{"id":16021,"date":"2018-08-30T16:40:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T15:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16021"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:16","slug":"private-tenancies-unaffordable-housing-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16021","title":{"rendered":"‘Seriously out of line’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Private tenancies are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunaffordable\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for the majority of low income families because housing benefit is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bso seriously out of line\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with renting costs, new research has found.<\/p>\n

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Struggling households are at risk of homelessness<\/a> and poverty because of a freeze on local housing allowances (LHA) implemented in 2016, according to a report<\/a> by the Chartered Institute of Housing.<\/p>\n

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The report stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLHA rates are now so seriously out of line with local rents that private renting has become unaffordable for most low income tenants and this substantially increases their risk of homelessness.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe longer the freeze continues, the wider the gap becomes and the more costly it becomes to restore LHA rates to their full value.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The report found that outside of London two thirds of LHA rates for shared accommodation had a weekly shortfall of \u00c2\u01414 or more, while more than half of LHA rates for bigger properties had gaps of \u00c2\u014110 or more.<\/p>\n

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Within the capital, where the housing crisis<\/a> is particularly stark, LHA gaps for shared accommodation were more than \u00c2\u014110 a week, with every other property size seeing a weekly LHA shortfall of a least \u00c2\u014130.<\/p>\n

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LHA claimants in rented properties are facing shortfalls ranging from \u00c2\u014125 a month for those in shared accommodation outside of London to more than \u00c2\u0141260 a month for a house in the capital, CIH said.<\/p>\n

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CIH chief executive Terrie Alafat said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur research makes it clear just how far housing benefit for private renters has failed to keep pace with even the cheapest private rents.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe fear this policy is putting thousands of private renters on low incomes at risk of poverty<\/a> and homelessness.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are calling on the Government to conduct an immediate review and to look at ending the freeze on local housing allowance.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bat the very least\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the freeze on housing benefit<\/a> needs to be ended immediately.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut to tackle the root cause of the housing crisis, the government needs to replenish the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social housing stock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWithout a massive council house building programme, which will also benefit the economy and bring jobs and extra revenue for the treasury, families will continue to be exploited by landlords charging extortionate rents due to demand outstripping supply.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile an undercover investigation<\/a> by housing charity Shelter found a shocking 1 in 10 letting agent offices had a branch policy of refusing prospective tenants who were on housing benefit, regardless of whether or not they could afford the rent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private tenancies are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunaffordable\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for the majority of low income families because housing benefit is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bso seriously out of line\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with renting costs, new research has found.   Struggling households are at risk of homelessness and poverty because of a freeze on local housing allowances (LHA) implemented in 2016, according to a report by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[583,192,649],"wps_subtitle":"Private tenancies unaffordable for majority of families on housing benefit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25934,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16021\/revisions\/25934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}