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The housing crisis (London and beyond)

I don't understand who is in the social housing in Peckham around that school, and why are so many people 'homeless' (which includes temp accommodation etc) with kids?
Not Peckham, another borough in South London, but a friend of mine was living in private rented housing with her husband and daughter when their landlord gave them notice to quit because the landlord was selling up.

They struggled to find somewhere else affordable in the local area but eventually did. Fast forward a year, and the new landlord decided to sell up. By this time, she was also pregnant with their second child. They struggled to find somewhere else convenient for work and near childminder etc. They ended up moving to her parents in a different city, it was a couple of years later that they managed to move back to London. They're not in minimum wage jobs either, they're not rich, but they're not low-paid.

Their daughter had had four different addresses by the time she was five-years-old.

Lots of children are insecurely housed and it's only getting worse.
 
some random findings from Southwark council/census.

Southwark 'housing stock' in 2020: 39% (LA + HA social + affordable rent) vs 61% private sector. This is down from 44% vs 56% in 2010. So still a high % of social housing.

Between 2010 and 2020 the council rented stock in Southwark fell by 4.8% from 40,120 to 38,183. This has fallen significantly since its peak of 64,490 in 1982. So a big drop since 80s.

In April 2019 Southwark Council had the 4th largest local authority rented stock in the country and the largest in London. Only Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield had a larger LA rented stock.

2 bed social housing, averge rent per week - £131
2 bed private housing, average rent per week - £495
 
some random findings from Southwark council/census.

Southwark 'housing stock' in 2020: 39% (LA + HA social + affordable rent) vs 61% private sector. This is down from 44% vs 56% in 2010. So still a high % of social housing.

Between 2010 and 2020 the council rented stock in Southwark fell by 4.8% from 40,120 to 38,183. This has fallen significantly since its peak of 64,490 in 1982. So a big drop since 80s.

In April 2019 Southwark Council had the 4th largest local authority rented stock in the country and the largest in London. Only Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield had a larger LA rented stock.

2 bed social housing, averge rent per week - £131
2 bed private housing, average rent per week - £495
The average rents explain how tempting it is for Social Housing tenants to sub-let. But it is now a criminal offence, people have served time for it.
 
The average rents explain how tempting it is for Social Housing tenants to sub-let. But it is now a criminal offence, people have served time for it.
That I did not know, what about someone just coming to live with you like a partner or a friend or would you have to ask the council's permission first?
 
Prior to the introduction of no-fault evictions, it was always possible for a landlord to regain possession if they needed the place to live in themselves, or if the tenant was in arrears or caused nuisance etc. etc.

If they wanted to sell the property, it would have to be done with a sitting tenant.

Prior to the introduction of no-fault evictions, the system worked okay. Ever since, the balance of power has swung massively in favour of landlords, so we are where we are.

Of course, there are other factors, such as the car crash that is the current court situation, people getting inadequate pensions, housing benefit caps on rent, etc.

Housing is a basic human right, and tenants shouldn't be used as pawns in a game of economics.
 
That I did not know, what about someone just coming to live with you like a partner or a friend or would you have to ask the council's permission first?

my understanding is that the sort of 'sub letting' that is an offence is where a social housing tenant lets the whole house / flat out and then buggers off to live somewhere else.

having someone stay temporarily isn't usually an issue, nor is having a partner move in (unless possibly if it leads to overcrowding) and the sort of 'sub letting' in terms of having a lodger can be OK, but depends on the tenancy agreement whether you need to get permission first, or just tell them, or what. think the tories were encouraging this to people affected by the 'bedroom tax'

all subject to the disclaimer that i'm not entirely up to date with it all.
 
my understanding is that the sort of 'sub letting' that is an offence is where a social housing tenant lets the whole house / flat out and then buggers off to live somewhere else.

having someone stay temporarily isn't usually an issue, nor is having a partner move in (unless possibly if it leads to overcrowding) and the sort of 'sub letting' in terms of having a lodger can be OK, but depends on the tenancy agreement whether you need to get permission first, or just tell them, or what. think the tories were encouraging this to people affected by the 'bedroom tax'

all subject to the disclaimer that i'm not entirely up to date with it all.
True , if the tenant stays there , they can move in mates or partners.
 
Councils are building again
They are but not much of there new stock is intended for low paid workers or those on benefits. The assured tenancies are no more and have been replaced by ' affordable ' tenancies' which are set at 80% of the local market rates. Those local market rates are defined by spiv estate agents. The cost of a three bedroom council flat in Westminister would require the tenants to be earning over a £100k a year to be able to afford the weekly rent of £665. A friend of mine has just been housed by Lambeth. A studio flat, so no bedroom, in a block of flats in Loughborough junction is costing him £190 a week. He works but says he would better off financially if he stopped working and claimed the dole and housing benefit.
 
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They are but not much of there new stock is intended for low paid workers or those on benefits. The assured tenancies are no more and have been replaced by ' affordable ' tenancies' which are set at 80% of the local market rates. Those local market rates are defined by spiv estate agents. The cost of a three bedroom council flat in Westminister would require the tenants to be earning over a £100k a year to be able to afford the weekly rent of £665. A friend of mine has just been housed by Lambeth. A studio flat, so no bedroom, in a block of flats in Loughborough junction is costing him £190 a week. He works but says he would better off financially if he stopped working and claimed the dole and housing benefit.
Suggest your friend gets a benefits check-up from an independent welfare rights advisor. Lots of working people don't realise that they're entitled to UC. They might not be entitled to any help, but it's worthwhile double-checking.

 
They are but not much of there new stock is intended for low paid workers or those on benefits. The assured tenancies are no more and have been replaced by ' affordable ' tenancies' which are set at 80% of the local market rates. Those local market rates are defined by spiv estate agents. The cost of a three bedroom council flat in Westminister would require the tenants to be earning over a £100k a year to be able to afford the weekly rent of £665. A friend of mine has just been housed by Lambeth. A studio flat, so no bedroom, in a block of flats in Loughborough junction is costing him £190 a week. He works but says he would better off financially if he stopped working and claimed the dole and housing benefit.
True - the new build rents I've seen for our new stock are eye-watering when compared to the standard rents - but they are secure tenancies and still way cheaper (and way more secure) than renting privately.
 
True. Lots of landlords are selling up*, so their tenants are being served Section 21 [no fault eviction] Notices. Their tenants are struggling to find anywhere else to live that's affordable, so they're self-referring to Council homeless services and being told to stay put until they're evicted by bailiffs, otherwise they will be deemed to have made themselves homeless. Councils have been advised by the government that they should (in law) be stepping in sooner and that if there's a properly served Section 21 Notice then the tenants shouldn't have to go through the whole eviction process and incur court costs and bailiffs fees, but councils just don't have the capacity to rehouse everyone that needs housing so they're failing to comply with the law.

Reasons why landlords are selling up:

(1) Phasing out of mortgage interest relief, which ended in April 2020. For years and years, landlords used to be able to set off the mortgage interest they paid against their tax bill, but that tax perk was phased out, so landlordism started to be less profitable.

(2) Introduction of landlord/property licensing in some cities. Landlords incurring more costs to comply with the licensing schemes. They might have to spend money upgrading their property to meet requirements too.

(3) Over the years, landlords have had to comply with more and more legal requirements/regulations, iirc, gas safety certificates used to be the main one, but now electric safety certificates, fire safety, energy performance certificates, etc.

Of course, all that is in the tenants' best interests and helps get rid of some of the worst of the slumlords, but it's yet another thing, or multiple things, which have eroded the profit margins.

(3) Landlords fears over the costs of meeting higher energy efficiency standards. A while back, the government announced that all rented property had to be at least EPC C by 2025. Lots of rented property doesn't meet that standard. And in order to being it up to that standard would cost £thousands. When you think of how many rental houses, especially in the north of England, are little terraced houses, which might currently be EPC D, or E or F, lots of landlords started to get spooked by how much it would cost to increase insulation, redo central heating systems, install double-glazing if it wasn't already installed, etc. For lots of properties, the amount of money needed to make those improvements* made landlords decide that those properties weren't financially viable as an ongoing investment.

*Particularly bearing in mind that even owner-occupiers will work out the sums and think hard about the payback period, eg how much it would cost to upgrade (£thousands) versus how much they will save on heating bills (£hundreds), so it's a huge upfront cost that pays off/provides a very slow and low return on investment. But in the case of landlords, they're just incurring the cost, it's their tenants who benefit from lower heating bills. Of course, landlords can then increase the rent for the improved quality of the property, but lots of areas have ceiling prices for market rent, and landlords also bear that in mind as a factor, eg in order to do that energy efficiency work, they'd want/need to then increase the rent to X amount, which is above market rates for the area.

The government has recently backtracked - originally, the requirement was for all new tenancies to be EPC C compliant by 2025 and existing tenancies by 2028. But that's been dropped. But many landlords have already sold up.

(4) Recent mortgage interest rate rises. Lots of landlords are now finding that their rental income isn't covering all their expenses. Or it might just about cover their expenses or might provide a little bit of profit, but the landlords are increasingly thinking the returns aren't worth the effort, receiving phone calls at night or at the weekend because a lightbulb needs changing (it happens more than you'd think) or the tenants have broken something.

A broken boiler or a tenant moving out and them having to decorate and re-carpet and pay fees for new tenancy agreements and reference checks etc etc can pretty much wipe out their 'profit' for the year'.

And this is going to get worse, because lots of landlords are over-leveraged. Years ago, in places like South Manchester, you used to get some landlords who were cash buyers who bought up lots of properties and rented them out to students, often properties in scuzzy states. But as 'Buy-to-Let' became a thing, landlords were buying properties with as little as 25 per cent deposit, so they have substantial mortgages. Whereas the old-style cash buyer is quids in, the Buy-to-let landlord is much more susceptible to being financially squeezed out of the market by a variety of factors, just one bad tenant who stops paying rent (leaving the landlord unable to pay the mortgage with rental income) and/or trashes the place (some tenants cause £thousands of damage), and the mortgage interest rate rises are the straw that broke the camel's back for many.

Many landlords will face getting into mortgage arrears and having their properties repossessed over the next few years.

(5) Going back to the issue of Section 21 'no fault' evictions. Landlords were already pissed off by how long it could take to regain possession of their property, even though the relevant government minister had written to councils telling them to stop telling tenants to wait until the bailiffs turned up.

Then the government announced that it planned to change the law to abolish Section 21 'no fault' evictions. Which horrified landlords, faced with the prospect of not being able to regain possession of their property. There have already been countless cases of eg families renting out their homes while temporarily living elsewhere, perhaps even abroad, for studies or work or while travelling, or while military families are on deployment overseas, only to find themselves homeless on their return, because their tenant refused to move out at the end of their tenancy and making them go through the whole eviction process. Or cases where a couple has got together, they've moved in, and one of them has ended up an 'accidental landlord'... fast forward a few years, the relationship breaks down, they serve a Section 21 Notice on their tenant so that they can move back into their original home, but the tenant's told to stay put by the council.

It can already take 6-12 months, or even longer, for a landlord to regain possession of their property. That's particularly problematic if, for whatever reason, the landlord is wanting to sell, they lose buyers because the tenants refuse to move till the bailiffs turn up, which could be weeks or months away.

So now landlords fear that the system will be even worse. If it's already difficult (a long, time-consuming and expensive process) to regain possession of their property, doing away with Section 21 will make almost virtually impossible. So lots of landlords with small portfolios* have been adopting the attitude/practice of 'whenever a tenant moves out, I'm not reletting, I'm selling'.

*Bearing in mind that lots of Buy-to-Let landlords (as opposed to the 'accidental landlords') got into it as an investment vehicle for their retirement fund. Lots of hardworking people of relatively modest means decided to buy property and rent it out because they didn't necessarily trust their works pension fund to provide for them in retirement - (Maxwell, Rover, BhS, etc, lots of little people have been shafted over the years) - and lots of people with relatively modest savings or investments were hit by financial crashes, stock market crash or banks going bust. So they decided it was safer to invest in bricks and mortar.

...
There isn't much evidence that the number of rental properties is decreasing. The tightening in the market is due to an increased number of renters every year (as more people leave parents home and can't buy houses, and some immigration). About as many properties as are being sold by landlords are being bought by landlords. To be honest many of the landlords selling up are the ones who thought they were getting free money and didn't know how to do business planning. Running a business (which is what being a landlord is - not a hobby or a pension booster) means understanding and preparing for the risks, like interest rates going up. It means putting money aside regularly for upkeep, not moaning when your tenants ask for repairs that you are poor and don't have the money. I think at the moment the landlords selling properties are mostly those who didn't understand the business risks they took on in the first place. There is a bit of buying of properties by investment funds but mostly so far I think it's been transfer to other landlords who planned better or were lucky enough to buy in earlier so have less debt.

As for pensions, if pensions are shit, campaign for better pensions. An entire generation decided to become landlords instead and I'm afraid that was a mistake. A pyramid scheme almost. Because what was meant to happen, every succeeding generation become landlords to boost their pension? Buying up every house in the country to fund pension holes? I can understand why people did it as individuals, but on a systemic level it's nonsense and has to stop.
 
They are but not much of there new stock is intended for low paid workers or those on benefits. The assured tenancies are no more and have been replaced by ' affordable ' tenancies' which are set at 80% of the local market rates. Those local market rates are defined by spiv estate agents. The cost of a three bedroom council flat in Westminister would require the tenants to be earning over a £100k a year to be able to afford the weekly rent of £665. A friend of mine has just been housed by Lambeth. A studio flat, so no bedroom, in a block of flats in Loughborough junction is costing him £190 a week. He works but says he would better off financially if he stopped working and claimed the dole and housing benefit.
right, and you're doing all those sums based on council rents. so for 2/3rds the population who aren't going to get a council flat, they have to find 4x the money for private rents. and they're certainly not all on 4x the salary.
 
That right already exists, Cheshire East (council for my native Crewe) does it. It's double if the house is vacant for more than 2 years, triple for more than 5 and quadruple for more than 10.
Mate of mine and his missus bought a bungalow intending to do it up with the intention of moving in, selling up their existing house and retiring. They got 2 years of paying no council tax on it but then Covid struck and they ended up wasting most of that as a result so now they're paying regular council tax on their house and double on the bungalow whilst they rush to finish the bungalow.

Yes, make it greater, sooner - put a hand on the other side of the scales. It should be made more and more expensive to own unused homes.

Your friends are unfortunate, you could phase the council tax increases in to give people time to sell/move

If people can afford two homes and building work they are well off.

Alex
 
Yes, make it greater, sooner - put a hand on the other side of the scales. It should be made more and more expensive to own unused homes.

Your friends are unfortunate, you could phase the council tax increases in to give people time to sell/move

If people can afford two homes and building work they are well off.

Alex
They're very comfortably off probably due to the fact they never had any kids. Their mortgage is paid off so they took out another (though with a large deposit) to buy and do up the bungalow. The idea was selling their current house would clear the second mortgage. They did know in advance that they only had two years of not paying any council tax on the bungalow (get 2 years free if the house is unoccupied) whilst they got it how they wanted. but they were expecting all the work would be done before they ran out of time. What they didn't plan for was CoVID which ended up costing them well over a year of their two years, they're actually philosophical about it though.
 
There isn't much evidence that the number of rental properties is decreasing. The tightening in the market is due to an increased number of renters every year (as more people leave parents home and can't buy houses, and some immigration). About as many properties as are being sold by landlords are being bought by landlords. To be honest many of the landlords selling up are the ones who thought they were getting free money and didn't know how to do business planning. Running a business (which is what being a landlord is - not a hobby or a pension booster) means understanding and preparing for the risks, like interest rates going up. It means putting money aside regularly for upkeep, not moaning when your tenants ask for repairs that you are poor and don't have the money. I think at the moment the landlords selling properties are mostly those who didn't understand the business risks they took on in the first place. There is a bit of buying of properties by investment funds but mostly so far I think it's been transfer to other landlords who planned better or were lucky enough to buy in earlier so have less debt.

As for pensions, if pensions are shit, campaign for better pensions. An entire generation decided to become landlords instead and I'm afraid that was a mistake. A pyramid scheme almost. Because what was meant to happen, every succeeding generation become landlords to boost their pension? Buying up every house in the country to fund pension holes? I can understand why people did it as individuals, but on a systemic level it's nonsense and has to stop.
^^This^^
 
A deposit often isn't enough anyway, so any deposit scheme won't go far enough for a lot of people. For those not in work and on benefits, trying to find a private rental is really difficult now - even if they find the money for a deposit, the vast majority of landlords won't give them a chance.

I don't know how a lot of long-term ill and disabled people will manage as this gets worse, especially in areas where social housing is massively stretched.

Also, many people are forced to move far from family and friends even if they do manage to access social housing.
 
A deposit often isn't enough anyway, so any deposit scheme won't go far enough for a lot of people. For those not in work and on benefits, trying to find a private rental is really difficult now - even if they find the money for a deposit, the vast majority of landlords won't give them a chance.

I don't know how a lot of long-term ill and disabled people will manage as this gets worse, especially in areas where social housing is massively stretched.

Also, many people are forced to move far from family and friends even if they do manage to access social housing.
I have a friend who lost her house in the major flood we had here in 2015 - and after a severe mental health breakdown, including hospitalisation, she ended up getting social housing, but about 20 miles away from her friends and support network. And she really has never recovered because of that, or properly re-established her life - she's lonely and trapped. Likely costing the state a lot more than she should be. And twenty miles is nothing compared to the distances people are being moved out of London. The hidden consequences of this sort of forced migration must be huge.
 
I have a friend who lost her house in the major flood we had here in 2015 - and after a severe mental health breakdown, including hospitalisation, she ended up getting social housing, but about 20 miles away from her friends and support network. And she really has never recovered because of that, or properly re-established her life - she's lonely and trapped. Likely costing the state a lot more than she should be. And twenty miles is nothing compared to the distances people are being moved out of London. The hidden consequences of this sort of forced migration must be huge.
That's all so sad, your poor friend. Yeah, it's all about the short term, so bloody wrong.
 
but they are secure tenancies and still way cheaper (and way more secure) than renting privately.
Which is little compensation or consolation to those that social housing was once intended for. It's just another quite affective and cynical mechanism to speed up the social cleansing of London in particular. Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decanting’ of resident populations to allow for demolition and redevelopment, primarily by private developers who sell the majority of new housing at market rate.

For this to happen, local councils and developers have orchestrated a process termed ‘decanting’: existing tenants bid for properties elsewhere in the borough, or are moved against their will; private renters in leasehold properties are evicted, and leaseholders bought out via compulsory purchase, often at unfavourable rates. Approximately 56,000 homes on council estates have been demolished through processes of urban renewal since 1997.

In the case of the Heygate estate at the Elephant and castle the council stopped doing repairs and maintenance of properties. They then get there dodgy suveyors in from Savilles to do a report on the standard and condition of the stock/ flats. Low and behold every estate that's chosen is written off as too costly to repair all the faults and would be cheaper to demolish and replace. The current tenants and leaseholders are promised the option of moving bak to anew property on completion. What they don't tell the community that they're just about to decant all over outer London is that there new rents will be triple there current rents and basicallly unaffordable to low wage earners that the social housing was intended for at one time.

The same is happening on the Aylesbury estate in Walworth. The place has been neglected by southwark and falling apart. It will also be condemned and rebuilt for buy to let landlords and overseas investors. A huge swaythe of the flats on the new build at the Heygate were sold overseas and off plan before they were even completed. Labour run Southwark council and some of it's employees in Planning sold the land underpriced to a property developer- Lend lease- Those same employees from Southwark planning all have well paid and kushy jobs at,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Lendlease the develper. Rinse and repeat all over London.





 
Suggest your friend gets a benefits check-up from an independent welfare rights advisor. Lots of working people don't realise that they're entitled to UC. They might not be entitled to any help, but it's worthwhile double-checking.

Thanks. Will pass that on.
 
right, and you're doing all those sums based on council rents
Yes . My points and concerns are about how the goal posts are being moved for those that social housing was/ is supposed to be for. In London in particular and an area i know well and many of the long term community that were had over.
 
In Edinburgh we have a double edged sword of landlords who have realised they can make more money using their property as an Air BnB instead of a long term let, and landlords who have realised they can make more money if they stick some door closers and safety signs up and let it as an HMO flat to three or four students at £850 a room. It means if you are a low wage family looking for a rented three or four bedroom flat (me!) then there is literally nothing available. I've been on the council housing list in Edinburgh since my eldest was five. She is now twenty. I've still got snowball's chance in hell of ever getting a flat because there's thousands of other people chasing every one and I am and always have been currently housed, paying a landlord's mortgage for him with my universal credit, so I don't have priority.
Cardiff has this to a large extent, and most of the new builds are either crappy student accommodation in the city centre despite student numbers decreasing, or massively expensive four-bed houses on the periphery that add to the city's problems by being built with no public transport or amenities - and are out of the question price wise for most people looking for a home. A tiny amount of new social housing gets built, nothing near demand, rents are shocking, and I know of at least two large hotels that are exclusively being used to house the homeless at the moment. There's a knock-on effect across the region as previously more affordable places like Newport, Pontypridd and Caerphilly become dormitory towns.
 
That I did not know, what about someone just coming to live with you like a partner or a friend or would you have to ask the council's permission first?
Legally you can move a partner or friend in so long as you tell the HA/Council and it doesn't make your flat/house overcrowded, and you don't gove anyone exclusive right to a room - also you are responsible for them (ie if they behave badly you could be evicted).

You are also now allowed to take lodger(s) in using the rent a room scheme (they changed this to justify the bedroom tax) with the same caveats about not overcrowding, responsibility, no exclusive rights and telling the landlord.

In both these cases the social landlord can't refuee permission unless it makes your flat/house officially overcrowded.

Whats illegal is subletting a room or whole residence without written permission - whether its through air bnb or similar short term letting, giving someone the exclusive right to a room, or moving out (even for a short time) and letting someone else live there whether or not money exchanges hands.
 
The amount of social housing that was demolished in Newcastle in the 2000s. And the tiny amounts of social housing and relatively small amounts of private housing that have replaced it (plus the endless blocks of poor quality student housing built on former industrial sites ringing the city centre since).

So many other cities seem the same.

And they wonder why social housing has such huge lists and private rents have rocketed while housing quality hasn't improved.
 
Which is little compensation or consolation to those that social housing was once intended for. It's just another quite affective and cynical mechanism to speed up the social cleansing of London in particular. Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decanting’ of resident populations to allow for demolition and redevelopment, primarily by private developers who sell the majority of new housing at market rate.

For this to happen, local councils and developers have orchestrated a process termed ‘decanting’: existing tenants bid for properties elsewhere in the borough, or are moved against their will; private renters in leasehold properties are evicted, and leaseholders bought out via compulsory purchase, often at unfavourable rates. Approximately 56,000 homes on council estates have been demolished through processes of urban renewal since 1997.

In the case of the Heygate estate at the Elephant and castle the council stopped doing repairs and maintenance of properties. They then get there dodgy suveyors in from Savilles to do a report on the standard and condition of the stock/ flats. Low and behold every estate that's chosen is written off as too costly to repair all the faults and would be cheaper to demolish and replace. The current tenants and leaseholders are promised the option of moving bak to anew property on completion. What they don't tell the community that they're just about to decant all over outer London is that there new rents will be triple there current rents and basicallly unaffordable to low wage earners that the social housing was intended for at one time.

The same is happening on the Aylesbury estate in Walworth. The place has been neglected by southwark and falling apart. It will also be condemned and rebuilt for buy to let landlords and overseas investors. A huge swaythe of the flats on the new build at the Heygate were sold overseas and off plan before they were even completed. Labour run Southwark council and some of it's employees in Planning sold the land underpriced to a property developer- Lend lease- Those same employees from Southwark planning all have well paid and kushy jobs at,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Lendlease the develper. Rinse and repeat all over London.






Good points , I do know of one case at my Borough where the leaseholder refused the offer , the block was pulled down (after they evicted the leaseholder) and the offer is still being kept for when they do accept it , lawyers are involved.

I have been heavily involved in 'decanting' it's a horrible way to describe it, impersonal, but used routinely amongst Housing folk. The largest one I was involved with was around 60 units, the tenants were given the right to return to the new blocks, and given fairly generous Home Loss payments of around £6k .
 

Timely from the Guardian (for this thread) the absolute fortune spent on temporary housing. The money spent could have funded thousands of new homes. I sometimes have to put people into temporary accommodation, primarily(ime) it is down to fleeing domestic violence, also if a flat is cuckooed (which still happens a lot) . The homelessness section puts a lot of people in Temporary accommodation if they are accepted as homeless & in priority need , they will be placed in temporary accommodation until they are either placed in permanent accommodation, a social housing tenancy or in private rented accommodation (which also meets the council's rehousing obligations) .
 

Timely from the Guardian (for this thread) the absolute fortune spent on temporary housing. The money spent could have funded thousands of new homes. I sometimes have to put people into temporary accommodation, primarily(ime) it is down to fleeing domestic violence, also if a flat is cuckooed (which still happens a lot) . The homelessness section puts a lot of people in Temporary accommodation if they are accepted as homeless & in priority need , they will be placed in temporary accommodation until they are either placed in permanent accommodation, a social housing tenancy or in private rented accommodation (which also meets the council's rehousing obligations) .
Temporary Accommodation is one of the greatest policy failures/scandals of our time. Much of it is totally unsuitable (close to slum housing), or in the wrong place, and when they say 'temporary'...I know people who've lived in TA for 8 to 10 years. It's utterly miserable for a lot of people. They can be moved about at any time (and are), regardless of whether their children are in school nearby. If they complain about conditions they are told they're lucky to have anything. And all the time the landlords are raking it in and social housing is not being built with that money.
 
Temporary Accommodation is one of the greatest policy failures/scandals of our time. Much of it is totally unsuitable (close to slum housing), or in the wrong place, and when they say 'temporary'...I know people who've lived in TA for 8 to 10 years. It's utterly miserable for a lot of people. They can be moved about at any time (and are), regardless of whether their children are in school nearby. If they complain about conditions they are told they're lucky to have anything. And all the time the landlords are raking it in and social housing is not being built with that money.
Back in the 1990s, housing associations used to rent flats and houses from private landlords and manage them themselves, renting them to homeless people nominated by the local authority.

It was generally fairly good quality accommodation and having the housing association as, effectively, the head tenant meant that repairs got dealt with (and other issues). At one point it was a large part of housing associations' 'business'. (My OH and several friends worked in this area).

I don't know if they still do this. I get the impression that councils now refer directly to 'approved' private landlords, and that HAs now have other interests, mainly developing for shared ownership, so-called affordable rent and outright sale. (They do develop for social, i.e. traditional HA rent, but this is a shrinking area of what they do).

Anyone know?
 
Back in the 1990s, housing associations used to rent flats and houses from private landlords and manage them themselves, renting them to homeless people nominated by the local authority.

It was generally fairly good quality accommodation and having the housing association as, effectively, the head tenant meant that repairs got dealt with (and other issues). At one point it was a large part of housing associations' 'business'. (My OH and several friends worked in this area).

I don't know if they still do this. I get the impression that councils now refer directly to 'approved' private landlords, and that HAs now have other interests, mainly developing for shared ownership, so-called affordable rent and outright sale. (They do develop for social, i.e. traditional HA rent, but this is a shrinking area of what they do).

Anyone know?
Yep, HAs are mostly interested in maximising their rental income in order to service the debts they have from their development projects. A lot of them barely even do maintenance on their own properties, let alone sorting out the maintenance in properties not owned by them.

Some Temp Accommodation is run by 'Housing Associations', but some of that is because the waters have been well and truly muddied about what that means, and there are now predatory, essentially profit-making HAs placing people in slum accommodation and taking their cut of the rent. Desperate local authorities use them because they're struggling to find accommodation for everyone. It's a horrendous mess.
 
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