Social Housing over-charge £2 Million in Rent

Social Housing over-charge £2 Million in Rent

11:33 AM, 12th October 2022, About 2 years ago

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‘Beyond housing’ operates Social Housing in the Cleveland, Redcar and North Yorkshire areas. Since 2010, they have been charging inaccurate rents and between 2016 and 2020 were not compliant with Rent Standard.

This is related to 486 properties with ‘at least £2 Million being overcharged!!!

Beyond (belief) have contacted affected customers regarding a refund. Not to worry, the Regulator [sic] of Social Housing is on their case and has, …   wait for it, “Down-graded Beyond from G1 to G2 status.”

(see for full details ; https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/housing-law/397-housing-news/51784-regulator-downgrades-housing-association-after-2m-rent-overcharging  )

We shared the story of Redbridge’s 3000 defective fire doors and the absence of any meaningful action by the Regulator for Social Housing a week ago on our Twitter page.

The disparity between how Social Housing is (or isn’t ) dealt with compared to the Private sector is frequently to be found in decisions of ‘Advice notices or Down-gradings’ by the Regulator. (read chocolate fire-guard)

A little-known but very significant advantage Social Housing has over the private sector is in Affordable Rents (AR)  [sic] where the govt introduced this ‘incentive-sweetener for Social Housing to be able to expand its stock.

The result is shown in the link below that Social Housing can charge more than 200% of Local Housing benefits and be paid for a property let under so-called A.R.  This extra money into Social housing coffers is paid for by The Tax and Council tax payers. That’s right, Tax-payers funding Social Housing which are large private (ostensibly not-for-profit, a bit like Shelter with senior management salaries) companies that clearly do not fulfil any ‘social’ role.

(see for a fuller explanation ; https://speyejoe2.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/affordable-social-at-497-83-pw-for-a-3-bed-25976-pa-rent-is-it-unlawful/  )

If ever there was a demonstration of the bias towards Social housing and against the PRS, there is an abundance of evidence.

If Government were concerned about levels of rent, (Scottish and Welsh Assemblies, take note) they wouldn’t have enacted this AR provision or it should be the first casualty in any regulation on rent.

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