Leading housing consultant calls for compulsory transfer

In a new publication for the left-of-centre think tank the Fabian Society, Jeff Zitron, director of Hacas Chapman Hendy and a researcher at Cranfield University, argued that transfer votes should be scrapped because the choice on offer was “an illusion”.

He said: “Many tenants are simply being asked to choose between transfer to a housing association or no investment.

Instead tenants should be able to choose between alternative landlords, such as housing associations or co-operative organisations.

“The housing association and co-operative sector should be the provider of social housing, not councils … The demonstrable scope of that sector to give tenants greater control should be tapped,” he added.

At the launch of the paper, Transfer of Affections: Housing Policy in Labour’s Third Term, Zitron argued that council-controlled housing no longer gave tenants democratic control over their homes.

“Many of the tenants I meet would question whether they do have a special power over their council,” he said.

He suggested a council should not “be anyone’s permanent landlord”, referring to the conflict between its responsibility to the “greater good” and the individual, which had led to rents and right-to-buy receipts being used to fund other council services.

Housing minister Keith Hill, also at the launch, reiterated the government’s support for transfer and its rejection of a fourth way.

He added: “We want decisions on the way to deliver decent homes to include tenants.”

Professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics agreed that there should be no fourth option and that councils’ political natures made it difficult to manage properties.

“We should never have allowed political landlords. There should be a complete separation between politically driven decisions and the way we manage housing,” Power said.