Moving Forward is a new support programme which started in April 2008 and is funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is being piloted in Shepherds Bush in West London.

The scheme was established in response to government statistics which revealed that more than half of working-age social tenants are out of employment – an increase of 15 percentage points since 1981 - and the situation is worse with younger tenants with 80% of 16 to 24 year old tenants not in employment.

Earlier this year, housing minister Caroline Flint suggested that job hunting or training should be a condition of tenancies and the Moving Forward scheme is the first of its kind to try to put this into practise.

The London pilot scheme works by allocating 24 flats with rental values of about £250/month, all in a single block, to residents who are selected by interview. The prospective tenants have to demonstrate that they are ambitious to become home owners and committed to getting back into work and/or training with the help of a deidcated team of council officers offering coaching, advice and support.

Residents are asked to sign contracts to enter training and/or employment and agree "action plans", which set out a series of personal goals. These can include long-term objectives such as getting back into training or finding a part-time job. Half of the pilot scheme’s first tenants were already working by the time they moved in.

The main cost so far has been £1,700 spent on training five neighbourhood officers in motivational coaching and interviewing.

The government hopes the scheme could be a model for other communities and is part-funding an £80,000 independent evaluation by Mori later this year.