The Guardian would seem a strange venue for Caroline Flint, new housing minister, to tell council tenants: If you want a house, go find a job. In her first interview in the job Flint has attacked the culture of "no one works around here" on public-owned housing estates.

Flint’s comments are unlikely to go down well with that newspaper’s left-leaning readership. Unison, the union, is among those who believe the minister is guilty of "stigmatising" the poor.

The obvious rationale is that this is part of Labour’s attempt to sound tough on the issue of benefits; a fight-back against a raft of policy ideas from Chris Grayling, the Tories’ work and pensions frontbencher.

Flint (pictured left) said she was concerned about the rising proportion of unemployed people within social housing. She proposed that those living in such properties should seek work as part of their tenancy agreements.

The comments may confuse those who believed the whole point of subsidised housing was to support the vulnerable in society; whether unemployed, elderly, frail or sick.

Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, said councils had a "statutory duty" to house homeless families with children. "What we’ve heard is classic Labour spin: designed to sound tough, but is in reality meaningless."

Shelter, the housing charity, meanwhile said the idea would sent the country back to the "Victorian era" and would destroy families and communities.

Flint, in her defence, has stressed that those incapable of seeking work would be excluded from any new measures.

But former Tory minister Norman Tebbit (left), who famously called for the unemployed to get on their bikes to find work, would probably approve.

February 5th, 2008 in Uncategorised | Permalink