LAWN chief writes to housing directors to find out why Northern landlords aren't interested
The head of A flagship tenant relocation scheme has written to Northern councils asking they are not taking the opportunity to fill their empty homes with Southern families.

The LAWN (London Authorities West and North) project helps families move from social housing in the South to lower-demand areas in the North. But it is facing a huge backlog because of a lack of enthusiasm from large social landlords in the North.

About 1000 families from the capital are currently waiting to move to areas such as Lancashire, LAWN claims.

Chris Wood, director of housing at Newham council in east London, chairs the scheme, which was set up by the Association of London Government in 2000. He said: "Several hundred people have left [to date], but we're having trouble getting some of the bigger landlords biting. So we're raising the stakes by writing to the housing directors of some of the big councils such as Manchester and Birmingham to ask why."

Kate Worley, head of the LAWN project at the Association of London Government, said: "If more people don't join in, the allocation process will slow down because it's only really smaller landlords that are taking part just now and their options are much less than areas such as Greater Manchester."

Tenants are referred to LAWN by 38 councils in London and the South-east. There are 40 recipient councils in the North, but, Worley said, there need to be about 200 recipients for the scheme to operate properly.

Officials from LAWN made a presentation to the North-west Housing Forum just before Christmas, but it is understood that what they had to say was poorly received.

Jonathan Ellis, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, said: "As far as I can see, the reason is that the North doesn't want problem tenants from the South. They are suspicious that London authorities simply want to offload those people they don't want to deal with.

"I've met people who've moved to Burnley and had their lives changed as a result of LAWN. We've got to work harder to convey the incredibly positive messages this creates."

A spokesperson for Manchester council said: "You've got to have a complete package and ensure there's the jobs and services to go along with any new people. Right now, Manchester has a lot of housing issues but we will respond once we have received the letter."

Source

Housing Today