![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/11\/council_houses.jpg\" "\\"council_houses\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Prime Minister<\/a> said the Government may introduce \u201cfixed period\u201d tenancies to ensure new social housing tenants can be evicted if their circumstances improve. People who are given council houses are currently awarded an indefinite \u201csecure tenancy\u201d if they successfully complete a 12-month trial tenancy. This means they can only be evicted through the courts if they fail to pay rent, cause serious problems for their neighbours or in other exceptional circumstances. If they die, their secure tenancy can be passed on to a partner or child. Mr Cameron said the current rules meant that people in more severe need of housing were being kept on council waiting lists while some tenants\u2019 situations got better.<\/p>\n Controversial statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment we have a system very much where, if you get a council house or an affordable house, it is yours forever \u2026 And actually it ought to be about need,\u201d Mr Cameron told a public forum in Birmingham. His comments came in response to a mother of two teenagers, who told him she slept on a blow-up bed for two years because her council could not find her a bigger house. Your need has got greater,\u201d Mr Cameron told her, \u201cand yet there isn\u2019t really the opportunity to move.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a question mark about whether, in future, should we be asking, actually, when you are given a council home, is it for fixed period, because maybe in five or 10 years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won\u2019t need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector.\u201d A total of 1.8 million families are currently on waiting lists <\/a>for council housing. The Government advises local authorities on how they should ration properties but councils also use their own criteria,<\/p>\n Changes will be difficult.<\/strong><\/p>\n Local families living in cramped conditions and people who are homeless or have medical conditions being made worse by their houses are usually prioritised. Only some local authorities consider the income of applicants. It is thought councils and housing associations would be left to decide how long local fixed-term tenancies would last. Mr Cameron conceded that an attempt to reform the system would cause \u201ca big argument\u201d but was necessary. \u201cLooking at a more flexible system I think makes sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister said that any changes would not, however, apply to people already in social housing. The Conservatives pledged in their general election manifesto to protect the rights of existing tenants. All good news for private landlords, making investing in rental property with affordable rents a safe bet.\u00a0 If the Prime Ministers plans go ahead, we will have a queue of tenants now in need of private rental properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Samantha Knight The Prime Minister said the Government may introduce \u201cfixed period\u201d tenancies to ensure new social housing tenants can be evicted if their circumstances improve. People who are given council houses are currently awarded an indefinite \u201csecure tenancy\u201d if they successfully complete a 12-month trial tenancy. This means they can only be evicted …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[63,37,70,75],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}