Rents Outside London Soaring At Fastest Rate On Record

Private rents outside London are rising at their fastest rate for 13 years, research suggests, as tenants making plans for life post-pandemic compete for properties. The property website Zoopla said average rents across the UK outside the capital rose by 5% over the 12 months to the end of July – adding more than £450 to a typical annual rent bill – the biggest increase since its index began in 2008. However, locations popular with tenants quitting London and other big cities after reevaluating their lifestyle have seen rents jump by a lot more – up to 25%, according to some estate agents. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/08/rents-outside-london-soaring-at-fastest-rate-on-record-agencies-say

One In Four Londoners In Temporary Housing Outside Their Local Area

More than one in four Londoners in temporary accommodation due to homelessness are being rehoused out of their local area, with some placed in cities more than 200 miles away such as Manchester and Bradford, analysis shows. At least 55,000 Londoners were in temporary housing outside their local areas at the end of 2020. Many are disabled or have mental health problems, or are in single-parent families with young children, and are awaiting a verdict on whether they are legally homeless or for settled accommodation to become available. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/02/one-in-four-londoners-in-temporary-housing-outside-their-local-area 

Help To Buy Helps More Than 240,000 First-Time Buyers

At least 240,000 first-time buyers have been able to purchase a home using Help to Buy, according to government statistics. The Help to Buy: ISA has in total helped more than 960,000 people save towards their own home, according to the government. The statistics also suggest that at least 285,000 completions have taken place using one or more of the Help to Buy schemes, with 90 per cent of them taking place outside of London. More than 240,000 first-time buyers have purchased their first home using the schemes. The Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme has seen more than 120,000 completions. This scheme offers buyers up to 20 per cent of a newly built home’s costs so they only need a 5 per cent deposit. Read more on the Planning Portal.

Landlords Looking Beyond London’s ‘Saturated’ Rental Market

London’s high-pressured rental market may be squeezing out demand, prompting landlords to look towards investment opportunities in areas beyond the capital, suggests research carried out for the National Landlords Association (NLA).  The organisation says its findings reveal that the central London rental market is “beginning to show signs of topping out” as tenant demand slides, and landlords look to higher yielding investment in other areas of the UK. According to the research, the number landlords reporting a rise in tenant demand over the past quarter has slipped almost 30% when compared to the same point last year – down to 17% from 45%. Read more on the NLA website.

Families Left With Just 50p A Week In Housing Benefit After Cuts

Forty-two Grimsby-area families have been left with 50p or less a week in Housing Benefit, following rules that brought in a lower cap for claimants. In November, the benefit cap - which limits the amount a household is able to claim in benefits from the Government - was lowered to £20,000 a year for families living outside London. North East Lincolnshire Council estimates that 45 households are now losing Housing Benefit under the new cap. Combined, they received £3,109.06 in Housing Benefit per week before the tighter cap came into force. After the cap tightened, that went down to a total of just £79.86, a reduction of £3,029.20 per week. Read more on the Grimsby Telegraph website. 

London Council Plans to Build Houses for Its Tenants outside Capital

A London borough is planning to build hundreds of council houses outside the capital for the first time to meet a critical housing shortage. Westminster council said it could no longer build enough affordable homes in the city to keep up with demands so it had decided to look at buying land in the commuter belt. The scheme, now out for consultation, has to overcome planning and logistical obstacles and may be opposed by councils where the homes would be built. Read more on The Times website.

Westminster Council Accused of ‘Social Cleansing’

Westminster City Council has been accused of “social cleansing” by Labour councillors, after spending £6 million on properties outside of the borough to house its homeless families. Over the last six months, the council has bought 34 properties (30 two-bed and 4 three-bed) in Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Enfield and Newham for £6,224,000 – an average of £183,000 per property.

And over the next six months, the conservative council plans to spend another £9m on properties outside Westminster, all for families in temporary accommodation, according the borough’s Labour group. Read more on 24dash.

Homeless Wandsworth Families to Be Housed As Far Away As Birmingham

As part of the borough’s homelessness battle the council has arranged 62 properties for private licence agreements, 19 of which are out of the borough. The areas include Kingston, Sutton, Reigate and Banstead, Merton, Croydon, Lambeth, Birmingham, Portsmouth City, Leicester, West Bromwich and High Wycombe. Last year, the council’s £5m project of buying properties for its homeless in less expensive areas of outer London was revealed. Now it has emerged that £1.25m emergency funding has been agreed to help with ongoing pressures and a second £5m fund will be used this year to buy large units of temporary accommodation inside and outside the borough. Read more on the Wandsworth Guardian website.

London Exodus Surges As Welfare and Housing Pressures Take Toll

The number of families given council help to leave London rose sharply last year as welfare cuts and the housing crisis forced hundreds of households to move out of the capital. The data from 15 London boroughs points to a 76% rise in the number of families given financial assistance to leave the city between 2012-13 and 2013-14, from 119 to 210.The number of areas to which people moved also increased, reaching 80 - up from 37 in 2012-13. London residents were helped to move as far afield as Newcastle, Cornwall and Scotland. The findings came in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from LGC, which found councils had helped residents to move by paying for removal fees, rent payments and rental deposits. Read more on the LGC website.

Move To Midlands or Be Homeless

A London mum has branded her local council “inhumane” – because she has been told to move to the Midlands. Cecilia Bruce-Annan, from Edgware, north-west London, has been told to move with her three children to Stoke-on-Trent because of the benefits cap. The 42-year-old, who says she has no idea where Stoke even is, says she has been treated viciously by Harrow Council. She has been told to leave her housing association home of three years by September 4 after racking up rent arrears of more than £2,000 after falling into debt because of the newly imposed cap. Read more on the Birmingham Mail website.

Dramatic Rise of Families Forced Out Of London

The number of homeless households forced to move outside London has risen by nearly 40 per cent in one year, leaked figures have shown. An unpublished report by umbrella body London Councils seen by Inside Housing also details how boroughs are starting to use new legal powers to push homeless households into the private sector. The draft Inter Borough Accommodation Agreement report reveals that there were 336 placements of homeless households outside the capital in the last quarter of the 2013/14 financial year - up from 211 in the same period the previous year. This equates to a threefold increase in the number of placements outside the capital since records began in the first quarter of 2012/13, when 113 were recorded. There have been a total of 1,918 out of London placements since then. Read more on Inside Housing.