Homes for Reading closure forces tenants to find new homes

𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦, 𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠.
I trust that the Council are advising their tenants that they do not need to leave when the tenancy ends, and that they only need to leave when court appointed bailiffs come knocking on the door.
𝐻𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑖𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡, 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠.
The landlord’s financial difficulties are of no concern to the tenant. At least, that is what private landlords are usually told whenever they need to regain possession of their properties.
𝑀𝑟 𝑌𝑒𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑑: “𝑈𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛.
Mr Yeo should know that councils always had a responsibility to look after their finances. Perhaps if they had looked after the massive incomes in better times, they’d be better placed to cope with these leaner times.

Does this mean, if these families cannot find suitable accommodation, they will fall back on the Council for temporary housing at £20k pa?

Am I missing something. They are short of cash, so they are going to evict 94 families paying market rent to house 94 families who will pay less than market rent? How is that supposed to help their finances. Unless they become exempt from one of Rachel's/Angela's new taxes

As stated to PRS landlords, when tenants are asked tell them to go to shelter who will tell them to stay there until the Bailiffs come then once evicted the council will have to find accommodation. This is where councils show that they know F all about renting in the market and the responsibilities of landlords have

I wonder if shelter will advise those tenants to stay put until the bailiffs arrive.

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 22/08/2024 - 09:53
Smart people rarely work for the Council.

Spending other people.s money is easy - running a company is clearly beyond them.

They can't even see that they achieve nothing in terms of tenants housed by evicting perfectly good tenants and replacing them with other tenants.

Madness - I repeat paragraph one.

Just imagine the outcry and the obstacles that would be put in their way if this was a private landlord.
Perhaps their venture into the PRS did not meet with their expectations for a passive investment
For a start they would have to respond to tenants requests for repairs in a timely manner and from my experience of having just one ex-local property that can take several months.

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 22/08/2024 - 09:53
I’m sure we will find that the new tenants will have only recently arrived in the U.K.

Probably the cynicism oozes out of my pores with this but if I have understood correctly, Reading Council had a go at being a private landlord (at taxpayers' expense) can't do it so is cancelling the failed endeavour (also at taxpayers expense). Except of course unlike us they get to play this with moral hazard to protect them. If it was a success no doubt some CEO and chums would rake in the cash but if a failure, council tax goes up a bit(!) more and services are cut.

On top of this, they will go to the (taxpayers) expense of removing 94 families and replacing them with 94 different families. Leaving aside the faff of changing the legal structure what exactly is the difference between the old tenants they want to remove and their replacements?

Is it in order to create tenancies that avoid pesky obligations like HMO licences, gas and electrical safety? Or is it social engineering where they are prejudiced against a particular demographic?

Or something else?

I think we are all missing something here .... Labour want to increase the amount of social housing, simple answer get the councils to stop being private landlords and they can say "look arnt we great we have added 101 social homes in reading ... xxx in Nottingham" etc etc they haven't increased the amount of homes available just massaged the data. On a plus note if you have properties in reading that's more demand for you