Renters With Six Months’ Arrears To Get Just Four Weeks’ Notice Before Eviction

Tenants who have failed to pay their rent for six months can be evicted with just four weeks’ notice under new government legislation, in an apparent watering down of promises made by ministers. New regulations dictate that a six-month notice period will be necessary for all landlords seeking possession except where rent arrears are over six months or where tenants have committed anti-social behaviour. Landlords seeking to evict tenants for anti-social behaviour will also need to give four weeks’ notice, while the period for perpetrators of domestic abuse will be two weeks. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/renters-with-six-months-arrears-to-get-just-four-weeks-notice-before-eviction-67708 

760,000 Renting Families One Pay Cheque Away From Losing Home

With little or no savings to fall back on, 45% of private renters in England could not afford to pay their rent for more than a month if they lost their job, new research from Shelter shows. Surviving from one pay cheque to the next, the Shelter and YouGov study found almost three million private renters could be just one pay cheque away from losing their home. The study shows the situation is particularly bleak for working families with children, with some 760,000 renting families just one pay cheque away from losing their home – with a job loss leaving 550,000 of these families immediately unable to pay rent. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/760000-renting-families-just-one-pay-cheque-away-from-losing-home%e2%80%8b%e2%80%8b/

A total of 139 former council tenants bought their homes under Right to Buy and resold them within one month, the BBC found. Those resold homes created a £2.8m collective profit. Opponents of the scheme said too many people had profited from a policy that had "much bigger social ambitions". Supporters said Right to Buy helped people climb the housing ladder and secure their families' financial futures. The former tenants were allowed to buy their homes at prices below the market rate. However, those who sell within five years of purchasing, should have to pay back some or all of the discount they received. Read more on the BBC website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47443183

More than one in three tenants in Britain say that they would happily rent long term rather than buy a home because they like the flexibility and are out off by high property prices, a new survey has found. The poll by home interiors specialist Hillarys also found that the vast majority, one in 10, believe that landlords should not be able to evict tenants unless they have broken the law.

Respondents were asked how long they had been renting for, with 43% saying they had done so for six to 10 years, 28% for up to five years and 15% for 11 to 15 years and the average monthly rent paid by them was £650. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/majority-of-tenants-in-britain-are-happy-to-rent-for-life-new-poll-suggests/

Millennials Spend Over A Third Of Take Home Pay On Rent

According to the latest Landbay Rental Index, young tenants are spending a third of monthly take home pay on rent, with those in a three bed property spending 30% and those in a two bed spending 39%. Those attempting to live alone face spending over two thirds (69%) of monthly take home pay. For tenants aged between 18-39 and living alone, 69% of a monthly post-tax income of £1,447 is spent on £1,012 of rent. In a shared house of two people, overall rent of £1,152 adds up to 39% of each tenant’s income, while those co-habiting in a three-bed property would each spend 30% of their monthly take home pay on a rent of £1,322. Read more on the property reporter website.

Shared Ownership Now Seen As A Key Route Onto Housing Ladder

Shared Ownership 2.1, published by the Chartered Institute of Housing and Orbit, highlights the progress of shared ownership, which offers potential buyers the chance to purchase part of their home and then pay rent on the remaining share. The report shows the tenure is affordable across the vast majority of the UK, that it is significantly over-subscribed and that the sector has capacity to build many more homes. It also reveals shared ownership is now one of the best known ways of getting onto the housing ladder, with some 34% of the 2,200 adults polled saying they knew about shared ownership, compared to 32% who knew about right to buy and 28% who knew about the Help to Buy equity loan. Download the report from the CIH website.

Renting Costs More Than Buying In Nottingham

If you're thinking about renting in Nottingham anytime soon, you might want to think again. A survey of Britain's 50 biggest cities, comparing the costs of buying and renting, has revealed that in Nottingham, the average monthly mortgage repayment is actually more than £100 CHEAPER than renting. Not only that, but Nottingham ranks fifth in the top ten cities around the nation where you're better off buying. The only cities which were cheaper were Glasgow, Birmingham, Bradford and Coventry. Residents in Nottingham told the Post that many are caught in an "economic trap", with the cost of renting spiralling out of control. Read more on the Nottingham Post website.

Many Families Could Not Afford A Month's Rent If They Lost Job

One in three families in England could not pay their rent or mortgage for more than a month if they lost their job, a study for the charity Shelter suggests. High housing costs and a lack of personal savings are cited by the charity as reasons for this. The online survey by pollsters YouGov in July questioned 1,581 people in working families with children. Read more on the Shelter website.

Make Renting Better By Stabilising Rents

In the run-up to the London elections, Shelter published new research showing that over half of renters in the capital are struggling to pay the rent. And while the housing crisis is particularly acute in London, private renters across the country are struggling to make ends meet. On average they spend 43%of their household income on rent.  A growing number of people are unable to save, driven into debt or forced to cut back on essentials. Ultimately, more and more private renters are being made homeless. Some groups are arguing that we should drastically cut rents with a rent cap. But although Shelter is campaigning for rent reform, we don’t support the imposition of a hard cap like this. Read more on the Shelter blog.

Poor And Vulnerable Families Struggle To Find Secure Housing

Nearly 70,000 of Britain’s poorest families are struggling to find a stable home because landlords do not trust them to pay the rent or think they will cause trouble, a report reveals. They are forced to bounce around temporary accommodation, making it hard for them to hold down a job and causing major disruption for kids who play up as a result. The findings emerged in a report by the Centre for Social Justice think tank which is calling for new “social letting agencies” backed by Government cash to offer five-year tenancies to families deemed “too risky” by landlords. The CSJ said the move is needed because the poorest are missing out on other schemes like Right To Buy and affordable home schemes aimed at getting people on the housing ladder. Download the report from the CSJ 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.

Council Benefit Payment Delays Affect Half Of Tenants

Half (52 per cent) of private sector tenants on housing benefit have experienced delays over its payment from their local council, according to new research from the National Landlords Association (NLA). The figures, which are thought to affect approximately 3.3 million tenants, also show that in over a third (36 per cent) of those cases, tenants say that the delays have caused them problems with, or prevented them from, paying their rent on time. The news follows reports from housing charity Shelter who predicts that 80% of working English households claiming housing support will face a benefits shortfall as a result of government plans to freeze housing benefit for four years – announced in July’s Budget.  Read more on the NLA website.

Private Tenants Forced To Cut Back On Food to Pay Rent

Some people in private rental accommodation are having to cut back on food and heating to cope with rising rents, according to research by the National Housing Federation (NHF). The organisation said soaring rents and high deposits were making life increasingly difficult for those locked out of homeownership. In a survey of 1,183 private tenants it found that 41% of those with children had struggled to pay their rent at least once. Across all tenant households, 31% had been in difficulties. More than a quarter of the families surveyed said they had cut back on buying food to meet their housing costs, and just under a quarter had cut back on heating. Read more on the NHF website.

10.5% of Working Parents Skip Meals to Pay Rent

An estimated 880,000 working parents in England have resorted to skipping meals in the past year to cover their mortgage or rent, according to research from Shelter. The charity said that 10.5% of working adults with children said they or their partner had missed meals in the past 12 months to help pay for their home, equating to 880,000 parents if the figures were projected across the country. Working parents with children aged under 18 were asked about steps they took over the past year in order to meet their housing costs. The charity also found that 37% of working parents were cutting back on buying food in an effort to help pay their rent or mortgage, equating to 3 million parents across England. Read more on the Guardian website.