Average UK Rents Up 3% Since 2018

New figures released by SpareRoom have shown that the average cost of renting a room in the UK has increased by £15 per month since the same period last year – up from £567 in 2018 to £582 in 2019. House prices may be falling but rents are on the up in all regions of the UK. London, Northern Ireland and West Midlands have seen the largest jump, with rents up 4%. Despite its proximity to the capital, the south east has witnessed the lowest growth (just 2%), followed by the south west at 3%. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/average-uk-rents-up-3-since-2018.html

No DSS: Most Flat Shares Refuse Benefit Claimants

Landlords are more likely to accept potential renters who own pets than people claiming benefits, a BBC investigation has found. Analysis of some 11,000 online listings for spare rooms found all but a few hundred stated benefit claimants were not welcome. Campaign groups say it is "naked discrimination" and are calling for a change in the law. Landlords say more social housing needs to be built. Read more on the BBC website.

Number Taking In a Lodger Almost Doubled Over Past Few Years

The number of people taking in a lodger has almost doubled over the past few years as people look to supplement their income, according to a new study. Research by insurance firm LV= found that the average spare room generated more than £3,000 rental a year, rising to more than £4,000 in London. A survey of 400 UK homeowners revealed that a fifth of lodgers are aged between 36 and 50. Around 2.7 per cent of homeowners rent out a spare room, compared with 1.4 pre cent in 2009, said the report. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Deaf and Blind Man Fears Losing Home over "Bedroom Tax"

A deaf and blind man who uses his spare bedroom to store braille equipment fears that he could lose his home due to the “bedroom tax” as lawyers warned that the controversial measure is having a discriminatory impact on the disabled.  Severely disabled Martyn Styles fears he will be forced to choose between having a carer and keeping his home as a result of the tax. Mr Styles lives in a three-bedroom house with his wife and 16-year-old son, who are also deaf, and uses the spare bedroom to store Braille equipment and a specialised computer. He now faces paying more than £40 a week in bedroom tax. Iain Duncan Smith is facing mounting legal challenges from organisations representing disabled tenants affected by the tax, which argue that it has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, and may breach human rights. Read more on the Independent website.

Bedroom Tax Is a 'Complete Failure'

The bedroom tax has been a "complete failure" in Westminster, councillors have claimed. According to the borough's Labour Group, the latest council figures show that of the 560 Westminster families receiving housing benefit who have one 'spare' room or more, only 19 have moved to smaller homes.

Additionally, council officers have confirmed that there are no cases where families have taken in a lodger to fill a spare bedroom. Read more on 24dash.

Charity Launches Spare Rooms Campaign

A charity is calling on UK households with spare rooms to offer them to homeless young people.  Depaul UK’s spare room campaign is targeting 7.5 million households who have a spare room, urging them to join its Nightstop initiative.  This currently places 16- to 25-year-olds with around 700 volunteer hosts who have been approved by the charity. Depaul wants to double the number of spare rooms it has available by 2015, to meet surging demand. Read more on the Depaul website.

Work Longer To Keep Spare Room, Says Pensions Minister

People facing a cut in housing benefit because they have a spare room in their council home could work more hours to keep it, the pension minister has said.  Lib Dem Steve Webb said about 100,000 council and social housing tenants with jobs could be hit by the new rules.  He told the BBC they could make up the shortfall by working longer - saying three hours a week would cover it.  Labour MP Michael McCann, an aide to shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, said: "Steve Webb must have missed the last two years where his government drove the British economy into the ground.  He blithely tells those hit by the bedroom tax to work extra hours but two thirds are disabled and there are still more than 5 people chasing every job - extra shifts aren't easy to come by. They are staggeringly out of touch."  Read more on the BBC website.

DWP: 'No Plans' To Increase Bedroom Tax Reductions

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says it currently has "no plans" to amend the percentage reduction rates for the so-called 'bedroom tax' that will hit social housing tenants next April.  From that date, some 660,000 working age social tenants across Britain will face cuts to their housing benefit for having spare rooms. Deductions of 14% and 25% will be made for one and two or more spare bedrooms respectively. The clarification on reduction rates was in response to the Council of Mortgage Lenders' (CML) concerns expressed in its response to the draft Universal Credit regulations.  Read more on 24dash.

Council to Sell Empty Homes for £1 to Tenants Hit By Housing Benefit Cuts

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to offer loans of £30,000 to families hit by housing benefit cuts to refurbish empty homes which it will sell to them for £1.  The measure is part of a move by the council to support tenants hit by welfare reform, bring back into use empty homes and promote home ownership. From next April some 660,000 working age claimants will face housing benefit cuts of £56 a month on average for having “spare” bedrooms. In addition to the under-occupancy penalties, a household benefit cap will also apply limiting families to £500 a week. The council is match-funding £1.5m of the Government’s empty homes funding with £1.5m from its own capital allowance to get the scheme up and running. Read more on 24dash.

Freud: Bedroom Tax Will Ease Overcrowding

The coalition government’s bedroom tax will ease overcrowding and help tackle the shortage of social housing, Lord David Freud has said.  Speaking at a Local Government Association conference, the welfare reform minister defended the controversial policy, which will see social housing tenants of working age docked benefit for having a spare room. The policy is estimated to affect 660,000 households, who will lose £14 a week on average.  Lord Freud said: ‘Nearly a third of working-age social housing tenants on housing benefit are living in accommodation which is too big for their needs, in spite of the fact of severe overcrowding. We are stopping the practice of the state paying for rooms beyond claimant needs, and that should go in some way to help tackle the social housing shortage that has been blighting too many lives.’  Read more on Inside Housing.

Spare Rooms – Parliamentary Oral Answer

Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab): Many of my constituents have raised concerns with me about the forthcoming bedroom tax, especially given the lack of affordable alternative housing in Wolverhampton. Specifically, can the Secretary of State reassure me that individuals or families with disabilities who are in adapted housing, and who have waited some time to secure it, will not be subject to reductions in their housing benefit as of April next year?
Chris Grayling: We have ensured that local authorities have a substantial amount of money in discretionary funds to take into account the kind of situation that the hon. Lady describes, but the reality is that in the social rented sector we have about 1 million spare rooms, and at a time when people are queuing up on waiting lists throughout the country, it makes no sense for the taxpayer to pay for that.

Proposals to Cut Housing Benefit for Under 25s Condemned

Crisis has condemned proposals by the Prime Minister to remove housing benefit for under 25s as counter-productive, ill-considered and irresponsible. Leslie Morphy Crisis' CEO said: "At a time when youth homelessness is already on the rise it would be deeply irresponsible and would cost the taxpayer more in the long-term. Housing Benefit is rightly claimed by people who are in work but whose pay is too low and local rents are too high - taking housing benefit from them will cause them to have to uproot and most likely lose their job and not be able to find another. And the proposal does not even make sense - single people under 35 are already only entitled to a much lower rate of housing benefit and the Government's previous changes to housing benefit will force families in social housing to downsize so they have no spare rooms and penalise those with adult children living at home, encouraging them to leave.” Read more on the Crisis website.

Reviving the Economy by Moving Out the 'Bedroom Blockers'

Lord Best has come up with a new strategy that will, in his words, "solve all the country's problems".  Here's what the peer proposes: building 100,000 retirement, supported housing and extra-care homes a year. The trickledown effect will, in one handy flourish, pull Britain out of double-dip recession while also solving the country's acute and growing housing crisis.  The boost to the construction industry would, by his calculations, create between 300,000 and 500,000 new jobs.  Building 100,000 homes designed especially for the needs of an ageing population would also help to house 350,000 other people. By selling their under-occupied large family homes and downsizing to smaller, specialist properties, our older people could help a whole generation of potential first-time buyers who are priced out of the market.  Lord Best said many of these homes would have been untouched and undecorated for up to 35 years, and so would sell at the lower end of average market value and be affordable to families struggling through recession. "Nearly all of the 7.8m people of pensionable age have more than two spare rooms, making way for 350,000 family [members] with children."  Read more on the Guardian website.

Landlords Warned Off Bedroom Tax Loophole

Landlords risk breaching loan agreements if they reclassify properties to protect their tenants from the ‘bedroom tax’.  The possibility that social housing providers could redefine a three-bed home as a two-bed property to protect their tenants from the bedroom tax arises in new regulations, due to come before parliament in June. The regulations do not define what counts as a bedroom for the purposes of the under-occupation penalty.  The bedroom tax will see social housing tenants of working age with a spare room docked an average of £14 a week from April 2013.  Crossbench peer Lord Richard Best said the wording of the draft regulations created an opportunity for landlords to reclassify some larger properties as homes with fewer bedrooms to allow tenants to escape the penalty.  Read more on Inside Housing.

MPs Urged To Support Bedroom Tax Amendment

MPs have come under pressure to accept an amendment to the government’s plan for a ‘bedroom tax’. More than 70 family, disability and housing groups have written a joint letter urging MPs to accept the amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill. Under the government’s plans, 670,000 households – two-thirds containing a disabled family member – would lose an average of £670 a year in housing benefit because they are deemed to have one or more additional bedrooms. In December members of the House of Lords voted in favour of a cross-party amendment to exempt the ‘bedroom tax’ from families with just one additional bedroom where there are no alternative properties available. Read more on the NHF website.

Welfare Reform Bill: MPs Urged To Accept 'Bedroom Tax' Exemption

More than 70 family, disability and housing organisations have written a joint letter to MPs urging them to back an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill that would exempt families with only one 'spare bedroom' from housing benefit cuts in 2013. The National Housing Federation - who has launched a campaign opposing the cuts - wants MPs to back the Lords amendment as the Bill returns to the House of Commons. Read more about the campaign on the NHF website.

Welfare Amendments Face Government Fight

The government will seek to overturn all amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill when it returns to the House of Commons later in the year. The government was defeated in December over plans for financial penalties for social housing tenants with spare rooms. An amendment tabled by Lord Best, which allows tenants one spare room if there is no other suitable accommodation was passed by the Lords in December. The government also lost three votes last week over plans to restrict Employment and Support Allowance. A Number 10 spokesperson said the cabinet has now agreed to seek to overturn the amendments in the Commons. Read more on Inside Housing.