Tories’ high rise of housing woe

Only a week after the Tories have begun their latest five-year reign of power, new, record-breaking figures released last Thursday (May 14) from the first few months of 2015 have shown the massive scale of the housing crisis facing the nation.

The ministry of justice statistics revealed that between January and March of this year, more than 11,000 families were evicted from their homes in the UK – a six-year high. This figure represents an 11 per cent increase from the same period last year and a shocking 51 per cent rise since 2010, when the Tory-led coalition government first began.

Last year, a total of 42,000 families were evicted, the highest figures since records began in 2000. But only a few months into 2015, the latest figures suggest the nation is on track to seeing the greatest number of families forcibly removed from their homes ever.

Separate figures released last week also showed that 59,000 families have had their benefits capped in the last two years, which housing charities say is to blame for the skyrocketing numbers of people finding themselves without a roof over their heads.

The housing crisis is starkest in London, where stagnant wages have failed to keep up with sharply climbing rents – an average two-bedroom flat in the capital now costs in excess of £2,000 a month.

London also lays claim to the greatest number of families being hit with benefit caps, which has further exacerbated a housing crisis already reaching boiling point in the capital.

Government policy to blame

Landlord repossession claims – the first step in the process of evicting tenants – also saw high numbers this quarter, with 42,000 claims being made, just short of record-breaking figures in 2014.

But take a closer look at the numbers and surprising trend emerges – of the tens of thousands of repossession claims, the vast majority have been made by social landlords rather than private landlords.

Most of these social landlords are housing associations, not-for-profit entities which offer accommodation below market rent, often to those receiving housing benefit.

A spokesperson from the National Housing Federation said last year of this trend that evicting tenants was “the last thing housing associations want to do” and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of government policy, particularly the bedroom tax and jobseekers’ allowance sanctions.

Unite head of community Liane Groves agreed, noting that “these evictions are a symptom of the benefits cuts like the bedroom tax, council tax changes, and other such cuts.”

“With a further £12bn cuts coming,” she warned, “we are going to see many more thousands of families losing their homes.”

Only the beginning

As Groves pointed out, record eviction figures are surging even before the latest raft of the Tory-promised welfare cuts have begun to kick in, suggesting the nation’s housing crisis is poised for an oncoming meltdown.

The Tories were deliberately vague about their flagship welfare cuts before the election, and have remained just as vague after. But the Institute of Fiscal Studies has said that, considering that the budget for pensions is ring-fenced, something would have to give, and slashing housing benefit seems like a likely candidate.

Couple this with documents leaked to the Guardian earlier this month, which suggest a further ratcheting up of the bedroom tax as well as barring under 25s from claiming housing benefit, and the housing crisis will continue to deteriorate.

One would be forgiven for thinking that the present government must surely have a housing policy to address rising evictions and homelessness rates.

But if their general election promises are anything to go by, they’re answer is extending Right to Buy to housing associations, which, far from easing the crisis, will only worsen it, a point that even the CBI made in the Financial Times.

Groves likewise condemned the Toies’ housing policy.

“A serious council and affordable housebuilding programme needs to start, and it needs to start now,” she said. “This is the only way to bring down sky-high housing costs that continue to outstrip wages.”

“But the government seems to think that their legally dubious policy of selling off housing association homes, homes that aren’t even theirs to begin with, will somehow solve all our housing ills,” she added. “In reality it will only further squeeze the housing stock we already have and will do nothing to help the millions across the country living precariously in private rented accommodation, in which eviction is always just around the corner.”

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner agreed. “After the million or so housing association homes go up for sale, it will be corporations that will ultimately own these properties, maximising their profit out of other people’s misery. That’s what’s going to happen here if we don’t put a stop to it.”

Join Unite to fight evictions and the other consequences of unprecedented Tory cuts on June 20, when the People’s Assembly will gather hundreds of thousands of people to stand up against ideological austerity.  Find out more here.