Homelessness can’t be laid at the door of private landlords and shouldn’t be used to attract headlines, an agent has said.
Terry Lucking, owner of Belvoir in Peterborough, was responding after a dispute between the council and MPs following a decision by councillors to house homeless families in a Travelodge at a budgetary overspend of £1.2m.
The council says that the roll-out of Universal Credit, which is paid direct to tenants, is partly to blame because it is making local private landlords reluctant to accept tenants on benefit.
The council also says that supply is dwindling because a number of landlords are now selling up as a result of tax changes.
But local MPs Stewart Jackson and Shailesh Vara have cast doubts on whether private landlords really are increasingly reluctant to house benefit tenants and said the local authority should do more to build more suitable housing.
One landlord, Azard Hussain, told his local paper that the council is correct in saying that there are a lot of landlords who will not consider housing benefit tenants.
He said: “I myself, a private landlord who has previously taken on tenants on housing benefit, cannot see myself doing this in the future, especially if the system makes it even harder to get direct payments instead of it going to tenants first.”
But Lucking said rather than trading blows, officials should concentrate on solving the many issues around homelessness.
He told EYE: “There are many reasons for homelessness and they shouldn’t be used to just make headlines.
“Universal Credit changed years ago so that can’t be blamed. There just isn’t enough housing.
“Some tenants don’t meet the landlord criteria and some simply don’t have the cash.”
Lucking said a working party should be set up by local MPs to investigate issues. He said he would happily sit on such a panel.
Maybe, just maybe if there was regulation aimed at the TENANT FROM HELL and instead of trouncing landlords and agents all the time, the private market would be more obliging to help with housing. In its current form and scheduled changes it is seen as biased and high risk …. that is what is causing the issue. If you want the private market to help, stop biting the hand that is being held out to help. Housing Benefit claimants are often a high risk and the system is geared up to be able to claw back any benefits for housing provided and uncertainty of continued affordability with so many stero type tenants. Many landlords and agents or not prepared to tell their landlords, are ignorant of this fact when they do accept HB tenants. If the government want the private sector to bail them out of a crisis they should provide guarantees for those that are prepared to help them out. That’s the norm in other industry! Not “oh tough luck mate, we won’t thank you for helping out for as long as you did and were not sorry to hear you are now in debt and we’ll keep on taxing you on non-profit”.
Local MPs Stewart Jackson and Shailesh Vara should be brought before a competence tribunal, if they are casting doubts. Which planet do they represent?
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