Homeless tenants in London will ‘inevitably’ be forced out of the city, a group of MPs has concluded.
A Communities and Local Government select committee report out
today on the private rented sector said moving people out of London was
the only way councils could mitigate the impact of benefit caps.
Cuts
to benefits had left local authorities with too few properties in their
boroughs where they could afford to house claimants, the MPs found.
Westminster
Council had placed tenants in Bognor Regis and Kent, while Newham
Council said any government restriction on where local authorities could
place homeless people would be ‘hugely unhelpful’, the report stated.
The
MPs called for homeless housholds to be offered a new property in their
local area ‘where possible’ but where tenants had to be moved out,
information sharing between the two authorities involved and a full
discussion with the prospective tenant should be a statutory duty.
‘It
nevertheless appears inevitable that councils in areas with high rents,
London in particular, will place homeless households outside the area,
including in coastal towns,’ the report says.
‘Before any
placement, there should be a full discussion with the receiving
authority and the prospective tenant and information about the household
and its ongoing needs should be shared. The government should consider
making this a statutory duty.’
Although, the select committee
decided rent controls were not the answer to the ‘acutely high’ rents in
London and the south east, and steps should be taken to increase
supply.
‘We agree that the most effective way to make rents more
affordable would be to increase supply, particularly in those areas
where demand is highest,’ the report states.
Build to rent funds
could assist in delivering this, the committee said, but the government
must ensure it led to more houses being built rather than just speeding
up the delivery of homes already in the pipeline.
The build to
rent fund was a pot set up by the government following the Montague
report, published in August last year, which recommended boosting the
supply of private rented sector accommodation. The government initially
set out £200 million to stimulate new private rented sector homes and
increased this to £1 billion in the Budget earlier this year.
Longer tenancies were also said to be necessary, with an increasing number of families moving into the private rented sector.
The
committee said these could be provided within the existing legal
structure but recommended stronger powers to evict tenants who fall
behind on rent.
‘We need to change the culture, and to find ways
to overcome the barriers to longer tenancies being offered,’ the report
says. ‘The ability to secure eviction more quickly for non payment of
rent will encourage landlords to make properties available on longer
tenancies. The government should also set out a quicker means for
landlords to gain possession if they can provide proof that they intend
to sell the property.’
The committee called on the government to
revisit its previous recommendations issued in a report in May last year
to address the ‘urgent need to boost supply across all tenures of
housing’. These recommendations, in the report Financing of new housing supply
were: Large-scale investment from institutions and pension funds;
changes to the financing of housing associations, including a new role
for the historic grant on their balance sheets; greater financial
freedoms for local authorities; and new and innovative models, including
a massive expansion of self-build housing
Lest we not forget!
