Northampton Council HMO Licensing Rip-offs.

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A Northampton Landlord sent me this document and asked if I could get it out there. It would be great to get local landlord’s comments, make sure we inform those that do not already know and ask them to contact their Councillors etc.

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Charity pleads with Government to increase housing allowance

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Housing Benefit:

The housing charity Crisis is calling on the government to increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels which thousand of tenants reply on for rent payments.

The austerity freeze
on housing benefit is leading to extreme hardship argues the charity
with LHA not having been lifted since 2016.

According to one
report published by Inside Housing, a weekly journal for
housing professionals in the UK, families are going without food;
they are unable to afford a full weekly food shop due to what Crisis
says is a housing benefit shortfall.

Rent being a
priority payment to keep a roof over their heads, some households
across England are being forced to give up a large part of their
weekly food shop in order to keep up with rent payments, says the
Charity.

Crisis says that
available data shows that the housing benefit shortfall, the amount
of an individual’s rent not covered by housing benefit, is equal to
families having to give up at least a quarter of the national average
weekly food shop. This would be for a small family in 70 of the
country’s 152 Broad Rental Market Areas.

“Broad Rental
Market Areas” are designated by the government and are used to
determine how much housing benefit private renters across the UK
receive.

According Crisis,
central London, where rents are among the highest in the country, has
the highest housing benefit shortfall. The average rent for the
cheapest third of two-bedroom properties is £523.56 compared with a
housing benefit rate of £320.74 says Crisis. This leaves a shortfall
of £202.82.

According to the
charity, the average national weekly food shop for a small family
(two adults and two children) is calculated at £59, meaning
foregoing the weekly food shop still does not cover the shortfall for
a London family.

Similarly, outside
of London in other expensive areas such as Cambridge, claimants are
experiencing high housing benefit shortfalls of around £36, which
equates to 61% of the average £59 weekly shop.

In Leicester, the
cheapest third of two-bedroom properties comes at £124.27, compared
to the housing benefit of £109.32, leaving a shortfall of £14.95.
Once the claimant has paid of the shortfall there is only £44.05
left for the weekly shop, which is around 75% of the cost of an
average weekly shop.

The government has
already indicated that the freeze will be lifted in April, with an
estimated rise equal to the of Consumer Price Index rate of
Inflation at 1.7%. However, Crisis says this would not be enough to
make up shortfalls.

Chief executive of
Crisis, Jon Sparkes says that lifting the freeze was not enough to
help those unable to afford their rent, as LHA rates:

“A safe and stable
home is fundamental to our dignity and humanity, but every day we
hear of people becoming homeless or being pushed to the brink of
losing the roof over their heads because of the constant pressure of
trying to cover the cost of their rent.

“Paying the rent
means families have no option but to make huge sacrifices on other
basic necessities. We cannot let this continue.

“Housing benefit
is an important tool and could be the quickest and most effective way
to prevent homelessness, but due to years of cuts and freezes it
simply does not cover people’s rent.

“With the right
policies and investment, we can end homelessness. We urge the new
government to act now and invest in housing benefit.”

A Department for
Work and Pensions spokesperson told Inside Housing:

“Since 2011 we’ve
provided local authorities with more than £1bn to support the most
vulnerable with Discretionary Housing Payments, and in 2020/2021 we
will make an additional £40m available.”

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Refreshed 2020 BTL mortgage range – Paragon

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Paragon, the specialist bank and buy-to-let lender, has kicked-off 2020 with a refreshed range of mortgage products for portfolio and non-portfolio landlords.

The changes include lower rates on 14 different products across our range of mortgages up to 80% loan-to-value.

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North East landlords invited to Newcastle landlord forum this month

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Landlords with properties in the North East are being invited to hear an update on the sector at a landlord forum event being held in Newcastle on 23rd January. The forum will take place at Northern Football Club on Great North Road, and registration starts at 5:30pm. The agenda on the night will be: Ian […]

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R2R challenges?

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Rent-to-Rent (R2R) is taught in many property training courses, but what they don’t tell you is that the paperwork is not so straightforward, especially if they are used as HMOs. And yet I get letters every week from companies wanting to “ease this burden”

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Local Housing Allowance and the date of the next Budget

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The charity Crisis is calling for the government to increase Local Housing Allowance levels, ending a four-year freeze introduced in 2016. In data published in Inside Housing today, the charity says that the housing benefit shortfall equates to families having to give up at least a quarter of the national average weekly food shop for […]

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Make your views heard in the RLA’s latest quarterly survey

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The RLA’s latest quarterly survey is still open, and landlords are being urged to make their views heard on issues including adaptability and safet standards. Thousands of landlords have already made their views heard, and this helps us to build a clear picture of landlord sentiment on a range of issues-and to build up a […]

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Funding boost for councils to tackle rogue landlords

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Rogue Landlords:

The government has
confirmed that additional funding is being made available to councils
to tackle the menace of rogue landlords. The Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) says that over £4 million
is the amount to be shared out among 100 councils nationwide, which
equates to just £40,000 per council if the money were to be shared
equally.

However, the
allocation is to be via a bidding process. Councils were invited to
submit bids for the government’s Innovation and Enforcement Grant
Fund” by 1 December 2019. The money is earmarked to be spent by
the end of the current financial year, 31 March 2020.

However, the
Residetial Landlords Association (RLA) argues that the additional
funding is nowhere near enough to root out the problem of criminal
landlords, and although welcome is “not enough to tackle the scale
of the problem.”

RLA policy director
David Smith, says:

“We welcome the
government’s focus on rooting out criminal landlords. For too long
the debate has been driven by ideological calls for more regulation
of the sector. What is needed is better enforcement of the powers
already available to root out the minority who bring the sector into
disrepute. Today’s funding is nowhere near enough.

“Instead of
offering inadequate and sporadic pots of money, it is critical that
the government provides proper, multi-year funding to enable councils
to plan and prepare workable strategies to find the criminal
landlords.

“This should to be
supported by councils having the political will to prioritise
enforcement against the crooks rather than tying good landlords up in
licensing schemes which do nothing to protect tenants.”

According to the
National Landlords Association (NLA), some of the successful project
bids already confirmed include:

• In Northampton
  the council will target the ‘very worst landlords’ through the
  formation of a ‘Special Operations Unit’
• In Greenwich
  new technology will be trialled that will be aimed at identifying
  renters in cold homes and helping ensure they can remain warm over
  winter

• 21 councils
  across Yorkshire and Humberside are to train over 100 enforcement
  officers
• Thurrock –
  ist to work closely with the care services to ensure that that most
  vulnerable tenants can secure decent accommodation.

Director of Policy
and Practice at the National Landlords Association (NLA) Chris
Norris, says:

“We welcome the
news that more funding will be made available for councils in England
to crack down on landlords who break the law and provide inadequate
services to tenants. While an overwhelming majority of landlords
provide an excellent service to their tenants, it is important that
the government makes a stand against criminals operating in the
private rented sector.

“However, this
one-time handout is wholly insufficient in contrast to the long-term
issues facing authorities burdened by ever more legislation of
increasing complexity. The offer of just over £4 million to be
spread across around 100 of the 343 local authorities – an average
of less than £40,000 per council – is simply not enough.

“Good landlords want to see fair enforcement and local authorities need far more substantial and consistent support and funding to be able to enforce properly in the PRS and rid the sector of the criminals operating within it.”

Private Rented Sector Innovation and Enforcement Grant Fund 2019/20

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January 2020 licensing update for landlords

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In our licensing update this month, we take a look at some of the local licensing schemes set to coming into force very soon, and then we look ahead to ongoing licensing consultations and how landlords can make their views heard. Licensing News HMO landlords: Article 4 Direction to be introduced in Birmingham next summer Earlier this year, we reported on an […]

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Government to revise model tenancy agreement -removing restrictions on tenants with ‘well behaved’ pets

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The Housing Secretary has announced plans to revise the Government’s model tenancy agreement to allow for “well behaved pets” in properties. The Government says that the plan, announced at the weekend, will ensure that more landlords are catering for responsible pet owners wherever possible. Commenting on the plan, Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP said: “Pets […]

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