Policy may 
force sole tenants to give up 
big homes

Rotherham Council currently has more than 27,000 people on its housing list, including a growing number of families who are living in “overcrowded” accommodation.

Officers say that the authority currently owns 260 houses with either four, five or six bedrooms, and 117 of those properties are occupied by just one person.

The housing list also has 83 families with between four and eight children who are currently overcrowded in their current home and have “priority” to move.

Council bosses said the policy would not affect its current tenants, but could be applied to people who move into large houses in future, to free them up for families.

The Strategic Tenancy Policy, as housing officers call the new document, would allow them to house families on fixed-term tenancies, rather than the current tenancy-for-life arrangement.

In a report on the idea, Wendy Foster, the council’s social housing officer, said people signed up on fixed tenancies would be made aware that they could be asked to move out.

She added: “In the absence of legislation which would give landlords the option of moving under-occupying households to smaller properties, due consideration should be given to offering longer length fixed-term tenancies for four, five and six bedroom homes.

“This would enable larger families to have security of tenure while their children are still living at home.

“The length of the tenancy could vary depending on the age of the applicant’s children, but could extend to an 18-year fixed term tenancy with the option to offer a second fixed term if required.

“Applicants would be aware of the temporary nature of the tenancy prior to bidding through the property’s advertisement.

“Households would remain the tenants of Rotherham Council at the close of their temporary tenancy but would be offered a permanent, secure tenancy in a smaller property which, where possible, would be allocated in the area of their choice”.

The council recently trialled what it called a voluntary “downsizing” scheme, which offered assistance to single people and couples living in houses with more than four bedrooms.

But Ms Foster said that only two couples and one single-person household had agreed to move to smaller properties, with the remainder opting to stay where they were.

Some residents have reacted with anger to the scheme, saying they had invested time and money in their council house and did not want to leave their home of many decades.

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