Landlords: Raking in the rent

Private landlords pocketed £9.3bn in housing benefit last year, a shocking new report has revealed – double the amount claimed 10 years ago.

Analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents housing associations, found that housing benefit payments to landlords had rocketed from ÂŁ4.6bn in 2006 to ÂŁ9.3bn in 2015.

The NHF said private renters receiving housing benefit has increased by 42 per cent since 2008, with the rising taxpayer costs compounded by much higher rents in the private housing sector.

If Britain’s private renters had been living in social housing during that period the taxpayer would have saved a total ÂŁ15.6bn, the report stated.

‘Madness’

NHF chief executive David Orr said, “It is madness to spend £9bn of taxpayers’ money lining the pockets of private landlords, rather than investing in affordable homes.

“Housing associations want to build the homes nation needs. By loosening restrictions on existing funding, the government can free up housing associations to build more affordable housing at better value to the taxpayer and directly address the housing crisis.”

Social housing rents are an average of £21 a week cheaper than private rents, the NHF pointed out, with social housing costing a family £89 per week compared £110 in the private sector – a difference of around £1,000 per year.

In London the difference is even starker at £64 per week – meaning private sector tenants pay £3,300 more each year.

The report found that housing benefit is increasingly being claimed by working families – 47 per cent of all housing benefit claimants in the private sector are now in work, compared to just 26 per cent in 2010.

Lower standard

Even though private renters pay more for accommodation, their housing is of a lower standard than that in the not for profit sector, the NHF said, with one in three private sector homes failing to meet the English Housing Survey’s decent homes standard.

A government spokesperson denied that housing benefit payments to private landlords was increasing and said the costs were being brought under control.

However Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the government was failing to take necessary steps to rectify the root causes of the country’s housing crisis and its cost to the taxpayer.

“Millions of working people are struggling on poverty pay and left open to continued insecurity and abuse by landlords claiming billions in corporate welfare subsidies from taxpayers,” Turner said.

“This will remain the case unless and until housing becomes more affordable, and we embark on the massive council house building programme the country is crying out for. The ugly truth is that work doesn’t pay for millions in Conservative Britain.”

He added, “Wages of course need to rise, but housing costs will not fall until housing need is addressed.

“We need a Labour government committed to building decent, safe, secure homes to meet that need and only when this has happened will the obscenity and abuse associated with the private rental market be genuinely tackled.”