London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for the roll-out of Universal Credit to be halted, saying it is forcing private tenants into homelessness and living on the streets.
Khan, who is also calling for rent caps, said that a series of cuts to welfare have hit people’s ability to sustain a private tenancy.
According to City Hall research, cuts in housing-related benefits have hit Londoners hardest, leading directly to over-crowding, rent arrears and evictions.
The research says that the cuts have coincided with steep rent rises in the private rented sector.
It also points to reports that landlords are increasingly reluctant to let to benefit claimants, because of the delays in assessment and payment under Universal Credit.
Khan said: “The Government’s introduction of Universal Credit has been an unmitigated disaster and should be stopped before it forces any more Londoners on to the streets.
“This report sets out in stark detail the brutal impact of nearly a decade of welfare cuts on the lives of Londoners.
“Whilst it is the actions of central government that is causing the rise in rough sleeping, it’s London that is left to pick up the bill. That’s why these draconian cuts must be reversed immediately.
“We are doing all we can to help Londoners affected by high rents, but without the powers to do more we need the Government to play their part.
“They should urgently reverse their damaging benefit cuts, overhaul tenancy laws to make them fit for purpose, and give me the power to bring in the rent controls Londoners so urgently need.”
Universal Credit was introduced in 2013 and the roll-out is set to be completed in 2023.
Meanwhile a separate study, by the Office for National Statistics, looks at levels of anxiety throughout the UK.
It highlights the London borough of Lambeth where anxiety levels are high, partly because of house prices.
Surely the answer is build more properties rather than pay more benefits? At least by building there is a lasting asset, not the case when money is just handed out.
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Bit of both: there is a clear shortage of stock, which is a massive problem, but if people can’t afford to live right now that’s a bit more immediate and they can’t exactly wait for a statistically-significant number of new houses to be built. Most universal credit claimants are in full-time work, so it’s more a case of subsidising low wages than giving handouts. Something else to remember is that benefits in any form don’t just disappear, they get re-injected into the economy as soon as they’re spent, so the money isn’t lost.
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There are so many issues that are starting to show up following decades of government screw ups.
1. The right to buy scheme for council tenants to buy the houses for cheap, and not using that money to build new homes (which was legislation but changed every government)
2. Forcing tenants on benefits to manage the own rent, when before the landlord could apply to the council for direct payment from the outset.
3. messing with section 21 which is now scaring landlords into not renting to the benefit sector.
4. restrictions and red tape on regeneration projects when we have so many empty / derelict buildings around the UK for so many years
Both the government and shadow government cant agree on anything and currently have bigger issues to attend to.
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One big issue is that very few lenders offering buy-to-let mortgages will allow landlords to receive rent directly from the council, or indeed from guaranteed rent schemes. It’s bonkers.
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1. They were happy to off load council properties with RTB as they were in the main 1950/60’s properties with impending refurbishments costs that was going to be meggar £m’s, they dodged.
2. Landlords can still apply for direct payment – conditions apply. But a word of warning, as if many do not already know this. Any claw back is fast and if the agent is receiving the rent direct from benefits, they claw it back out of the money the “agent receives” and can mean that they reduce payments due that should have gone to other landlords. Another good reason why some agents are very reluctant to deal with those terms “No DSS”.
3. Social housing sector should never have been allowed to develop as it has into PRS. Slowly but surely nationalisation through stealth, which won’t be so stealthy if Corbyn & McDonnell do as they openly plan?
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