Evening Standard comment: A move to ease life for London’s renters

The Government’s move to impose far more serious penalties — up to two years in prison — on people who sublet their council house addresses a real abuse. Demand for social housing is enormous, and rising, because more and more people cannot afford to buy a home or pay private sector rents. Yet estimates suggest that as many as 100,000 flats and houses in social ownership may be occupied unlawfully, at an estimated cost of £1.8 billion to the taxpayer. Making subletting of a council house a criminal offence will show that this is a practice the Government takes seriously; certainly other social housing tenants keenly resent it.

One reason for the demand for social housing is that rents in the private sector have risen enormously in the past few years. The Government’s response to the housing crisis has been to help would-be property owners through schemes such as the Help to Buy project and this is in many ways a good thing. Yet in much of continental Europe, notably Germany, people do not automatically aspire to own a home, but to rent one, long term. One reason why they can do so with a reasonable expectation of moderate rents and security of tenure is that there, institutions have no problem investing in large-scale rental properties; in Britain, they are far more reluctant to do so. The Government has yet to tackle the question of how best to encourage them to think differently.

In a healthy housing economy there should be a balance between renting and ownership, and, within the rental sector, between big institutional owners, small landlords and council-owned properties. The Government is focused on those seeking to buy homes; it should now give thought to those who want to, or have to, rent. Giving short shrift to those who abuse social housing is a useful measure but it doesn’t address the real problem.

The message that the Mayor and Chancellor have been anxious to make during their visit to China is that our countries have much to offer each other. We no longer regard China as merely a cheap-labour manufacturing base but as a partner in important infrastructure projects. And the British in turn have useful expertise to offer the Chinese. An excellent example is designer Thomas Heatherwick, the creator of the new Routemaster bus, now given the job of designing two new Tube stations in Beijing, part of the upgrade of the whole network. Mr Heatherwick is also keen to design the new Battersea Northern line stations.

Financial services are another obvious area for co-operation. The Chancellor’s announcement that London is to become the gateway for overseas investment in Chinese bonds and shares is hugely important; previously trade had to be routed through Hong Kong. For London to be the major Western trading centre for the renminbi is to link us squarely with China’s new openness to overseas investment. Chinese banks will also be able to expand here. This is the kind of partnership that benefits us both.

It is a hard task for anyone to follow Sir Nicholas Hytner as director of the National Theatre but his successor, Rufus Norris, has the attributes for the job. He has inside experience running the National as its associate director and a formidable creative record of his own, both as actor and director and, recently, as film-maker. Perhaps most important is his generosity of spirit which enables him to promote the best in others. This is an exciting time at the National; we wish Mr Norris the very best.