The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has teamed up with Housing Benefit and Universal Credit expert Bill Irvine to run a set of training course over the next few weeks.
The move comes at a time of increasing uncertainty of Housing Benefit’s role in the private rented sector.
High profile Kent landlord Fergus Wilson recently announced that he was evicting 200 benefit tenants in favour of European immigrants. His statement hit the headlines and was widely condemned by tenants’ groups.
The RLA says it was “less than impressed with the stance this particular landlord has decided to take.”
Although the RLA has concerns over landlords not receiving ‘direct payments’ within welfare reforms, it says it is unacceptable to reject tenants because they may receive benefits. Indeed, there are many private landlords and RLA members who take on benefit recipients without disrupting payments.
Irvine has a history of working with local councils, and was one of the principal witnesses at the DWP Select Committee relating to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in 2010.
He currently runs HB Advice & Advocacy, and acts as representative of private landlords, housing associations, and tenants, in their Housing Benefit/Local Housing Allowance (LHA) negotiations with councils and, rather uniquely, represents before First and Upper-tier tribunals.
He also writes regular articles on Housing Benefits/LHA-related topics and responds to landlords’ queries and complaints via various web-based forums and his own website www.hbadvice.co.uk
Irvine has contributed a set of articles to the RLA’s Landlord News Hub and his expertise is on offer in a set of training courses over the next few weeks: His RLA training course schedule can be viewed here.
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