CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE COST OF TRANSFERS AND EXCHANGES (Hansard, 20 May 1980)

§ Mr. Allan Roberts

I beg to move amendment No. 127, in page 31, line 15, at end insert— ' (3) No local authority may charge fees or may levy any charges in respect of the costs of facilitating moves to and from houses '. The amendment is reasonable and is in the spirit of the tenants' charter, which it seeks to amend. One of the objectives that the Government have claimed for the Bill is to increase mobility within the public rented sector. A general criticism that is made by many people—not least Conservative Members—of the public sector is that there is lack of mobility. The amendment seeks to facilitate mobility and to prevent local authorities 325 from putting a barrier in the way of mobility within the public rented sector. It is particularly important because the Government have failed to include in their tenants' charter those clauses that were in the Labour Government's Housing Bill—which fell because of the general election—that were specifically designed to encourage and develop mobility "n the public rented sector.

Two features of the Labour Bill have been excluded from this measure. The first would have enabled freer access to local authority housing lists for many categories of people. The other would have required local authorities to make available a certain percentage of accommodation for letting to people moving into the area for employment purposes.

I repeat that those two clauses of the Labour Bill have been excluded from this measure. That is strange when one recalls that one of the arguments put forward by the Government for the right-to-buy provisions is that they will help to encourage mobility. Measures to help and encourage mobility in the public rented sector among tenants who do not wish to buy have not been developed in the tenants' charter as one would have wished.

The Government have said that they wish to see better use made of existing housing stock. They wish local authorities to be involved in exchanges and transfers and in allowing people to move freely within their area from one council unit of accommodation to another. It would be difficult to achieve the free movement of tenants between houses within the same local authority area if that authority were to charge fees to those who were allowed a transfer or who had managed to organise a mutual exchange—that is an exchange between one council tenant and another. The amendment would make it illegal to levy such a fee. It would outlaw the charging of fees to people who gain access to a transfer or exchange list or who have been registered with a local authority exchange bureau.

The Minister may argue that the amendment is unnecessary because many local authorities would not engage in the bad practice of levying charges for transfers or exchanges, but there have been instances in which local authorities have levied such charges. There has recently 326 been speculation in the newspapers that certain local authorities have seen this as a way of trying to raise money in the present difficult economic situation, where the rate support grant and other subsidies have been reduced.

If the Government believe that that is a bad practice—even if they argue that it does not often happen—they should ensure by statutory means that it cannot be carried out. The Government have agreed that a large part of the tenants' charter gives statutory backing to what is already good practice and usual custom among progressive local authorities. The amendment would outlaw a bad practice, albeit a practice pursued by only a few local authorities.

Support has been given across the whole political spectrum to the concept of increased mobility. The CBI has written to the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland saying: We are strongly in favour of the easing of residential requirements on the allocation of local authority housing to encourage labour mobility and, to that end, we wholeheartedly support the contents of clause 25 of the Tenants' Rights Etc. (Scotland) Bill ", which are not included in this Bill. The CBI also say: No area of public policy operates more insidiously to restrict the labour market than does housing … No single measure of Government policy is more important