CCH Bulletin Summer 2000
What's right about the green paper?
When my eminent colleague from Balsall Heath Housing Co-op in Birmingham, offered to write a 'robust' critique of the Housing Green Paper I had only read the bit in the green paper that refers to housing co-ops. I had respectfully suggested that perhaps his reading of the worthy document might have been inaccurate, and ventured that I might draft an alternative response.
Having now read the worthy document (and if worthiness was to be determined by length, its 175 pages make it very worthy), I confess that I'm finding it hard to defend many parts of it. It starts so amiably - "Our aim is to offer everyone the opportunity of a decent home, and so promote social cohesion, well-being and self-dependence" - and in common with so many other recent government publications, it has its moments in terms of analysis of the problems.
However, perhaps most critically, as I am sure my friend Phil will have pointed out, the green paper does not take on the question that has blighted UK social housing for many years - is its role only as "welfare housing"? Through the worthy document's repeated assertions that "homeownership is the most popular form of housing in England" (I might question how much that is active choice for most people) effectively the green paper concludes that public sector housing is welfare housing, and given that housing green papers come along as frequently as imaginative housing associations, it is enormously disappointing that the worthy document does not present an alternative vision to the one foisted on the UK by Ms Thatcher. Failing to deal with this central issue leads to inconsistencies throughout the paper. There is recognition that the sector has become the "tenure of last resort", and the paper supports the government's wider agenda of tackling social exclusion, but its proposed solution appears to be limited to plonking a few homeowners next door to a few tenants.
Having said this, there are key elements of the "vision" ("We want to establish a sector in which tenants can take responsibility for their homes and are empowered in the decision-making processes that affect their homes") that I could have written myself. Whilst I would share Phil's misgivings about flogging off council homes, at least the worthy document is suggesting that the government wants to see an end to transfers to "large-scale monopoly landlords" and opens up the possibility of transfer to tenant-controlled organisations.
I have to end this brief assessment by throwing in the bit that refers to housing co-ops - "The Housing Corporation is working up proposals to support and develop different types of resident control, including tenant management and full ownership models, such as housing co-operatives, particularly in the context of regeneration initiatives and stock transfers from local authorities." One would hope that this indicates something, although judging by our recent contact with the Housing Corporation, I'm not sure if the government have told them yet that they are working up these proposals!
So what is right about the green paper? Some bits of it - the odd little bit here and there that flickers with a spark of democracy, but its overall vision is disappointing and it doesn't fill me with hope that it will be the clarion call for the big sea-change in culture and attitude in public sector housing, that is so urgently needed in England and Wales.
by Nic Bliss, 20/20 Housing Co-op
