Find Work Or Lose Your Home, Says Housing Minister

Tenants in social housing, including those on council estates, should be expected to actively seek work or risk losing their home, the new Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, has said today.

In an interview with The Guardian, Ms Flint suggested new applicants for social housing should be given "commitment contracts".

Half of all households paid for by benefits are without work, the Hills report published last February showed. The scheme would not be aimed at genuine incapacity benefit claimants.

Flint has outlined a number of proposals including the suggestion that more jobcentres should be opened within council estates to tackle the pockets of joblessness there and that unemployed tenants should also undertake skills audits.

It is thought to be the first time the government has proposed making a traditional social housing tenancy conditional on seeking work.

The new contracts would apply to new council tenants at first, but could be extended to existing tenants.

Ms Flint also told the Guardian that tenants who moved to take a job would be given priority in finding a new home.

"The question we should ask of new tenants is what commitment they will make to improve their skills, find work and take the support that is available," she said.

Housing charity Shelter condemned the suggestion, saying the government wanted to return unemployed people to the workhouse "by throwing them onto the streets".

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: "What is being proposed would destroy families and communities and add to the thousands who are already homeless.

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