, Director of Corporate Strategy at the HCA, said:
"We believe opening up opportunities for national mobility is an important step in helping to meet resident aspirations as well as making the best use of existing social housing and promoting community cohesion.
"We fully support the recommendations of this report, which challenges us all to improve mobility options for residents, where geographic boundaries become no obstacle."
Vicky Bonner, of Affinity Sutton, one of the eight leading associations involved in compiling the report, said:
"The report sets out some important elements for any new scheme and, importantly, identifies a demand that is currently not being met."
Although some transfer options already exist for social housing residents, they tend to be locally focused or operated on a mutual exchange basis which relies on the compatibility of the exchanging residents. As a result, these options will rarely be realistic for all residents.
Mobility Matters concludes that a national mobility scheme could be viable and makes recommendations for housing associations wishing to explore a pilot. The recommendations include:
A representative sample of 1,280 social housing residents was interviewed, backed by focus groups with residents, landlords and their staff. Of the residents wanting to move, most tended to be younger and/or with families and were likely to be living in a flat rather than a house.
Almost half (45%) of those wishing to move cited their current neighbourhood as the reason and 31% want or need a bigger home. Eight per cent of residents wanted to move to be nearer to friends and family. The South East and South West were the most popular destinations.
The proposed framework for the national mobility scheme would create additional opportunities for mobility and add to the existing sub-regional and regional mobility schemes.
The eight housing associations involved in compiling the report were Affinity Sutton, Home, Metropolitan, Notting Hill, Places for People, Riverside, Sanctuary and Sovereign.
The research was undertaken by Campbell Tickell with funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
National Mobility Scheme Needed to Make Best Use of Housing Stock
Research to inform Mobility Matters: Exploring Mobility Aspirations and Options for Social Housing Residents
Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps asked National Housing Federation (NHF) chief executive David Orr to lead a taskforce which will explore how to increase social housing mobility.
Mr Shapps made the invitation during a speech at the NHF's central London headquarters. He used his speech to housing association chief executives and other senior figures in social housing to announce Conservative plans to improve mobility for social housing tenants. He said the taskforce would be made up of leading figures from across the social housing sector.
Commenting on the taskforce, Mr Orr said:
"I am delighted to accept this invitation to chair the taskforce. It will be a serious opportunity to meet the aspirations of tenants who want to move.
"I expect the taskforce to examine a number of ideas to make it easier for tenants to move throughout the country.
"The Federation has already put forward its own proposals on how access to social housing can be improved for tenants wishing to move, whether that be to take up employment or because they are overcrowded, or for any other reason."