PRS landlords to get £70bn in government housing support, NEF says

PRS landlords to get £70bn in government housing support, NEF says

0:01 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago 13

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Private rented sector landlords are set to receive more than £70 billion in housing support from the government over the next five years, according to an analysis by the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The think tank found that private landlords will benefit from six times more public money than the government’s planned spending on affordable housing in the same period (£11.5 billion).

The NEF based its analysis on the latest official statistics and the government’s announcement in the October budget that the local housing allowance (LHA) would be increased to help people on Universal Credit or Housing Benefit cope with rising private rents, which grew by 6.2% year on year in November.

The organisation also surveyed tenants and found that 40% are living in homes with mould and damp, and 40% are paying more rent than was advertised,

‘Government is spending billions subsidising a broken system’

Alex Diner, a senior researcher at NEF, said: “Everybody should have an affordable, warm and secure home to live in, yet the government is spending billions subsidising a broken system which too often fails to deliver this.

“It is extremely inefficient for the government to be paying this money to private landlords when it should be building genuinely affordable homes and improving the quality and security of tenure for the homes we already have.”

He added: “To overcome this mess, the government must build more social homes to meet the rising demand for affordable housing, reverse its U-turn to loosen energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector and improve its plans to regulate private renting.”

NEF welcomed the increase in LHA

The NEF welcomed the increase in LHA as a ‘vital relief’ for struggling families but warned that the new rates of support would be frozen from April, leaving low-income private renters worse off in the long run.

The think tank also criticised the government for using public funds to ‘prop up’ a private rented sector that is ‘riddled with poor quality housing and many ineffectual landlords’, instead of investing in affordable social housing.

Private tenants suffer from high rents

The NEF’s analysis coincides with recent polling by the think tank that shows how many private tenants suffer from high rents, bad conditions and unfair treatment by landlords. The polling reveals that:

  • Nearly 40% of private tenants who moved in the last year pay an average of £1,200 a year more than the advertised rate
  • Nearly 40% of private tenants who moved in the last 12 months have damp and mould in their property
  • Over 20% of these tenants have had their landlords increase the rent mid-way through the tenancy without agreement
  • Nearly 20% have complained to their local council about the environmental standards of the property.

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Reluctant Landlord

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8:00 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Article is fundamentally floored from the start.

SOME TENANTS are getting an increased CONTRIBUTION towards THEIR rent OBLIGATIONS from the government.

'Housing support' is not given to private landlords as they don't claim it - tenants do!

How is this a credible organisation???

GlanACC

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8:53 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Private landlords are not receiving a bean from the government, they are only getting a fair market rent. If that happens to be from a tenant claiming from the government then so be it, the article makes it sound like the government is sgiving money to the PRS. In fact many landlords wont be affected by this giveaway as they will (like me) engineer an excuse for not taking on tenants on benefits - they are stiil too much of a risk

Norman Amey

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10:11 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

The NEF are yet another charity that have no understanding of cause and effect of their proposals in some fields they obviously have little real knowledge in. Take a read of this nonsense https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/Reforming-property-tax-final-version-web.pdf.

To be fair they do have some laudable causes on their website. But if this report is anything to go by their reasoning will be very flawed.

Dennis Leverett

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10:18 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

New Economics Foundation. What a joke, they obviously know nothing about economics in the slightest way. I wonder how much these twerps are actually getting paid for knowing nothing and producing misleading information. All we get from the Government is a load hassle and negative policies/regulations that are destroying the PRS. Give me strength, its so frustrating reading rubbish like that. So basically wrong.

Dennis Leverett

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10:28 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Norman Amey at 01/02/2024 - 10:11
What a load of b******s, its just unbelievable that anyone could make such ridiculous statements. There are so many unthought of flaws in their thinking it would take all day to add them to this comment. Just takes two words of thinking, cause and effect.

Downsize Government

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10:48 AM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Government can't manage the schools, health service or Military. How the how are they supposed to manage more homes as well??

Kate Mellor

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12:05 PM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Wow, that was confusing...I'm still wondering where all my government money is? I'm obviously missing out on some incredible subsidies that you lot are all getting...lol!

Instead I'm paying massive taxes on profits that aren't profits and getting my minor pittance of CGT allowance that goes nowhere towards offsetting the inflationary "gains" kicked out from under me.

Being a landlord has been a lifetime's work for my husband and myself and I never thought I'd see the day that I'd want to sell up, but we just feel so DONE with it now.

It's classic simpleton thinking..."we don't like the fact that there's a housing crisis let's dismantle the PRS, that'll fix it, because we all know landlords are to blame for decades of mismanagement of the housing system by successive governments"...Oh yes, let's take away the only part of the housing system that actually half-way works and replace it with? oh yeah, NOTHING!

Martin Roberts

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12:48 PM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

Do they think landlords should provide free housing?

Gromit

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13:13 PM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

NO THE WORKSHY & FECKLESS (GENUINE DISABLED PEOPLE EXCEPTED) GET £70BN IN SUBSIDIES (PLUS A WHOLE LOT MORE)!

GlanACC

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13:14 PM, 1st February 2024, About 11 months ago

The NEF, another 'charity' with £3m+ assets and a top salary exceeding £100,000

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