Abode Recruitment

Housing associations could earn a lump sum for every tenant they help find a job as part of a new package of reforms to slash worklessness.

Work and pensions secretary James Purnell said he wanted to devolve responsibility for providing employment advice from central government to providers working in the community. In a green paper outlining his reform programme, Mr Purnell pledged to preside over a ‘social revolution’ which would push employment rates up to 80 per cent.

On Monday the Department for Work and Pensions is due to release a shortlist of organisations which will co-ordinate a £140 million-a-year back-to- work service in Great Britain. Several housing associations are understood to have bid for the contracts.

The DWP’s approach will be characterised by a ‘something for something’ approach, where the state offers extra support to unemployed people but expects greater responsibility. ‘For those who are capable of working, there will be no right to a life on benefits,’ Mr Purnell said.

Housing minister Caroline Flint suggested that the ‘something for something’ principle be applied to social housing in her controversial speech to the Fabian Society in February.

The Communities and Local Government department said social landlords’ relationships with their tenants put them in an ‘excellent position’ to help cut unemployment in their areas. Less than a quarter of social housing tenants are in full-time work.

Rebecca Pritchard, head of support and neighbourhoods at the National Housing Federation, said that the lack of government cash was the biggest barrier to housing associations getting involved in back-to-work projects.

The £140 million-a-year ‘flexible new deal’ programme could help significantly by providing associations with a guaranteed income stream lasting up to seven years, she said.

But although associations could bid to work for the regional co-ordinators, deals would have to be made attractive for its members, she added. The government is paying just 20 per cent of the main contractors’ upfront costs with the rest on a ‘payment-by-results’ basis. This would be seen as a ‘bit risky’ by associations, Ms Pritchard said.

Kate Davies, chief executive of Notting Hill Housing Group, described tackling unemployment as the ‘biggest issue’ facing housing associations.

‘There is a great advantage to working. It makes you a better neighbour, who can pay their rent, who has more of a link to their area and is a better role model for their children.’