London Councils Pay Landlords £14m In 'Incentives' To House Homeless People

Cash-strapped London councils are paying private landlords more than £14m a year in “incentives” simply to persuade them to house homeless people. The sweetener payments of up to £8,300 each were made to landlords more than 5,700 times in 2018 to house people who were either homeless or considered at risk of homelessness, freedom of information requests have revealed. The payouts are made in addition to rent and have been branded as ludicrous by housing campaigners and intolerable by councils. The fall in social housebuilding and a widening gap between housing benefit and market rents appear to be fuelling the payments. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/25/london-councils-pay-landlords-14m-in-incentives-to-house-homeless-people