Work to get a council house? Another load of Labour spin

In her first speech in the job, Caroline Flint raised the idea of forcing unemployed people applying for council homes to sign a contract first, promising that they are actively looking for jobs.

At first, she said, the contract could be given to new tenants. But there was no reason why it couldn’t be extended to existing tenants, too.

Last night several critics said the plan evoked images of Victorian workhouses.

But even before the minister stood up to give her speech, the policy was exposed as “classic Labour spin” by her Conservative shadow minister Grant Shapps.

“This is the Government trying to grab the headlines with spin that they cannot legally enforce,” he said. “It sounds tough – but it is meaningless.

“Ministers and local councils have a statutory duty to house homeless families with children. We can’t boot them out of their houses without providing alternative accommodation.”

The attack forced the minister to say she had merely been “thinking aloud” and admit that the plan was not enforceable.

At the heart of Mrs Flint’s concerns are figures that show that of four million people living in social housing across Britain, 2.6million are of working age, yet 1.4million don’t have a job.

Nearly 75 per cent of council  tenants under the age of 25 are unemployed. But, said Mr Shapps: “In her first speech as housing minister we had hoped Mrs Flint would tackle this Government’s appalling house-building record, which has resulted in less social housing being built each year under Labour than in any year under Margaret Thatcher or John Major.

“What we really need is the kind of radical Welfare to Work programme we have recently announced – not more headline-grabbing but undeliverable speeches from ministers.”

Mrs Flint also found herself under attack from charities and her allies on the Left.

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: “The Government wants to return Britain’s unemployed to the workhouse by throwing them on to the streets.

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

“We accept some unemployed people shy away from work, but the Government must find other ways to tackle it, like revamping the housing benefit system.”

Kate Green, head of the Child Poverty Action Group, said the minister’s comments were “insulting” to people facing real difficulties getting jobs.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “The right to a home is fundamental and should not be linked to employment status.”

Left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell said: “The Govern-ment should attack poverty, not the poor. What next? Will it be the novel idea of the workhouse?”

Downing Street signalled last night that it was hanging Mrs Flint out to dry.

Although asked five times whether Gordon Brown supported his housing minister, the Prime Minister’s spokesman would say only that it was a “good issue” for a debate.

Earlier Ms Flint said there was clear evidence that many long-term unemployed living in council housing may be able to find employment.

She raised the prospect of “commitment contracts” in which anyone fit for work agrees to promise that they are actively seeking jobs.

Tenants would also be required to sign undertakings that they are equipping themselves for potential jobs.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: “We make no apology for starting this national debate raising difficult questions – doing nothing is not an option.”

The number of jobless council tenants has risen to 55 per cent since 1981, because better-off tenants chose to buy while the unemployed kept renting.