An influential committee of MPs is warning that landlords are failing to provide their tenants with secure and safe homes - and the government is to blame for a faulty redress system.
That’s the verdict from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which has found that 589,000 rented homes, or 13% of the total, in England are posing a serious threat to tenants’ health and safety - and potentially costing the NHS around £340 million every year.
The MPs also make clear that complex and inaccessible regulations, along with a threat of retaliatory evictions, are preventing tenants from enjoying their right to live in a safe and secure home.
They also point out that local authorities who are responsible for regulating rental homes are unable to provide consistent and appropriate protection due to a lack of staff and funding so there’s an ‘enforcement postcode lottery’.
Private rental sector has grown by 20%
In a report, the MPs say that the private rental sector has grown over the last 20 years by 20% and is now providing homes for 11 million people.
They also found that the number of families and low-income individuals who are renting long-term is growing, and the prevalence of no-fault evictions is putting tenants at risk of becoming homeless.
They also found evidence of landlord discrimination, with 25% of landlords refusing to rent their home to a non-British passport holder - and half are refusing to rent to tenants on housing benefit.
The committee’s chair, Dame Meg Hillier, said: “Overcrowding, unsafe conditions, discrimination, dodgy evictions and harassment remain huge issues.”
The executive director of Shelter of the homeless charity, Polly Neate, said: “Tenants are getting a bad deal from a broken system with the odds stacked against them.”
‘Reforms have been based on insufficient information’
The National Residential Landlords Association’s chief executive, Ben Beadle, said: “Too often reforms have been based on insufficient information on how workable they are or to understand the true impact.
“We share the committee’s concern about the criminal and rogue landlord’s postcode lottery.”
He added that the lack of local authority enforcement means that bad practices within the sector is disappointing for tenants and responsible landlords alike.
A spokesman for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Local authorities should use the powers they have for cracking down on rogue landlords and issuing fines of up to £30,000 - and banning those who are renting out unsafe homes.”
Simon Thompson, the managing director of Accommodation for Students, said: “The number of rented homes that are posing a serious threat to the health and safety of tenants will come as a shock to every responsible landlord.
“There’s no doubt that there are poor landlords in the sector, and they need to be rooted out, but we also need to appreciate that the majority of landlords offer quality homes for tenants and survey after survey highlights how pleased most tenants are with their rented home.”
Accommodation provider welcomes the return of students
One major student accommodation provider says that students are now returning to universities in the UK ‘en masse’.
Unite Students has 70,000 beds in England, Scotland and Wales with occupancy rates now rising from 88% last year, to 94% this year.
However, that is still behind pre-pandemic occupancy levels of 98% and this is partly down to lower numbers of European and Chinese students heading to the UK.
The issues over grade inflation - which saw more UK students attending their first university choice - has led the government to announce that it will bring grade boundaries ‘back to earth over the next two years’.
High number of school leavers in the UK entering university
There’s also a record high number of school leavers in the UK entering university which is helping to make up for the drop in international numbers - which usually accounts for 30% of Unite’s customers.
And the provider says that two-thirds of its rooms are reserved already for the coming year.
They say that occupancy levels next year will reach 97% and rent increases will average 3.5%.
Unite has also revealed that it has an ambitious development pipeline of new student accommodation beds worth £967 million.
Country’s largest student housing provider
The country’s largest student housing provider says that demand from international and domestic students will be strong for 2022/23 with UCAS applications up 7% when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The firm has also revealed that it is also facing rising costs for materials and energy and there is ongoing supply chain disruption that has been created by the pandemic.
The firm’s chief financial officer, Joe Lister, said: “Headwinds from build cost inflation are impacting our development pipeline but we’ll seek to mitigate these where possible.”
