The UK Must Freeze Private Rents Now – Or Thousands Will Be Made Homeless

In March, the government announced a three-month suspension of evictions and a marginal restoration of housing benefit to 2015 levels. The suspension is scheduled to end in mid-June, and has not been extended, leaving renters fearing for the future. With their median weekly household earnings already £161 lower than mortgage holders’, private renters’ housing costs on average eat up around a third of total household income. And this is before the effects of the recession. Recent analysis from the New Economics Foundation found that a minimum-wage worker who loses their job and has to rely on universal credit will have their income cut by 45%. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/12/uk-freeze-private-rents-homelessness-coronavirus-labour

Call To Freeze All UK Private Rents To Help 1m Workers At Risk Of Losing Jobs

More than a million renters in Britain risk losing their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic and should be protected by an immediate rent freeze, according to a thinktank. Calling on the government to suspend all private rents for three months as an emergency measure to protect those most at risk, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) said 1.2 million people living in privately rented homes could fall into severe financial hardship otherwise. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/may/04/call-for-freeze-on-all-uk-private-rents-to-help-1m-at-risk-workers-covid-19

UK Private-Rental Prices Rise Across The Board

Private-rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.4% in the 12 months to November 2019, and are up from 1.3% in October 2019, latest stats show. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), in England, private-rental prices grew by 1.4%; Wales experienced growth of 1.0%; while in Scotland private rental prices increased by 0.9% in the 12 months to November 2019.

London private-rental prices rose by 1.0% in the 12 months to November 2019. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/new-stats-show-private-rental-prices-rose-between-october-november/

Private Renters Spending £11bn More Than They Can Afford On Rent

England’s private renters are paying out £11 billion more a year on rent than they can afford – or an average of £425 a month per household among those who are overspending – new research by Shelter shows. Using the widely accepted measure of affordability which says rent should take up no more than 30% of household income, the charity calculated the overspend by comparing government data on private rents and incomes. Hugely unaffordable rents are dominating daily life for millions of people, forcing them to rely on costly credit cards or borrow what they can from family and friends. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/private-renters-spending-11bn-more-than-they-can-afford-on-rent/

Spending Review Plea Over Future For Local Housing Allowance

A new report from Shelter says the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) freeze should not only end next year as planned but have rates restored to at least the so-called 30th percentile – or cheapest third of local rents. The report From the frontline – Universal Credit and the broken housing safety net also wants a “robust mechanism” in place to keep LHA rates in line with at least the 30th percentile of local rents, regardless of fluctuations in private rents. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/spending-review-plea-over-future-for-local-housing-allowance/

Private Rents Falling In Real Terms

New figures showing rents have dropped, when set against inflation, prove the market is working, says the RLA. Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.3% in the 12 months to July 2019, unchanged since May 2019.Inflation over the same period was:

·         2% as measured by CPI(H) which includes owner occupiers’ housing costs.

·         2.1% as measured by CPI.

·         2.8% as measured by RPI.

This means a real term fall in private rents. More can be found in the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices.

https://www.housingnet.co.uk/pdf/Index_of_Private_Housing_Rental_Prices,_UK_July_2019_(1).pdf

UK Housing Crisis Deepens As Benefit Claimants Priced Out By High Rents

Britain’s housing crisis has hit a new low with not one of the single rooms available for private rent in large parts of London and Greater Manchester within the budget of people on housing benefit. None of 87 rooms for rent in outer south-west London – which includes areas such as Feltham and Hanworth – were affordable for people relying on local housing allowance (LHA) and neither were any of the rooms in the southern Greater Manchester area, including Stockport and Wythenshawe, according to analysis of official 2018 data by London Councils, the local government association for the capital. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/07/uk-housing-crisis-deepens-as-benefit-claimants-priced-out-by-high-rents

Benefit Freeze Puts Private Renting Out Of Reach For Low-Income Tenants

Even the lowest private rents are now out of reach for people on low incomes – putting thousands at increased risk of homelessness. Research from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) showed that more than 90 per cent of Local Housing Allowance rates across Great Britain now fail to cover the cheapest rents, as they were originally designed to do. LHA rates were frozen for four years in 2016 and CIH is warning that they have fallen so far behind even the cheapest rents that private renting has become unaffordable for most low income tenants – putting them at risk of homelessness as they are forced to choose between basic living expenses and paying the shortfall. The organisation is calling on the government to review the policy and to end the freeze immediately. Read more on the CIH website.

http://www.cih.org/news-article/display/vpathDCR/templatedata/cih/news-article/data/Benefit_freeze_puts_private_renting_out_of_reach_for_low-income_tenants_and_risks_fuelling_homelessness

Mayor Brands Tenant Fees Bill 'A Missed Opportunity'

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared that the Government’s proposed Tenant Fees Bill is a "missed opportunity" to protect the 2.4 million private renters in the capital, and criticised Ministers for breaking their promises to publish key plans for social housing and rough sleeping before the summer. Extortionate fees and deposits mean London’s renters need to find nearly £3,700 each time they move home, compared with the nationwide average of £2,000*. In a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Sadiq, along with Crisis, Generation Rent and Citizens UK set out how a reform of private renting is desperately overdue. Read more on the Mayor of London’s website.

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/along-with-organisations-representing-renters

Net Loss Of 133,000 Homes To Let In Coming Year

A trade body says the country faces a net loss of 133,000 homes for private rent over the next year - and only a radical rethink on lettings taxation can avoid it. That’s the view of the Residential Landlords Association, which says that government figures themselves show a loss of 46,000 private rented properties in England alone between March 2016 and March 2017. The RLA says that based on questioning over 2,600 landlords, no fewer than 84 per cent have seen tenant demand increasing or at least remaining stable - and this is despite some years of policies which, the association claims, have been geared to increasing owner occupation. Read more on Letting Agent Today.

https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2018/7/net-loss-of-133-000-homes-to-let-in-coming-year-trade-body-warns?source=newsticker

7% Rise In Former Right To Buy Homes Now Rented Privately

Freedom of Information Act request responses from 111 councils – two-thirds of all stock-holding town halls in England – show 40.2% of former Right to Buy flats are now being sublet. This is a 7% rise from the 37.6% recorded in 2015 – a rate of growth which would see more than half of all former Right to Buy homes rented privately by 2026. The councils have sold a total of 180,260 leasehold properties under the Right to Buy since its introduction in 1980, with 72,454 now registered with an ‘away address’, indicating subletting. Read more on the Inside Housing website.

Rent Rises Ahead As Landlords Pull Out Of UK Housing

Landlords are likely to pull out of the UK housing sector in the coming year owing to policy changes, surveyors say. Nearly two-thirds of surveyors asked by their trade body said more landlords would exit the market than join it in the coming year. Investors have been hit by changes such as a stamp duty surcharge. As a result, private rent rises were likely to outpace house prices in the next five years, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found. Read more on the BBC.

Rent Rises, Low Pay – Millions ‘Living On Brink’

Exorbitant rents and stunted wages are leaving 3.5 million Londoners without enough money to meet their basic needs, research shows. The number falling short of a minimum level of living in London has increased by 400,000 since 2010, researchers found. Private rents rose by 7.2 per cent in London between 2014 and 2016, double that in the rest of Britain, while the cost of letting “cheaper” properties has gone up four times as much as the rest of Britain. And the minimum wage increase to £7.20 an hour for over-25s hasn’t helped, with high costs of living meaning single adults are actually worse off than before the rise, despite a benefit outside the city. Read more on the Morning Star website.

PRS Rents Rise 2.3%

Private rents increased by 2.3% across Great Britain over the past year as demand for rented homes outstripped supply, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Official figures published showed rents increased 2.3% on average in the 12 months to September. This is significantly above inflation, with the Consumer Price Index showing general inflation increased by 1% in the year to September. The ONS figures showed average rents increased by 2.5% in England and by 0.1% in Wales. Rents fell slightly in Scotland, by 0.1%. Read more on the ONS website.

ONS Figures Reveal Private Rents In Great Britain Increased By 2.3%

Private rents increased by 2.3% in Great Britain in the 12 months to August, according to the latest release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Despite the rise the cost of rent was down 0.1% compared with the year to July 2016. Rents in England saw the largest increase of 2.4% while there was a minimal rise of 0.1% in Wales and rents remained unchanged Scotland. The cost of renting was up in all English regions with the South East seeing the biggest increase of 3.4%. Rents in the East of England increased by 3.3% while London saw a rise of 2.6%. Read more on the ONS website.

Safe Homes For Young Adults Under Threat

Shrinking council housing, benefit cuts and rising private rents have made it more difficult for disadvantaged young people to find somewhere to live. Between 2008 and 2013, the proportion of 16- to 24-year-old renters in social housing managed by councils or housing associations dropped by 23% – the greatest drop of any measured age group. And the average time youths spent in homeless accommodation nearly doubled, to 16 months last year. Many single young people are shut out of social housing because they do not qualify as “priority homeless” so they turn to the private rented sector, where the prohibitive cost of an upfront deposit and the insecure nature of their tenancy are major obstacles. Now housing organisations are guiding young adults into safe and affordable rooms and shared tenancies. Read more on Welfare Weekly.

UK Housing: Millions More Face Higher Rents

The number of renters in England and Wales soar will over the coming decade as millions more people are caught in a trap of high rents and house prices, according to a new forecast. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) think tank estimates there will be around 7 million households renting in 2025, up from 4.4 million in 2014. This means 29% of all households will end up as renters, up 9% from 2014. This is the opposite of what the government wants after it made increasing the homeownership rate a priority. Rents are also rising faster than pay. The average private rent in England is growing at an annual rate of 2.5%, while pay excluding bonuses is going up by 1.9%. Read more on the International Business Times website.

Generation Rent Hit By A New Surge In Prices

Private rent prices paid by Generation Rent have continued to soar faster than wages and inflation, new data out today has revealed. Across Britain, tenants paid 2.6 per cent more in the 12 months to January 2016 - a notch up from the 2.5 per cent figure recorded by the Office for National Statistics a month earlier. Wages grew by only 2 per cent in the last three months of last year, while CPI inflation remains at a rock bottom 0.3 per cent. Rents have now risen steadily for five years across Britain, according to the ONS data. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

The Need For Stable Renting In England

Private renting used to be seen as a stopgap. It has struggled to shake its image as short-term housing for students and people still trying to get on the housing ladder. But the number of people privately renting has ballooned in recent years. In the last decade it's doubled in size, as more and more people have been priced out of home ownership or unable to get a social rented home. While short-term private lets may have been suitable in the past, this new generation of private renters want stable, long-term housing. Almost 9 in 10 renters say that being able to stay somewhere for the long-term is an important consideration when they are looking for a home. Despite this overwhelming demand for long-term housing, a stable home is something that the English private rented sector is least able to provide. Download Shelter’s briefing from their website.

Housing Benefit Cuts Would 'Affect Schemes For Vulnerable'

Housing projects helping more than 400,000 vulnerable adults face closure because of government welfare cuts. The Treasury's decision to cap housing benefit at the level available for private rents makes many schemes unviable, according to the research carried out by housing providers. The housing cap is part of a £12bn package of cuts from the welfare bill. The government refuted the figures and called the claims "spurious". The Labour Party, which commissioned the research, said under the proposed cuts an annual shortfall of £400m would put the frail and elderly at risk of losing their homes. Read more on the BBC website.