The government has announced plans to that will make it easier for people to swap social houses in order to relocate across the country.

According to an official statement published by the government, the new 'freedom pass' will "enable tenants to enhance their quality of life and move home for work, to be closer to family or for any other reason.''

Currently those in social housing jobs find it hard to help tenants relocate because there are high numbers of families on housing waiting lists. Many tenants don't even apply for a transfer because they don't think they'll be given priority. The National Affordable Home Swap Scheme will allow tenants to see details of others in social housing who are looking for a mutual exchange.

As reported by The Financial Times, some privately run databases exist, but this will be the first attempt to implement an official site.

According to The BBC, social housing tenants have previously only been able to exchange homes in their local area or through a much more complicated system elsewhere. Over 250,000 households live in overcrowded social housing and over 430,000 households can't downsize from larger properties easily.

Housing minister Grant Shapps told The BBC: "Social housing should provide more than a roof over people's heads - it should lift them out of poverty, and free them to take chances to improve the quality of their own lives."

However, housing associations aren't so supportive of the scheme. Helen Williams, assistant director of the National Housing Federation, told The Financial Times: "We remain deeply concerned about how practical it would be to introduce the scheme.''