Council to buy 300 homes to deal with landlord repossessions

One council has revealed that it’s going to buy 300 homes, worth up to £600,000 each, in a bid to provide emergency accommodation for those being made homeless.

Councillors at Lewisham Council have been alarmed by the rapid rise in the number of families who are reporting as being homeless – or say they are at immediate risk of losing their home.

The council says that the most common reason given by people for becoming homeless was relatives or friends asking them to leave.

However, a council report also highlights that landlord evictions in the borough are also on the rise.

‘Private landlords choosing to increase their rent’

The report states: “There continues to be an increasing percentage of private landlords choosing to increase their rent in line with market prices or choosing to no longer rent out their properties resulting in them disposing of the properties altogether.”

The report goes on: “In 2019/20, this accounted for 19% of all [homelessness] acceptances which has increased to 26% in 2022/23 (year to date).”

Lewisham is also building 2,000 new homes from 2026 to help reduce waiting lists but now needs specific homeless accommodation.

By purchasing the properties outright, the council says it is hoping to reduce its emergency accommodation bill and deliver ‘consistent living standards’.

Spent more than £143,962 on hotels for homeless families

The council has not yet revealed how much it is setting aside to pay for the property purchases and last year spent more than £143,962 on hotels for homeless families – that was four times higher than was spent on homeless accommodation in 2020/21.

The council says that the number of people approaching it saying they have lost their home has rocketed in two years by 31% to 3,723 – up from 2,833.

In January, Lewisham says it was housing 2,780 families in temporary accommodation – a rise of 60% in seven years.

‘Many landlords report that they intend to sell their properties’

The council’s report also warns: “Many landlords report that they intend to sell their properties due to reduced cash flow caused by higher interest rates.

“Additionally, many landlords took the opportunity of the strong sales market during 2021, supported by the Stamp Duty holidays, to sell their properties.”

The report also highlights that all of London’s boroughs have average rents that are now higher than their pre-pandemic levels – with fewer landlords willing to rent properties at LHA rates.

And it adds: “This creates a funding gap that will only increase the limitation recharge unless new ways of funding and delivering services are put in place.”

New landlord licensing scheme proposed

Meanwhile, Lewisham Council has also decided to push ahead with its new landlord licensing scheme.

If approved by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, it will cover an extra 20,000 households in the borough.

Lewisham says the scheme will improve the management and quality of privately rented accommodation in an area where one in four households are renting privately.

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