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 30 August 2008 07:25 BST

Work required of council tenants

Tuesday, 05 Feb 2008 15:16
Caroline Flint claimed that council housing tenants should actively seek work

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Housing minister Caroline Flint has proposed that unemployed people in council housing should be made to actively seek work as part of their tenancy agreement.

Ms Flint told the Guardian, in her first interview since becoming housing minister, that the tenants would also be made to take skills tests.

More than half of the people of working age who live in social housing are unemployed.

Nearly three quarters of under-25 residents are also without paid work.

Ms Flint said that people should not simply be handed the keys to a property and left alone.

"The question that 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.

She also suggested that living in social housing may deter people from becoming employed due to the cultures of "no ones works round here" that exist.

"If you are in a family, an estate or a neighbourhood where nobody works that impacts on your own inspiration. It is a form of peer pressure," the housing minister said.

Ms Flint claimed that jobcentres would be opened within the estates to encourage the residents to gain employment.

And that people who moved to take a job would be given priority in finding subsidised housing.

There has however been some fierce criticism to the proposals, Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson declared: "The government wants to return Britain's unemployed to the workhouse by throwing them onto the streets.

"What is being proposed would destroy families and communities and add to the thousands who are already homeless."

Ms Flint took over as housing minister in the cabinet reshuffle following former work and pensions secretary Peter Hain's resignation.End of story


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