Rents Rise Alongside Incomes During March

The latest rental index from Goodlord shows a buoyant lettings market in March. Tenant incomes rose across England, with rents increasing alongside. The average void period also stayed steady month on month. March brought a boost in average income for tenants in most regions. The biggest rise was recorded in the North West, where tenant incomes increased by 12% from £19,609 to £22,022 on average. The East Midlands, Greater London, North East, and South West also recorded increases. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/rents-rise-alongside-incomes-during-march.html

Almost 40% Fewer Social Homes Let During First Six Months Of Pandemic

 The number of new social housing lettings in England fell by 39% between April and September last year compared with the same period in 2019, the latest government data shows. A total of 76,458 social homes were let during the first six months of 2020/21, compared with 125,149 in the first six months of 2019/20. The data covers the majority of the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, starting just eight days after the first national lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/almost-40-fewer-social-homes-let-during-first-six-months-of-pandemic-70260?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Level Of Affordable Lettings Drops For Third Year In A Row

The level of affordable rent lettings by housing associations in England has dropped for a third consecutive year. At the same time, the average affordable rent rates across the country in 2018/19 saw marginal change on the prior year, with swings of between one and two per cent up or down across most regions. One exception was in the South East where average rent rates decreased by more than four per cent to £150.99 per week. In contrast, this region last year saw a near-eight per cent increase in affordable rents. The other exception was in the North West, where affordable rent was static at £102.73. Read more on the Social Housing website.

https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/insight/special-report-level-of-affordable-lettings-drops-for-third-year-in-a-row-67099?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Funding Boosts To Help Councils Tackle Lettings Legislation Enforcement

Several funding boosts in recent years should mean local authorities are better equipped to tackle the enforcement of lettings legislation in 2020. Using the additional funds to train more enforcement officers could lead to more penalties being issued, including banning orders for the worst offenders - which have been used sparingly since their introduction. Earlier this month, it was announced that 100 local councils will receive an additional £4 million in funding to combat rogue landlords and letting agencies.  Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/funding-boosts-to-help-councils-tackle-lettings-legislation-enforcement.html

Landlord Confidence Hits Record Low

Landlord confidence in their own lettings business has reached a record low, according to research* by the National Landlords Association (NLA). In the NLA’s survey for Q2 2019, only 29 percent of landlords said their business expectations for the next three months were good or very good, the lowest level since the survey began in Q4 2006. Confidence levels dropped significantly in the second half of 2015 in response to George Osborne’s changes to landlord taxation, but had until now remained above 35 percent. This represents a marked shift in confidence since the Government announced its proposal to abolish section 21 no-fault evictions. Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/landlord-confidence-hits-record-low

Social Housing Lettings Down Again

Latest figures from the MHCLG show that social housing lettings by local authorities decreased by 9% in 2016/17, a continuation of the long-term trend in the decline in the number of lettings. Lettings by private registered providers also decreased in the same period by 11%. Total new lettings by private registered providers and local authorities in 2016/17 was 334,602 - the lowest total in the last 10 years and down from a high of 394,484 in 2011/12. In the 2007/08 the number of lettings by local authorities was 145,403 compared to 103,122 in 2016/17. Download the figures from the MHCLG website.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/677489/Social_housing_lettings_in_England_2016-17.pdf

Social Housing Lettings Cut By 22,000 In Past Two Years

Councils and housing associations are letting nearly 22,000 fewer homes for social rent each year than they were two years ago, the latest Government figures show. A statistical release put out by the CLG shows there were 261,163 social lettings by housing associations and 113,449 by councils in 2015/16 compared to 270,659 and 125,812 respectively in 2013/14. The cut in genuinely affordable homes comes after a period of sustained cut in funding for building such dwellings, with grant funding for social rents all but abolished. The Government has also beefed up its Right To Buy scheme which has seen a sell-off of council housing to the private sector across the country. Read more on the Independent website.

How To Make Right To Buy Work For Those In Poverty

A combination of selling council houses as they become vacant and Housing Association homes being sold off under the new Right to Buy risks reducing the number of new lettings by up to 19,100 per year.  Will those on low incomes will be able to afford replacement homes?  If replacement homes are for shared ownership or let at a market-linked rent rather than the current social rents, then the answer is probably not.   Just 3% of new social renters could afford to buy a shared ownership property. In real terms, this means after five years we’ll have up to 13,000 more families stuck in homeless accommodation, and 61,000 more paying an average of £1668 a year more to rent in the private sector. But, if the new homes are let at the same rents as the homes they replace, Right to Buy could actually increase the number of low cost homes available to rent. Read more on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

Migrants Given One in Ten Council Homes

Around one in ten local authority homes were let last year to foreign tenants, figures show. The proportion has soared since David Cameron entered Downing Street. Last year, 9 per cent of social housing properties which were let out were occupied by foreign tenants – up from 6 per cent in the final year of the last Labour government.  The statistics, released by the CLG, show that this proportion of lettings is the highest in England since at least 2006/7.  The figures also show that the number of homes let out to Eastern Europeans had doubled since the Coalition was formed in 2010 to 4 per cent. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Percentage of Affordable Rents Goes Up

Affordable rent tenancies account for more than a fifth of general needs lettings by housing associations, the latest government data has revealed. Figures on social lettings in England, released by the CLG, showed there were 35,848 affordable rent general needs lettings made by housing associations in 2013/14, which accounts for 21% of the 170,000 general needs lets overall. This is a rise from the 27,000 affordable rent lets in 2012/13, which was 18% of the total. Download the figures from the CLG website.

People Who Help Others Move Up The Waiting List

People who help their community are to have a better chance of getting a council house in Derby.  The change will apply to the lettings policy for 13,500 houses belonging to Derby Homes, the city council's social housing arm, from March. Whether or not someone helps their community would be considered once a person has been accepted onto the housing and details such as disability and risk of homelessness have been looked at.  The move will be introduced at the same time as plans to make it easier for former services personnel to get social housing in the city. A council report on the matter says "additional priority" will be given to people who contribute to their community through things like "employment, volunteering or providing unpaid care and support to a person in their area".  Read more on the Derby Evening Telegraph website.

Councils Not Recording Tenants' Nationalities

Over half of the new council housing lets in London do not record the nationality of the tenant, new research has revealed. The campaign group Migrationwatch UK found that one fifth of all social housing in London is occupied by foreign nationals, and that one third of the capital's new council lets are not even recorded in the Continuous Recording of Sales and Lettings (CORE) data.  Migrationwatch says that local authorities are failing in their legal duty to provide information on the nationality of the tenant, and that four London councils - owners of a quarter of the capital's council-owned stock - provided no information at all to central government.

Rental Market 'Does Not Work Everywhere'

Hometrack analysis shows that 75% of lettings last year, were concentrated in just a quarter of the UK.  Put simply the private rental sector does not work everywhere.  By geographical area only 7 per cent of the UK has a mature private rented sector market, with high concentrations of rental supply and strong turnover, its analysis shows.  Read more on the Hometrack website.