London Councils, the umbrella body for London\u2019s 33 local authorities, says the model of \u2018guaranteed rent\u2019 housing had been around for at least 20 years, and helped councils secure the accommodation needed to meet their statutory duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, over the past few years the cost of that accommodation has risen dramatically,\u201d a spokesperson for the group said. As a result of the rising demand, the agencies were shifting units that had been let to councils on a long-term basis to much more expensive \u2018nightly rates\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoroughs tell us that for properties that they\u2019ve leased previously over a number of years, when those leases come to an end, the landlord comes back and says \u2018you have to pay on a nightly rate now\u2019,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s because the demand is so strong. There is a constant stream of new homeless households \u2013 and the supply of accommodation remains relatively limited. Local authorities have little option but to pay the market rate because they have a legal statutory duty to house these households.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cost to London boroughs<\/a> for temporary accommodation now exceeds \u00a35m each day, with much of the money coming from the council\u2019s general funds \u2013 which means it is drawn directly out of the cost of other services to Londoners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n London Councils commissioned analysis from the London School of Economics estimating that the annual shortfall in government funding for temporary accommodation is equivalent to \u00a3202 per household in the capital \u2013 or 11% of the average council tax bill.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have anything like the scale of nightly paid housing we have now even three or four years ago,\u201d said one director at a London local authority, speaking anonymously.\u00a0 \u201cBoroughs need to find temporary accommodation, the borough has a duty to provide emergency accommodation, they have got no option but to find somewhere, it\u2019s a sellers market.\u201d<\/p>\n Danny Turner, founder and director of the charity Keep It Moving<\/a>, which works with young people in temporary housing, said he had seen \u2018rent-to-rent\u2019 agencies charging councils upfront cash payments of as much as \u00a37,000 to take certain households \u2013 on top of the rents they charged.<\/p>\n He said the housing model was becoming so widespread in parts of London that it was driving up regular rents and undermining neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so much more lucrative to convert property into temporary accommodation than to lease in the general market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some parts of the city it\u2019s this, rather than gentrification that causes rents to go up. It\u2019s the state pushing up rents from below. If you are getting \u00a31,100 a month for a studio flat, then that is what you can charge. This feeds what every day people are experiencing all the time in London: inflated rents, broken communities, people having to move out of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Stef and Philips, the largest recipient of cash in our research, says on its website that it began as \u201ca small family business\u201d, but now operates UK-wide with 4,500 units of accommodation worth more than \u00a31.1bn managed from its offices in Enfield. It markets itself to corporate investors as a means to build their \u201csocial housing asset portfolio\u201d.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n While our research does not show anything about the quality of the properties offered to residents, ZFA previously faced protests<\/a> from a renters union about the quality of accommodation provided in Newham.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n Tenants in guaranteed rent accommodation in particular can find themselves caught between the council, the managing agent and the actual landlord when they seek repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these nightly-let privately run places have a lack of accountability and a lack of scrutiny. So we see some of the worst inhumane conditions that you would ever want to live in,\u201d said Sam Pratt, policy and communications officer at charity the Shared Health Foundation<\/a> \u2013 although his comments were made in general terms, not directly in relation to the specific agencies listed in this article.<\/p>\n \u201cJust this week we were supporting a mum who had just had a pre-term baby, and came back home from hospital, to find rat droppings on the bed and a vermin underneath the bed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe raised it with the council and raised it with the private provider. The rat is still there. No one has moved it. And we see these stories time and time again of overcrowded, moldy, damp, dark, unsuitable places without the right facilities, no decent kitchens or bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Elliott Leigh, meanwhile, manages 2,000 properties and says it has housed 50,000 tenants. In March, it published a \u201ccomplete action plan<\/a>\u201d for landlords who wanted to serve an eviction notice before restrictions in the Renters\u2019 Rights Act came into force in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n Susie Dye, housing lead at the charity Trust for London<\/a>, said there are increasing signs that landlords are moving properties that had been regular private rented accommodation into the temporary housing market instead \u2013 which has resulted in existing tenants being evicted and becoming homeless.<\/p>\n \u201cEvicting people from their homes in a mindless rush for profit only worsens the housing crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need emergency measures to move towards the long term, not push the solutions further away.\u201d<\/p>\n Big Issue gathered the data by analysing publicly available spreadsheets detailing expenditure above \u00a3250, published by each local authority. Camden\u2019s data could not be downloaded, while eight boroughs publish their data quarterly. These figures were divided by three to give an estimated value for a single month.<\/p>\n All five companies were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n Leigh Young, director at Elliot Leigh, told Big Issue: \u201cWe recognise the wider concerns being raised around temporary accommodation, particularly in relation to cost and quality. These are important issues, and it is right that there is scrutiny across the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Young added that the firm \u201conly works with landlords who are willing to meet expectations\u201d that prioritise property standards, compliance and ongoing management.<\/p>\n \u201cThe context is that many local authorities simply do not have access to the level of housing resource they need, particularly for temporary accommodation and supported housing,\u201d added Young. \u201cOur role is to help bridge that gap by working with private landlords to provide a reliable supply of homes that meet local authority standards. Importantly, this model can also help reduce reliance on more costly and less suitable forms of temporary accommodation, such as hotels and hostels, by providing longer-term, stable housing options.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.<\/p>\n You can also support online: Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London Councils, the umbrella body for London\u2019s 33 local authorities, says the model of \u2018guaranteed rent\u2019 housing had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[149,154,27,3152,4865],"class_list":["post-39445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-london","tag-renting","tag-temporary-accommodation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116594108191835028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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