'Affordable Rents Are Driving Up Costs and Housing Benefit'

From our work on the use of fixed term tenancies, it is clear that landlords around the country are proceeding cautiously and are carefully considering a number of factors in their decisions; tenants’ views and circumstances, how these policies fit with their broader objectives as social landlords and what implications the use of fixed term tenancies could have on their offer to tenants at the end of the fixed term. This may explain the low take-up so far.  The profile of tenants that are accessing affordable rent homes is not very different from the profile of people living in social rented housing generally.  Although the proportion of tenants on affordable rents eligible for housing benefit is only two per cent higher than that of tenants paying social rents, it is likely that this is an early indication that affordable rents are pushing costs up for tenants and increasing demand for housing benefit. Read more on the CIH website.