Government And Housebuilders Unable To Solve Housing Crisis

The housing crisis in Britain is not a new issue, there's been a shortage of homes for decades, and the issue is no closer to being resolved.  If those in power succeeded in meeting our housing needs they might be worse off, which doesn't make the situation any easier. A report by Shelter last year found the housing crisis was so bad that a quarter of adults under the age of 35 were still living in their childhood bedroom. In addition to overcrowding, we are suffering astronomical housing prices, a growing waiting list for social housing - 1.69 million households in England alone – and a rise in homelessness. The reason why is simple: we’re not building enough houses, and we haven’t for decades. Read more on the BT website.

Campaign Launched To Help Housing Benefit Tenants Get A Fairer Deal

A campaign has been launched by a renters' rights group for hopeful tenants claiming housing benefits to stop letting agents and landlords routinely rejecting them.  A protest was held in East London last month by Digs, supporters of Hackney tenants, to kick off their #YesDSS campaign. Between December 2015 and February 2016, the group carried out a mystery shopper survey of 50 estate agents in Hackney to find out how many letting agents would accept tenants claiming housing benefit. It found there was just one studio flat available to tenants in Hackney receiving any kind of state support. According to Digs, agents generally blamed landlords for not being keen on DSS (the now defunct Department of Social Security) tenants. Landlord concerns included benefit claimants not paying the rent on time or housing benefit money taking too long to come through. Read more on the BT website.

England Could Lose 300,000 Socially Rented Homes By 2020

An estimated 300,000 socially rented homes could be lost in England by 2020. The Government's drive to boost home ownership will radically change the housing landscape across the country, MPs in the Public Accounts Committee were told. The extension of right-to-buy to housing association tenants combined with other policies to increase owner occupancy will radically reduce the number of socially rented homes. Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, told the committee: "We have done some analysis looking forward on the loss of social-rented housing, based on right-to-buy and the current policy, the proposed extension, the shift from social to affordable rent and then sales. And by 2020 we think there will be a loss of about 300,000-odd socially rented homes across the country.” Read more on the BT website.

Private Rental Sector Insecurity 'Causes Surge In Homelessness'

"Chronic" insecurity in the private rented sector in England has led to a fourfold increase since 2010 in the number of households forced into homelessness when tenancies end. Loss of a private tenancy is now the leading cause of homelessness in England, with the 16,000 households affected making up around a third of the 54,000 accepted as homeless by councils in 2014/15, the annual Homelessness Monitor by the charity Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found. They warned that local authorities were "struggling to cope" with rising numbers of single homeless people, with 88% saying they often or sometimes find it difficult to help those aged 25-35 and 87% those aged 18-24. Two-thirds of English councils reported that changes to the welfare system under the coalition government from 2010-15 had increased homelessness in their area. Read more on the BT website.

Lower Income Households 'Struggling To Pay For Accommodation'

More than one in four of the poorest households has had difficulty paying for their accommodation in the last year, compared with just 7% of those in the top fifth by income, according to a new report.  The Resolution Foundation said almost a third of the lowest income households have debts of four times their gross income. An increase in inequality appears "inevitable", even with the introduction of the £7.20 an hour national living wage from April, predicted the think-tank's chief economist Matt Whittaker. People on lower incomes are more likely to be spending over a third of their gross income on mortgage repayments, he added. Read more on the BT website.

Concerns Raised Over Threat Of Eviction For Many Tenants

More than 352,000 rental sector tenants in England have faced the threat of losing their home over the last year - equating to one tenant every 90 seconds - according to analysis from Shelter. The charity, which used Ministry of Justice figures to make the findings, said that one in every 55 rented households in England was put at risk of losing their home over the last year. Shelter's calculations are based on the number of possession claims issued by landlords in courts over the last year.Possession claims do not necessarily end in the tenant being evicted, although Shelter's figures suggest that in around one in three cases tenants do end up losing their home. Read more on the BT website.