Public Housing after the Local Government and Housing Act 1989
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| Author | James Driscoll |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1991.tb02650.x |
LEGISLATION
Public Housing after the Local Government and
Housing
Act
1989
James Driscoll*
Nothing
in
this Act shall be taken
to
require (or
to
have
at
any
time
required)
a
Local Housing
Authority itself
to
acquire
or
hold any houses or other land for thc purpose of this
par1.l
Introduction
Local housing authorities have faced more than
a
decade of legal and fiscal measures
designed to transform the premises that have traditionally underpinned municipal
housing.* The right to buy3 and the encouragement of voluntary salcs4 by local
authorities has divested many of them of some of their better housing stock.5 This
has
also
led to
a
situation where some of the smaller authorities have either decided,
or felt compelled, to dispose of the remainder of their housing stock.6
In
a White Paper publishcd
in
1987,’
the Government set out its plans for the
future of council housing. Councils are no longer to be primary providers of rented
housing,
so
much
as
institutions that have an enabling role
-
one where they
encourage
a
diversity form of landlordism, by cncouraging the development of
housing associations and other private landlords. This was to be seen along side
cfforts to arrest
the
decline of the privately rented sector, encouraging further growth
of owner occupation, and prcventing any further expansion
of
municipal rented
housing provision.
Some efforts were made to pursue these objectives
in
the Housing Act
1988.8
The Act
is
phasing out the use of secure lets and the charging of fair rents by registercd
housing associations,
as
wcll
as
phasing out Rent Act protection for the tenants of
unregistered housing associations and other private
landlord^.^
The Act
also
contained provisions making
it
easier to enforce the right to buylo and other
miscellaneous provisions relating to the privately rented sector.Ii
So
far
as
the
public sector is concerned,
Parts
111
and
IV
of
the Act introduced measurcs
-
Housing
Action Trusts and the Change
of
Landlord provisions
-
which were designed to
*Principal Lecturer
in
Law, South Bank Polytechnic.
I
Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (hcreafkcr
the
‘1989 Act’),
s
161.
2 See cg Hoath,
Aiblic
Hoiisi~ig
Lnw
(London: Swect and Maxwell, 1990) ch I; Hughcs,
Aiblic
Sector
Housing Lnw
(London: Buttcrworths, 2nd ed; 1989) 4-10 (1987).
3
Housing Act 1985, Part
V.
4 Housing Act 1985,
ss
32, 43.
5
Scc eg
R.
Forrest and
A.
Muric,
Selling
rhe
Welfare Stare
(London: Routledgc, 1990); Kcrr,
77ie
Right
ro
Diry
(London: HMSO, 1988).
6
SCC
cg Platt, ‘Goodbye Council Housing?’
New
Society,
26 February 1988.
7
Hoiising:
The
Govenittietir
‘s
Proposals,
Cni 214 (1987).
8
See cg M. Davcy,
7ke
Ifoiisirig
Act
1988
(1989) 52 MLR 661; Driscoll,
A
Giiiclc
to
the
Hortsitig
9 Housing Act 1988,
ss
32-35.
10
s
124 (inserting
ss
153A and 153B into the Housing Act 1985).
I I
Seeeg Housing Act 1985,
s
I15
(modifying
thc
rules governing premiums under tlie Rent Act 1977).
Act
1988
(London: Fourniat, 1989).
244
77ic
Moclerri
Low Review
54:2 March 1991 0026-7961
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