Welfare Reform Making It Harder To Help People In Need Of Housing

Welfare reform is putting pressure on the way social housing is allocated and making it more difficult to help people who are in the most need of housing, according to a new survey. The CIH questioned social landlords and strategic housing authorities across England, and found that 94 per cent of landlords are experiencing increased pressure on their allocations and lettings systems. The government’s latest consultation on allocations proposes new guidance to ‘encourage’ councils to adopt a two-year residency test to prioritise people with a local connection, but the CIH survey found that 50 per cent had already reviewed and amended their allocation policies to do so. The survey revealed that welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and the benefit cap have created a new breed of difficult to let homes.  Read more on the CIH website.