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.”
