Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

7.43 The scheme is not about setting tenants up to fail by enticing them into unsustainable home
ownership, it is seen as a means of introducing more mixed tenure on single tenure estates.
7.44 Furthermore, choice-based lettings schemes (CBLs) are to be taken up by all local authorities by
2010, so that tenants can choose where to live rather than having a home ‘allocated‘ to them.
As CBL becomes more widely adopted it has implications for the RHS:
• potential for movement regionally through sub-regional CBL development
Regional Housing Strategy for the East of England: 2005–2010
• potential for movement inter-regionally – probably most significantly with the South-East
and London regions.
7.45 Taking the pilot CBL programme as a whole, the development of support for vulnerable groups
was an area of weakness. The dominant approach to supporting vulnerable and excluded groups
was to use a representative organisation to provide support. Problems with this were that with a
decentralised approach, not all vulnerable groups had a representative organisation to support
them. There may be regional or sub-regional initiatives that could help.
7.46 ’Supporting People’ (SP) has a role to play in developing CBL with vulnerable groups in mind.
The release of interim accommodation should have a positive weighting. There should be a referral
mechanism and it should link into CBLs and be tied up with support packages. There needs to be
a SP perspective on how these schemes can be fair and equitable as SP is part of the solution.
7.47 The ‘balance‘ of housing tenure types will be monitored through the Annual Monitoring
Report.
7.48 The RHDG will support the development of CBL through the sub-regions by providing
information exchange on good practice and links to regional representative agencies for
vulnerable groups.
7.49 The RHDG will ensure that its membership encompasses private sector landlords to
ensure that issues can be properly addressed.
7.50 The RHDG will ensure that significant plans for expansion in higher education and the
potential impact on the housing market are monitored through the relationship with
EEDA.
7.51 Those developing Local Development Frameworks should take the potential need for
live/work space into account during consultations with local communities.
Policy framework: providing mixed communities and widening
choice
Mixed tenure Mixed tenure is an important mechanism for creating mixed
communities that in turn can help enhance social connectedness
and networks. The EERA/RHB will use investment to promote
mixed tenure on all new developments, pepper-potting low cost
home-ownership and rented homes in new developments with no
segregation in location or design, including reducing the visible
differences between private and social housing. Similarly, the
EERA/ RHB will support interventions to change the tenure mix on
existing social housing developments where there is an imbalance
of household types.
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