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15:12 PM, 19th April 2023, About A year ago 34
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Generation Rent have smeared private landlords in a demand for an immediate Government crackdown on those who provide homes for tenants on housing benefit.
Mr Khan says it is ‘a scandal’ that billions of pounds is being paid in rent to private landlords who he alleges are letting cold, dangerous or dilapidated properties across England.
Mr Khan says that more than a billion pounds is being used from housing benefit to ‘line the pockets of private landlords’.
And he is calling once again for the power to freeze rents in the capital to help prevent bad landlords who, he claims, are profiteering from letting poor quality homes.
Generation Rent is also calling for action, and it says that ‘private landlords provide worse accommodation than social landlords’.
Mr Khan said: “It is a scandal that some private landlords are profiting from letting sub-standard housing that is unfit for 21st century living.
“Renters would feel more secure raising complaints about the condition of their property if they didn’t face the threat of arbitrary eviction, which is why I have long called for Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions to be abolished.
“The Government should also give me the power to drive up standards and introduce a rent freeze in London to help people during this cost-of-living crisis.”
Dan Wilson Craw, the acting director of Generation Rent, said: “It is an outrage that not only can private landlords provide worse accommodation than social landlords, but they get paid more for it.
“Increasing reliance on the private sector to provide housing has resulted in a higher bill for the public purse with nothing to show for it but poorer living standards.
“The government has an opportunity with the upcoming Renters’ Reform Bill to give private renters higher expectations of their landlord and introduce much tougher penalties for landlords who fall short of the Decent Homes Standard.”
On Twitter, Mr Khan tweeted: “Londoners are being priced out of their city. That simply isn’t right. How much longer will the Govt ignore my calls to fix this? Give me the power to freeze London rents.”
In response, Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, replied: “FFS. You have all the powers you need to build and create the environment for new homes. Get on and use them. You are *literally* pricing people out of London through ULEZ and adding extra cost at the worse possible time.”
An analysis from City Hall reveals that in England, landlords are being paid £9 billion every year to deliver ‘non-decent’ rented properties, and £1.6 billion of this comes from housing benefit.
According to the government, ‘non-decent’ is the official government designation for a home that poses a risk to the resident’s life or health, is cold, in a bad state of repair or lacks modern facilities.
The research reveals that the highest rent spend is in London where landlords receive £3.5 billion in rent, of which £500 million comes from housing benefit for 180,000 private ‘non-decent’ rented homes.
The next worst region is Yorkshire and the Humber where landlords are picking up nearly £1 billion in rent, of which £130,000,000 is housing benefit for 160,000 privately rented, ‘non-decent’ homes.
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Government is planning to 'destroy the PRS’
Ofer Moses
10:44 AM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Phil Harris at 20/04/2023 - 10:35Correct.
I paid £600 for selective licensing on a 2 bed flat and was paid a visit by the council.
They prepared a list of trivial items for my attention which I was not legally required to do but carried them out anyway as I would not have been approved for the licence.
I guess they need to justify the fee!
homemaker
10:54 AM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
In the past I have leased properties to the local housing association and on each occasion had to have an inspection by the local authority's environmental health officer who confirmed that there were no issues to address. However, when letting to housing benefit tenants no such check has been carried out. Recently local market rents have become so detached from the lha rate that they are out of reach to housing benefit/universal benefit applicants. I do think that that these applicants are in rentals at the lowest end of the market and are vulnerable to exploitation by those landlords that tarnish the majority. The answer could be to adjust the lha rate back to the current 30th percentile and/or to target local authority inspection resources to properties occupied by those in receipt of these benefits.
Rerktyne
11:31 AM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by DSR at 20/04/2023 - 09:32Anything to deflect attention from the real issue: that Khan and his fellow idiots are failing to house people. If they want lots of decent housing then just build the damn things! Then the PRS would have competition and the rogue landlords would get less business. But that would be positive and creative: always easier to negate and condemn while you sit in ivory towers!
I gave up PRS once I suffered a rogue tenant and his army of supporters: the housing people who sided with him 200% and yet would never rent to him had they a rental property.
Basically the people in charge of housing are all ar$eholes which is why there is a problem. I so look forward to seeing the chickens come home to roost- on their home steps I hope!!
Tom McGrath
12:12 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
If Sadiq Khan is looking for a landlord to persecute, he need look no further than Charlie Chuckles, the clown who's laughing all the way to the bank, who has that big council house in the middle of London. It's a scandal that people are freezing on the streets while two pensioners have a 200-bedroom house all to themselves. Can't they open it up to the homeless, Ukrainian refugees, and boat people to celebrate getting the jewelled hats?
northern landlord
12:28 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Generation Rent the militant wing of Shelter. Let’s face it they won’t be happy until landlords gift their properties to tenants, just so long as the landlord remains responsible for all insurance and repairs and upgrades the EPC to A/B. A small majority of PRS landlords do provide sub-standard housing but generally there is enough evidence around that it is social housing that is lagging behind the PRS in terms of standards. As an example, social housing is exempt from EICR inspections as the majority would fail on safety grounds and the cost to rectify the problems would run into billions. Social housing has also not been so hot on the issue of fire doors either with Local Authorities letting themselves off, as once again it would cost billions to rectify. As for PRS landlords hoovering up benefits, why doesn’t Citizen Khan remove all the downtrodden benefit tenants from PRS housing on his patch and use the benefit payments to provide them with top notch accommodation on controlled rents? The PRS landlords could then sell up their vacant properties and enjoy the proceeds and peace of mind. Let’s face it many are doing so already. The Governments attitude to the PRS reminds me of the joke posters you used to put up at work years ago saying “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Darren Peters
12:40 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Biggest thing Shelter and Sadiq could do to put the boot in to private landlords would be to build thousands of properties and undercut us. Shelter has the money, Sadiq has the authority (but not the money for some reason).
Hot air merchants should take some positive action instead of blaming others. Seems a bit like the fat bloke at the pub, who can't run round the block, shouting a the telly that he could have done better than Southgate.
Malcolm Norquoy
13:12 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
This would anti competitive for any business and illegal. Along with the some other comments above, if there is a rent freeze to benefit receiving tenants, then landlords must have the option not to rent to benefit receivers. Can't have it both ways.
I believe this could be easily challenged in court as restricting business, especially if the landlord is incorporated
Ofer Moses
13:16 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Vilifying Landlords is politically and financially attractive to politicians in the short term whilst completely disregarding future outcomes for tenants and the housing sector.
LL Minion
13:46 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Ofer Moses at 20/04/2023 - 10:44
if not legally obliged to do them, then on what basis can they refuse a licence? If they only came as you had paid the fee then the licence has already been issued surely?
Cathie
13:58 PM, 20th April 2023, About A year ago
Someone mentioned this on FB recently. Maybe there is enough housing in London?!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-11973211/Londons-homes-65-properties-plush-city-centre-unoccupied.html
London's EMPTY mansions: How up to 53% of homes in multi-million pound neighbourhoods of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea are deserted
(not a DM reader and not sure of the accuracy!)