Former housing minister warns against ‘monopoly’ housing providers

Former housing minister warns against ‘monopoly’ housing providers

A former Labour housing minister has warned against housing associations becoming “monopoly” providers in some areas.

Nick Raynsford, who held the role for four years under Tony Blair’s premiership, said tenants should have the opportunity to choose between different social landlords.

He made the comments last week while appearing on Inside Housing’s podcast, The Housing Podcast.

Discussing the large-scale stock transfer of social homes from councils to housing associations which happened during his time as housing minister between 1997 and 2001, he said: “We wanted to ensure a pluralist framework where there were a range of providers of social housing rather than monopolies.

“And in too many areas local authorities had during the years of the 60s, 70s, the years of plenty when they were building a lot, they’d created near-monopoly situations which were not always very well run and where people, members of the public, had little redress against a very dominant single landlord in the area.”

Mr Raynsford said that in his own constituency of Greenwich, he “strongly” supported the partial transfer of some estates to housing associations, while the council still retains a significant housing stock.

“I think that is an ideal scenario, where you’ve got both the council and a number of housing associations providing social housing and doing so in a framework where the public has some choice between providers,” he added.

“In too many areas we’re now seeing some housing associations becoming the monopoly provider and that is not in my view an ideal situation at all.

“So I would like to go back to a framework where you have both councils and housing associations competing to provide high-quality social housing, genuinely affordable without the dependence on housing benefit to people on modest incomes, and doing so in a framework where it’s recognised that it is a good thing to have choice and to have an opportunity for people to look to alternative landlords if they’re dissatisfied with their existing one.”

The former minister, who remained a Labour MP until 2015, also indicated he was against scrapping the Right to Buy – which is current Labour party policy.

He said: “I would be entirely sympathetic to a view that says people should be free to exercise the Right to Buy but only in a framework where this is for their own occupation, not for profit and against a background where they’re not going to get a large discount to underpin that choice.”

During Mr Raynsford’s tenure as housing minister, the Labour government significantly reduced the discounts available through the Right to Buy but did not move to abolish the policy.