Database

Published: 13 August, 2010

• THE creation of a national housing database will be a huge step forward for social housing tenants. 

Poor mobility within the sector prevents hundreds of thousands of people from moving home to take up employment, care for sick and elderly relatives and relieve overcrowding. 

In order to create a genuine free market of house swaps, however, the scheme must ensure all landlords sign up and that it is easy for all social housing tenants to access, regardless of whether they are on the internet. One way to support this would be the creation of a national telephone helpline. 

From our experience running House Exchange, the UK’s only not-for-profit mutual house exchange scheme, we know how powerful the model can be. In short, it has the potential to be a genuinely transformative development for the sector. 

DAVID WILLIAMS
Circle Anglia