Frank Field targets 'fairness' in housing association allocations with new bill

Labour MP Frank Field has targeted fairness in housing association allocations in a new bill introduced to the House of Commons under the Ten Minute Rule Motion.

The bill would ensure that the allocation of social housing is done on the basis of giving priority to tenants with an "exemplary tenancy record".

Mr Field told MPs that those judged good citizens could form a "premier division" who would have first choice of all social housing that becomes available.

The bill would also place a duty on housing associations to inform potential tenants about the conduct of existing tenants in neighbouring properties.

This would, he said, "bring on side" housing legislation with people's "gut feeling of fairness".

Mr Field's bill was granted a second reading on 30 March, however it is unlikely to become law due to a lack of parliamentary time.

Explaining the objectives of the bill in his column for the Wirral News, the Birkenhead MP wrote: "Three aspects of local housing association policy makes many of you angry. The first is how houses are allocated. Many of you feel that constituents who don’t play by the rules, get the best housing when it becomes available.

"The Bill I introduced on Tuesday will ensure that those tenants get housed, but only after those families who, work hard, and whose children do not cause a problem, have selected the houses they would like.

"Complaint number two centres on the way many housing associations seem to parachute neighbours from hell from one area into another. The Bill will give tenants the right to be told about the conduct of new tenants and have the right to object.

"The third deeply felt grievance comes from tenants who unsuspectingly choose a property, move and then find that they had landed themselves next to one of those chaotic neighbours from hell. Under the Bill tenants will have to be told why previous tenants have vacated their tenancy.

"My Bill will put housing associations on the same footing as owner occupiers wishing to sell. A homeowner, plagued by anti-social behaviour, has to inform potential buyers of such information, or face the possibility of being sued for misrepresentation. The same law will apply for housing associations.

"Of course this doesn’t increase the numbers of new homes. It makes the allocation of existing homes fairer."