We don't need no ... allocations

Such descriptions may seem rather extreme, but whether or not you agree with them, they reveal a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the current system of social housing allocations.

Lambeth's statement came last month as it announced that, come the autumn, it will have abolished the points-based system of allocating homes to people, in favour of a "leaner, cleaner" waiting list. Only emergency cases will be given priority treatment by the south London council, with others simply waiting their turn. "Queue jumping is being abolished, applicants can only move forward in the queue, and the council will stop trying to play God by deciding who is not in need."

Tenants will be able to choose their preferred area and type of home and will be advised on how long they are likely to wait. Lambeth tenant Janice Owen said: "It makes a welcome change to see the council treating tenants as individuals and being respectful of their wishes."

At a London Housing Federation conference today (Thursday, 22 July), Gerard Lemos will claim this choice and flexibility is missing from the bulk of allocation systems.

"If you are accepted onto the waiting list you may not get permanent housing, but even if you do, you are unlikely to have much choice about where it is," he will point out.

"Even if you are housed in the local authority area of your choice, your wish to be near family and friends or to an educational or training institution is unlikely to feature in the decision about what accommodation you are offered."

Lemos, of consultants Lemos & Crane, claims that housing officers persist in believing "that people will do as they are told about how long they must wait and where they must live."

Not only is this out of date - it clearly doesn't work.

Some 60 per cent of councils have a problem with low demand or unpopular housing, Lemos points out. Just over 11 per cent of council homes and nine per cent of housing association homes are difficult to let. In Bradford there are areas of acute housing shortage despite an overall surplus of housing in the city. In Cambridge, some social housing cannot be let despite an overall shortage of housing.

"If housing shortage were the cause of homelessness, no one would be homeless in Newcastle, Manchester, Oldham and another 90 areas at least," Lemos claims.

Need is not the same as demand, and while housing benefit is still available at current levels, it is no surprise that many people - including the most vulnerable homeless people - opt for the greater freedom of choice in the private rented sector.

"That those who are homeless will accept and be grateful for what is made available to them has proved an evanescent fallacy akin to demand for Trabant cars the night before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989," Lemos will say next week. "A long queue thought to stretch many years into the future simply and suddenly vanished at the first awakening of choice. Something similar is happening in social housing."

Lemos argues that the allocations system should be replaced by a system of "social housing choice", where - as with Lambeth - applicants, not councils, make the decisions. He suggests social landlords should also get into the business of homes for sale and to let at market rents.

Lemos is also calling for a "millennium amnesty" for those who have previously been excluded from social housing tenancies, with risky applicants asked to sign an agreement about their future conduct. He claims that without such a move, the government will be unlikely to meet its target of reducing rough sleeping by two-thirds by 2002.

A survey by homelessness charity Shelter last year found a fourfold increase in households excluded from waiting lists in 1997 - implying exclusion of 200,000 nationwide. Last month, Crisis, the charity for single homeless people, revealed that 37 per cent of rough sleepers had been settled into social housing but arrangements had broken down and they had lost their tenancies.

Further research from Crisis on people with mental health problems, due to be published in the next few weeks, will also claim that housing officers are doing nothing more proactive than evicting mentally ill people when there are problems with neighbour nuisance or rent arrears. The officers believe such problem cases will always turn up again through social services or get help from voluntary agencies.

Crisis policy unit manager Kate Tomlinson is clear on how things stand: "We can't go on saying that homelessness is about there being not enough social housing," she agrees. The two big barriers to successful move-on accommodation for homeless people are a lack of affordable housing and a lack of support structures. "But it is not necessarily that they don't exist, but that bureaucracy gets in the way," she says.

"More flexibility is needed about who can be offered local authority housing.The allocations system is currently a rationing system," she says. "What is actually happening is the system seems to be making sure a lot of homes are going to nobody, even though you have got people sleeping on the streets."

The depth of the problem is not lost on the government. The Social Exlusion Unit's policy action team on unpopular housing wants councils to be allowed to act as 'commercial landlords' so they are freer to market their homes, either to let them or sell them off. Officials at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions are keen to overhaul allocations as part of the promised housing Green Paper. Tomlinson says this might just work if it means councils can woo less vulnerable people but still give more vulnerable people the support they need.

As Lambeth prepares its computer systems and trains staff for its new allocations D-Day, deputy housing secretary Donatus Anwu says the essence of the new policy is the need to build stronger communities. "That means a community that is very, very tolerant but also a community that works," he says.

So the council has a 24-hour "nuisance hit squad" to make sure people can live in peace and safety. But it is also looking at developing "customer profiles" so likely problem candidates are identified and their needs are met - cutting down on the need for summary eviction.

Perhaps pre-empting the DETR's ideas for a more commercial approach, the council also wants to give its neighbourhood officers and estate managers the freedom to advertise homes in schools and hospitals and even to city executives.

"If we get a nurse or teacher or someone who works in the city to live on an estate or in a block it might give the young people that push, that inspiration they need as a role model" Anwu says. Such a move might also offer more custom and encouragement to local shops and businesses, boosting the local economy.

Of course, Lambeth's innovative schemes are not going to work overnight. Indeed, there is no guarantee they will work at all, and they certainly won't solve the borough's £1 billion repairs backlog. On a national level, it is very hard to know where to draw the line on how much to link affordable housing to market forces - just how interventionist should councils be?

The crucial point is that current systems are not providing the answer to current problems. The ideas from Lambeth, Lemos, Crisis, the DETR and others at least show the tide is turning.