Charity Condemns Councils’ £30m In ‘Sweeteners’ To Private Landlords

An anti-poverty charity has attacked the millions of pounds in sweeteners paid by cash-strapped London boroughs to private landlords to persuade them to rent to council tenants. It has been revealed that officials paid nearly £30 million to landlords since 2012. The “one-off financial incentives” were revealed in Freedom of Information responses from 33 London local authorities to the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. The charity said it showed boroughs were deploying “ever more desperate means to entice private landlords” as authorities compete with each other to secure accommodation. Landlords want the extra money over fears that some council tenants were more likely to default on their rent. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Council’s Plan to Combat Poverty

More than 2,400 council tenants have fallen behind on their rent in Leeds since changes to housing benefit came into effect.  The city council said it needed a new anti-poverty strategy to deal with the effects of welfare reform.

It also proposed a campaign to promote credit unions and deter people from using payday or doorstep lenders. 6,728 council tenants had been affected, by the ‘bedroom tax’ and 2,436 of those had fallen into arrears.  It said a plan also needed to be put in place to help families deal with the introduction of universal credit.  Read more on the BBC website.