Katy Balls Katy Balls

Theresa May’s social housing plans are another step away from Cameronism

These days Theresa May has less time to spend distancing herself from her predecessor. With blue-on-blue warfare rife and her premiership at a continual rocky patch, the Prime Minister’s priorities tend to be getting through the day/week rather than killing David Cameron’s pet projects. However, this week’s social housing green paper serves as a reminder of the difference in their approaches.

After leaving the coalition government, Nick Clegg recalled a senior Conservative minister telling him: ‘I don’t understand why you keep going on about the need for more social housing – it just creates Labour voters.’ This dismissive attitude to social housing could be found in the policies the Cameron government adopted. As housing minister, Grant Shapps sought to oust the ‘quango’ and closed the Tenant Services Authority. Meanwhile, David Cameron and George Osborne brought in ‘affordable rent’ as a new type of social housing that didn’t involve building houses.

So, in a way, the fact that the government have even released a green paper on social housing this week is a sign of a new approach. The document lists a series of ideas to improve the system for residents in council homes and housing associations. In the aftermath of Grenfell Tower, Theresa May and her ministers are trying to say that they take social housing seriously.

Among the policy ideas are a strengthening of tenants’ rights, more attractive buildings, landlord league tables, better support for tenants and the use of schemes like ‘right to buy’ to try and help residents to build equity in their homes at the rate of 1pc a year. There’s also talk of updating the decent home standard – the minimum standard for council and housing association properties in order to ensure they are safe.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in