National home swap scheme passes one million enquiries

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing

The Government's national home swap scheme has passed the million enquiries mark since its launch last October.

The HomeSwap Direct scheme givess social housing tenants wishing to swap their home the ability to view every available property in the country.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said the surge of interest from tenants reflected a "dramatic improvement" since the failure of the centrally-prescribed MoveUK service.

Started in 2004, within two years the number of moves had collapsed by half, and there was no clear strategy to improve the situation, Mr Shapps explained.

With over 5,500 searches a day, HomeSwap Direct is proving "popular" with tenants who want to move house, whether to be closer to a new job or their family, or to find a property that better suits their needs.

Until now tenants have been restricted to swapping properties with other tenants in a scheme chosen by their landlord - effectively meaning only a partial swap scheme existed, and often an uphill battle for tenants if they wanted to move anywhere other than the neighbourhood where they already lived. HomeSwap Direct is now giving tenants access to a much wider selection of properties than ever before and boosting their prospects of moving.

The scheme is online, so advertised swaps are much more accessible for tenants and the possibility of moving house is 'just a click away'.

Grant Shapps said: "It's plain wrong that social tenants are barred from the same life opportunities as everyone else. Social housing is supposed to be a springboard to success - but under the old system tenants who wanted to make a longer-distance move had no realistic opportunity of ever swapping their home.

"It's just one example of the lazy consensus that condemned social tenants to be trapped in homes that didn't meet their needs, and blocked their path to aspiration.

"So I'm delighted that HomeSwap Direct is at last giving tenants the opportunities they deserve. Instead of being pushed to the back of the queue, tenants now have more power to arrange their own home swaps and the chance to move anywhere in the country, whether to be closer to a new job or their family, or to find a property that better suits their needs.

"There are some who have criticised the scheme, who'd rather see tenants stay put and make do. But the surge of interest by social tenants has confounded the critics, and proved they are no longer prepared to accept the old way of doing things."