Bill Giving Tenants Power To Take Action Against Landlords Becomes Law

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act has been given Royal Assent– completing its lengthy journey from a private members bill into law. The act will give tenants the right to take landlords to court if the property falls below legal standards, and seek an injunction to carry out the work and damages. The bill was proposed by Labour MP Karen Buck and received official government backing in January – an extremely unusual step for an opposition MP’s bill. She said: “There are a million properties- home to some 3 million people- that are unsafe or unfit to occupy and this act will provide those tenants, private and public, with a way to act against bad landlords.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/bill-giving-tenants-power-to-take-action-against-landlords-becomes-law-59593?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Fury As Housing Associations Redevelop And Sell Affordable Homes

Housing associations have made at least £82.3m from auctioning homes in five London boroughs since 2013. Analysis by the Labour MP for Westminster North, Karen Buck, shows that Westminster, Brent, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea sold 153 properties at auction through Savills estate agents – with more than half in Westminster where sales totalled £36.4m. The true figures are likely to be much higher as the data only covers sales made by one agency. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/13/fury-affordable-homes-redeveloped-sold-housing-associations

Councils Fail To Take Action On 99 Per Cent Of Most Dangerous Rented Homes

Millions of private renters face being stuck in dangerous homes for decades because of a large-scale failure of local councils to take action against criminal landlords. New data seen by The Independent shows local authorities took action in relation to just 1.1 per cent of the most dangerous rented homes in England last year. The new figures, obtained by Labour MP Karen Buck via a Freedom of Information request, reveal English councils used their legal powers to take action in relation to 10,069 homes with these “category one” hazards last year – a tiny fraction of the total. Read more on the Independent website.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/councils-rented-homes-99-per-cent-unsafe-generation-rent-properties-karen-buck-property-a8168896.html

Government Supports New Measures To Improve The Safety Of Tenants

Secretary of State for Housing Sajid Javid has confirmed government support for new legislation that will help ensure rented homes are safe and give tenants the right to take legal action when landlords fail in their duties.  The government has already introduced a range of powers for local authorities enabling them to crack down on the minority of landlords who rent out unsafe or substandard accommodation. From April this year councils will also be able to issue banning orders to kick the worst offenders out of the business. Government will support further measures proposed by Karen Buck MP in a Private Member’s Bill to protect tenants in both the social and private rented sectors. Read more on the Gov UK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-supports-new-measures-to-improve-the-safety-of-tenants

Housing Lawyers Draft Bill To Empower Tenants

Housing specialists have been working on a private members bill that empowers tenants to force their landlords to fix hazards that pose a serious threat to their health and safety. The homes (fitness for human habitation and liability for housing standards) bill 2017-19 will have its second reading in the House of Commons in January. The bill has been sponsored by Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on legal aid. Under the bill, tenants will be able to take action against their landlord to fix a 'category one' hazard in their building, not just in their flat. Read more on the Law Society Gazette website.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will rank each English local authority by the change in the number of social housing units in each such local authority since (a) 1987, (b) 1997 and (c) 2007.

Alok Sharma: Between 1997 and 2010, the number of social rented homes fell by 420,000. Since 2010 the stock has increased by 76,000

MP Warns Of Housing Strain Caused By Holiday Lets

Illegal sub-letters and property magnates are taking advantage of Airbnb and similar-style sites to rake in tax-free cash, an MP says. Labour's Karen Buck said renting out properties for short holiday lets can produce up to three times the income of more traditional flat rentals. Growth in the industry is also contributing to a loss of residential accommodation, she told the Commons. She wants the 90-day limit for renting out homes each year to be enforced. Ms Buck says the sharing phenomenon is putting a strain on housing stock, neighbours and cash-strapped councils that are having to deal with anti-social behaviour arising from noise and waste issues, over-crowding and a whole range of other forms of disturbance. Read more on the BBC website.

MPs To Vote To Let Tenants Sue Negligent Landlords

Private renters living in squalid conditions could get the ability to sue their landlord if MPs approve a private member’s Bill. Westminster North MP Karen Buck will introduce the Bill for its Second Reading in the Commons. If passed, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill would resurrect a law from 1885 which has been rendered obsolete by nearly sixty years of rent inflation. Tenants already have the right to a home that is fit for human habitation, but only if the rent is less than £52 per annum (or £80 in London) – limits last revised in 1957.  Both the Law Commission in 1996 and the Court of Appeal in 1997 called for the archaic rent limits to be scrapped, but successive governments have failed to act. Read more on 24dash.

Londoners Housed Outside Capital Doubles

London boroughs have more than doubled the number of homeless families they are placing outside the capital as a result of the soaring costs of private rented accommodation. Unpublished documents by London Councils reveal that in the past 12 months to June, 789 households have been housed in 69 local authority areas as far flung as Manchester, Birmingham, Swansea and Accrington. In the first quarter of 2012/13 just 113 people were placed outside London. But figures for the first quarter of 2013/14 show this figure rocketed 129 per cent to 259. Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North, said: ‘This suggests the crisis of affordability is rippling out across the outer boroughs. It is hard to see how local authorities can avoid this trend accelerating rapidly [when the overall benefit cap hits].” Read more on Inside Housing.

Prisk Told To 'Get Tough' With Council Over B and B Families

Housing minister Mark Prisk has been told to 'get tough' with Westminster Council as the number of homeless families placed in B&B accommodation for over six weeks is set to increase to more than 150.  Labour councillors have demanded that the minister takes action after he told Westminster North MP Karen Buck back in November that placing families with children in B&B accommodation was “unacceptable and unlawful”.  Overall, there are currently over 2,300 Westminster families in temporary accommodation.  Read more on 24dash.

Homelessness – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance he has issued to local authorities regarding the circumstances under which they can discharge their homelessness duties into the private rented sector outside (a) their local authority area and (b) their region.

Mr Prisk: [edited reply] The law requires that, as far as reasonably practicable, authorities should place homeless households within their own district. The new homelessness Suitability Order came into force on 9 November 2012. The order, which applies to temporary accommodation and private rented accommodation used to end the homelessness duty, requires councils to consider the impact a change in location would have on households, including disruption to employment, education and caring responsibilities. Under the homelessness legislation, any accommodation used as temporary or settled accommodation (whether in the private or social sector) must be “suitable” for the applicant and his or her household. This includes affordability, size, condition, accessibility and location.

Read the full reply on Hansard.

Prisk Tells Council its Housing of Homeless in B and Bs is "Unacceptable"

The housing minister, Mark Prisk, has told Westminster City Council that its ongoing practice of placing homeless families in bed & breakfast accommodation for over six weeks is "unlawful and unacceptable".  In a letter to Westminster North MP, Karen Buck, Mr Prisk wrote: "The detrimental affects (sic) of B and B accommodation on families are well documented and we must avoid a return to the situation where thousands of homeless families were living in poor B&B accommodation long term."  Read more on 24dash.

Bed and Breakfast Accommodation – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to his answer of 23 May 2012, Official Report, column 680W, on bed and breakfast accommodation, which 20 local authorities he wrote to raising concerns about their extended use of bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless families with children beyond the six week limit; and if he will place a copy of his letter in the Library.

Grant Shapps [holding answer 25 June 2012]: I wrote privately to 20 local authorities who between them account for almost 80% of families in bed and breakfast for more than six weeks, reiterating the Government's position that this practice is unacceptable, urging them to prioritise elimination of the use of long term bed and breakfast accommodation for families for more than six weeks, and offering support from my Department to do so.  I have placed a template of the letter in the Library of the House.

Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG if he will place in the Library a copy of each item of correspondence received by his Department from local authorities on the potential effects of reductions in local housing allowance on (a) homelessness and (b) local authority budgets.
Grant Shapps: The CLG receives a large amount of correspondence from local authorities regarding a range of issues. Local housing allowance rates in some areas are too high and give some housing benefit customers access to properties that even people with above average incomes could not afford. This was not fair to the taxpayer and could not be sustained. We therefore had to make changes to local housing allowance by introducing housing benefit caps and moving to the 30th percentile of local market rents. We want people to continue to have access to decent housing but the support provided needs to be founded on principles of fairness, affordability and making work pay. These changes mean some people may have to move but up to 30% of properties should be affordable in every area and the homelessness safety net remains in place for those who need it.

How Housing Benefit Caps and Rising Rents Will Squeeze London's Low Paid

Information supplied to Westminster North MP Karen Buck by pensions minister Steve Webb shows the national figure for LHA recipients who are in work had by August this year gone up by a gigantic 42% compared with the figure for May 2010 - a rise from 273,000 to 388,000. The figure, which is for the whole of Britain, is a useful reminder of two things: one, that housing benefit is indeed an in-work benefit, and not only for the unemployed; two, when the private sector rents of low-paid people increase faster than their wages, more of them become entitled to it. Except that when the government's caps start coming into effect on a large scale next year, many claimants in work will start getting less of it than before. Read more on the Guardian website.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the effect of increases in private rents on expenditure on local housing allowance in 2011-12.
Steve Webb: Outturn information on local housing allowance expenditure for 2011-12 is not available until June 2012. The latest estimate of local housing allowance expenditure for 2011-12 is £7.6 billion. This compares to outturn expenditure of £6.4 billion for 2010-11. The expected increase in expenditure is primarily due to higher numbers of households receiving housing benefit during 2011-12, rather than increases in the level of private rents. Our assumption is that eligible rents for those receiving local housing allowance will fall during 2011-12 following the introduction of the reforms to local housing allowance in April 2011.

Calls for Private Sector Rent Review as Benefit Cuts Bite

Shadow minister for welfare reform Karen Buck has called on the Government to honour its commitment to ensuring private rented homes don't spiral out of the reach of local people who have and will see their housing benefit cut under Government plans. At the report stage debate of the Government's Welfare Reform Bill, Ms Buck, MP for Westminster North, said she feared the Government's housing benefit cuts could lead to homelessness, distress for vulnerable people, and damage to the working households in private rented accommodation whose housing support is going to be cut. Ms Buck warned: "We must have a statutory mechanism for review to make sure that as the CPI uprating further bites into the private rented sector - which it will - that the Government's commitment that 30% of all the private rented accommodation in a broad market rental area should remain available. Because it is simply not going to." Read more on 24dash.

Housing Benefit: Disability – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many disabled tenants in social housing which his Department's Equality Impact Assessment estimates will be affected by his proposed changes to eligibility for housing benefit in cases of under occupation are estimated to be in receipt of disability living allowance.
Steve Webb: Using the Department's Policy Simulation Model, we estimate that around 200,000 households are likely to be affected by the introduction of the size criteria in the social rented sector in 2013-14 where either the claimant or their partner are in receipt of disability living allowance. However, there are certain households included within the 200,000 which may not be affected by the size criteria changes. These are households where the claimant is either entitled to an additional bedroom for a non-resident carer providing overnight care, or is living in certain types of supported accommodation. For other households, local authorities can consider a discretionary housing payment based on the tenant's individual circumstances.

Housing Benefit - Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he intends to apply a housing benefit deduction to social tenants deemed to be under-occupying their homes where a forthcoming change of circumstances would mean the property could no longer be defined as such due to dependent children reaching an age which changed their eligibility for a bedroom.
Steve Webb: We are currently considering the policy detail of this measure and how it will be implemented. Further details will be published in due course.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the number of claimants not currently eligible for housing benefit who will be affected by the proposed total household benefit cap.
Steve Webb: The number of claimants not currently eligible for housing benefit who will be affected by the proposed total household benefit cap is estimated to be less than 10%. Analysis of those affected by the benefit cap has been modelled using survey data—as such there is a degree of uncertainty around the results.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which benefit accounts for the largest proportion of welfare receipts of claimants likely to be affected by the proposed total housing benefit cap.
Steve Webb: It is estimated that child tax credit and housing benefit account for the largest proportion of welfare receipts of households that are likely to be affected by the total benefit cap. Analysis of those affected by the benefit cap has been modelled using survey data—as such there is a degree of uncertainty around the results.

Benefit Cap for Unemployed Survives Committee Vote

The government’s cap on the amount of benefits that a workless household can claim has survived a vote by MPs. The committee of MPs scrutinising the Welfare Reform Bill, which introduces a £26,000 cap on the amount of benefits that a workless family can claim, and £18,000 for a single person, have voted down an amendment which ministers believed would ‘emasculate’ the cap. Labour MPs Liam Byrne, Stephen Timms, Karen Buck and Margaret Curran had tabled a series of amendments to the cap. These included an exemption for families who had not received a reasonable job offer, exemptions for carers, and exemptions for social housing and temporary accommodation tenants. They also attempted to remove housing benefit and child benefit from the cap, which was unveiled last autumn by chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative party conference. Read more on Inside Housing.