Publisher's Synopsis
In 1995/96, over 47,000 local authority tenants in England moved house by mutually exchanging with another tenant in social housing. Nearly one in three existing tenants who obtained another home in the social housing sector had achieved this through their own efforts, outside any formal procedures for transfer or nomination to another landlord.;These exchanges involved property worth over #1billion: a scale of economic transfer between people on low incomes which far exceeds the scale of other alternative forms of economic exchange such as Credit Unions, or non-monetary exchange mechanisms such as LETS. Very little, however, is known about mutual exchanges, despite their contribution to tenant mobility and to satisfying the housing aspirations of tenants.;This report explores how successful exchanges are achieved and assesses what could be done to increase the mobility of social housing tenants. It considers residents' employment circumstances and how family members may feature in exchanges, to identify, publicise and promote good practice, both for tenants in seeking exchange, and for social landlords in promoting tenant mobility.
