Introduction

Social housing has continued to be a site for regulation of behaviours under the previous and present UK governments. Since the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010 there have been a number of changes affecting access to and maintenance of tenancies in social housing. Notably, there have been deep cuts in public sector funding, changes to welfare benefits including the move towards a Universal Credit system, and the introduction of the Localism Act 2011 with changes to security of social housing tenancies and local authority treatment of homelessness claims. Under New Labour, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) were a key apparatus for controlling behaviours deemed ‘unacceptable’ in neighbourhoods, and, while such approaches were not abandoned under the coalition government, ideas of a ‘Big Society’ suggest ways of self-regulation of behaviours but also decentralisation in monitoring behaviours of tenants (and potential tenants) through the strengthening of powers for registered social landlords (RSLs). This chapter examines the barriers to accessing social housing in an overstretched housing market, as well as the pressures for certain groups to behave in ‘acceptable’ ways to sustain increasingly conditional tenancies, including ‘vulnerable’ groups such as young people, formerly homeless people and those with complex needs. A discussion is included on the selection process for social housing and on exclusionary policies as well as the ongoing surveillance of tenants and their families. The consequences of ‘non-compliance’ in social housing contracts are also discussed. Social housing is explored in the context of its relationship to employment and the continued drive to get people into work, ideas of empowering communities and, linked with this, notions of citizenship based on Big Society values.

The backdrop of housing policy

The complex interaction between current housing policy, changes in welfare regulations and the economic downturn make this period of time in the UK an interesting juncture for analysis. This chapter presents a general overview of contemporary social housing in the UK and issues in accessing social housing. This moves towards a discussion of the barriers to social housing and ways in which allocations policies exclude certain groups. A more detailed analysis follows on how behaviours of tenants and would-be tenants in social housing are regulated, controlled, empowered or liberated.