Social housing tenants should be expected to seek work and try to improve their skills as a condition of their tenancy, according to the new Housing Minister.

Caroline Flint said that “commitment contracts” would help to tackle the “no one works around here culture” which, she said, existed in social housing estates.

Ms Flint said she had been surprised by figures showing that more than half of those of working age living in social housing were without paid work, twice the national average, while nearly three quarters of tenants of social housing were unemployed.

The minister, who switched from the employment portfolio in the mini-reshuffle prompted by Peter Hain’s resignation from the Cabinet, said that contracts would apply to new council tenants initially but could be extended to existing ones. They would not apply to those clearly incapable of seeking work, she added.

Ms Flint said she would like to see more Jobcentres, including some run by private organisations, located on estates. “It would be a big change of culture from the time when the council handed someone the keys and forgot about them for 30 years,” she told The Guardian. “The question that we should ask of new tenants is what commitment they will make to improve their skills, find work and take the support that is available.”

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