David Cameron: Council houses 'should not be for life'

COUNCIL houses should no longer be granted "for life", David Cameron suggested yesterday, in a bid to make sure those in most need can access accommodation.

The Prime Minister said it made sense for tenants to be given fixed-term deals in future, so they could be moved on if their circumstances changed.

He spoke out after being questioned by a mother of two teenagers who said she had slept on a blow-up bed for two years because her local council could not find her a bigger house.

Any move towards reform would cause "a big argument", he conceded, but added that he believed it was right to look at a more flexible system.

The government was investing more money in social housing, he told the woman, who raised her case during a public question-and-answer session in Birmingham.

"But there is a bigger question here, which is: how do we make sure people are able to move through the housing chain?

"At the moment we have a system where if you get a council house or an affordable house it is yours forever, and in some cases people actually hand them down to their children.

"Actually it ought to be about need. Your need has got greater … and yet there isn't really the opportunity to move."

Mr Cameron said many councils operated successful "swap" schemes to match tenants.

He added: "But there is a question mark about whether we should we be asking, actually, when you are given a council home, is it for fixed period, because maybe in five or ten years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won't need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector.

"Do we want to reform tenure to enable people to move through housing rather than seeing it as something that you either get — 'great, I've got my council house' — or you don't get — 'bad, I'm sleeping on a blow-up mattress'.

"So I a more flexible system — that not everyone will support and will lead to a quite a big argument — I think makes sense."