ROOF Blog

Michael Portillo former Conservative front bencher has called for an end to security of tenure, saying there are not enough social houses to keep giving people a home for life. He wants to give property to those who have connections with their local area, over new immigrants.

A Conservative Party’s think tank report has called council housing estates ‘broken’ ghettoes dominated by dysfunctional families and blighted by unemployment, crime and drug addiction. The disintegration of council estates has primarily been a result of the long-standing government policy of requiring local authorities to house those with the ‘greatest need’. The report recommends that councils be given the power to choose who they accommodate so that estates have a better social mix with more working families who can act as ‘role models’. The reports also calls for the abolition of security of tenure for council tenants, and says that people ought to be encouraged to move out of social housing once they have the means to buy or rent in the private sector. The recommendations are expected to be adopted by the conservatives as policy.