Grant Shapps MP: The Coalition's strategy to unlock the housing market

Housing minister Grant Shapps MP kicks off a seven part series of articles by Conservative MPs, each discussing the Coalition's policies to get more people into good homes. Follow Grant on Twitter.

It is simply not acceptable that people in an advanced, civilised society can go without one of the most basic human needs: that of a roof over their head. That homes can lay dormant and empty. That tenants on six-figure salaries can keep the vulnerable out of social housing. That houses can become less affordable, not more. That the property ladder can be pulled up, not lowered. That housing waiting lists can lengthen, not shrink.

That is the reality and that is Labour’s housing legacy. Housebuilding plummeted to its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s. The number of affordable homes available fell by 200,000. The number of First-Time Buyers collapsed to levels not seen since the 1970s. Local authority waiting lists nearly doubled. And whilst the 2005 Labour Manifesto promised home ownership would rise ‘by another million to two million’ by 2010. In fact it fell by 260,000.

But perhaps we should not be surprised. Ed Miliband has admitted that social housing wasn’t important to Labour: ‘We refused to prioritise the building of new social housing’. And Ed Balls confesses Labour got it wrong on housing: ‘Labour’s plans were too cautious… [we] got it wrong... We were late in recognising the importance of building more homes and more affordable homes’.

Grant Shapps MP: How our Tenant Cashback scheme will reward social tenants who sort out their own home repairs and maintenance

Grant Shapps MP is Housing Minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Many Council and Housing Association tenants take tremendous pride in their home, and it’s about time we recognised and expanded this kind of responsibility.

‘Tenant Cashback’ will allow house-proud residents to take over more of their repairs budget and carry out their own DIY or choose a local handyman to do the work. Any savings made will be theirs to pocket.

There are over 4 million social homes in England, and landlords spend an average of £1,000 on repairs on each of them every year.

If you’re handy with a screwdriver, paintbrush or hammer then it’s crazy that you have to call out your landlord to do even the smallest of jobs. You should be able to just get on and do it - hanging on to some of the cash you have saved them. Money you can then put towards whatever you want for your family or perhaps as a deposit for shared equity in your own home.

If tenants step up to the plate and manage to drive down the cost of maintenance then this could lead to them receiving cheques in the post worth thousands of pounds.

And if groups of tenants want to club together then Tenant Cashback can become Community Cashback and the money will go to improve the local neighbourhood. Tenants might decide to invest in Photovoltaic Cells, using the Feed-In-Tariff, or take over a local shop and set up a People’s Supermarket.

Tenant Cashback holds the potential to transfer money to some of the most hard-pressed people in our society in return for taking on greater responsibility for repairs and maintenance.

Both landlords and tenants will share in the benefits of costs being driven down through more proactive local procurement and a greater individual interest in the cost of repairs.

Landlords will be able to use the annual electricity and gas check-up to ensure that property standards are maintained and enhanced. And they’ll get to use their share of the savings to build more homes.

With £4bn a year spent on social housing repairs and maintenance, it’s not hard to see how Tenant Cashback could enhance the lives of millions of hard-working people.

Today I’m launching a pilot involving both Council and Housing Association homes. By the end of this Parliament, Tenant Cashback could be a welcome part of every tenancy; helping social housing to be a springboard to help people make better lives for themselves – as it was always intended to do.

Grant Shapps MP: Free from the strait jacket of central government, local councils must now look to the people they serve

By Grant Shapps, Housing Minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government

Readers of this may have heard of the Stockholm Syndrome – it describes how hostages held by a gang of Swedish bank robbers in 1973 began to sympathise with their captors. It is now an accepted psychological term – and it describes how hostages can be captured not just physically but also mentally. They lose track of which decisions are in their true interests. Some of the hostages in Stockholm even resisted rescue.

I think some councils are in danger of exhibiting similar behaviour – of still looking to central government to tell them what to do when we want to set them free.

In education, health, planning, housing and policing we are decentralising power like never before - to let people take control.  We are intent on creating the Big Society.

For too long central government has had local government in a strait jacket – tightly restricting the movement of officers and councillors, making them bean counters, and form fillers, inspecting this, and auditing that.  It tied them up in red tape and stopped them from listening to their residents.

That led some to make ludicrous decisions to ban things that didn’t need banning and to do things that didn’t need doing.  We need to change attitudes and introduce common sense. Councils and even our citizens have come to expect the state to be looking over their shoulder - more Big Brother than Big Society.