Policy Hub
On 30 January 2009, the think tank Policy Exchange published a report (The right to move: a new agenda for social housing) which proposes that every social housing tenant should have the right to require their landlord to sell their current property and replace it with one of the tenant’s choosing.
The report looks at the history of social housing and reflects on its potential value to society as well as highlighting what it considers to be the limitations of the present system.
The report advocates giving tenants with a good record the right to move. As such, existing social tenants would have the right to select a property on the open market comparable in value to their existing home.
The landlord would sell the one and buy the other. While there would be some costs associated with the transaction, the report suggests that it would serve to empower tenants, allowing them, for instance, to move to get work, reducing unemployment, or to take a better job, raising tax revenues. It could also serve to place the neediest social tenants in more mixed communities and provide greater incentives for social tenants to care for their home and community.