Charities criticise housing plans

Housing minister Caroline Flint said there was clear evidence there are many long-term unemployed in social housing who may be able to find employment with the right support.

And she suggested that new council tenants who can work could have to sign "commitment contracts", agreeing to actively seek employment.

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: "The Government wants to return Britain's unemployed to the workhouse by throwing them on to the streets. What is being proposed would destroy families and communities and add to the thousands who are already homeless.

"We accept there's a problem with some unemployed people shying away from work, but the Government must find other ways to tackle the issue like revamping the housing benefit system."

Leslie Morphy, chief executive at Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, said: "Our experience at Crisis shows that encouragement and enablement - and not threats - are the way to help homeless and vulnerable people to build independent lives."

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said Ms Flint's comments were "insulting and stigmatising to people facing major barriers to employment".

In her speech to the Fabian Society in London, Ms Flint said: "Council and social housing must continue to support the most vulnerable in society, but it should also be a springboard to opportunity, not just a safety net."

Ms Flint called for a national debate on breaking the link between social housing and unemployment following a dramatic fall in the number of council tenants in work over the past 25 years.

She also set out proposals to build more affordable homes for first-time buyers and families and for council tenants to be given the right to claim compensation when services fall short.