Charity Condemns Councils’ £30m In ‘Sweeteners’ To Private Landlords

An anti-poverty charity has attacked the millions of pounds in sweeteners paid by cash-strapped London boroughs to private landlords to persuade them to rent to council tenants. It has been revealed that officials paid nearly £30 million to landlords since 2012. The “one-off financial incentives” were revealed in Freedom of Information responses from 33 London local authorities to the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. The charity said it showed boroughs were deploying “ever more desperate means to entice private landlords” as authorities compete with each other to secure accommodation. Landlords want the extra money over fears that some council tenants were more likely to default on their rent. Read more on the Evening Standard website.