A group of local authorities is asking the government to give individual councils the cash to buy properties off private landlords.
London Councils - an umbrella group of local authorities in the capital - says the government should build on initiatives such as the Local Authority Housing Fund by providing increased capital investment for housing acquisitions, particularly homes being sold by private landlords as they exit the market.
It says this would directly help manage the capital’s growing homelessness problem.
Recent research commissioned by London Councils shows a 41 per cent fall in the number of homes available for long term renting in London since the pandemic.
The study, undertaken by Savills and the London School of Economics, also found that only 2.3 per cent of London listings on Rightmove in 2022-23 were affordable to low-income households using Local Housing Allowance to pay their rent.
London Councils points to the reduction in the supply of private rental housing as a major factor behind the capital’s fast-rising homelessness pressures – including boroughs’ difficulty in securing temporary accommodation for homeless families.
Combined with the cost-of-living crisis and longstanding shortage of affordable homes, borough councils describe the housing situation as disastrous.
London has the highest homelessness figures in the country, accounting for more than half the overall number of households in England living in temporary accommodation.
A spokesperson for London Councils says: “This is the latest evidence of the homelessness disaster unfolding in the capital. One in 50 Londoners homeless and living in temporary accommodation is an appalling statistic.
“We are especially concerned by the skyrocketing numbers of families stuck in B&Bs. Nobody wants this happening and boroughs do everything we can to support homeless families into suitable accommodation.
“However, more and more often boroughs face a total lack of other options for keeping a roof over these families’ heads.
“Homelessness pressures across the capital are fast becoming unmanageable. Ministers need to treat this as the emergency it clearly is. Much more action is needed to help low-income households avoid homelessness and to reverse the rising numbers relying on temporary accommodation.”
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It appears that maybe, just maybe, the government and councils are actually starting to realise what I and other PRS LLs have been saying for the last couple of years.
If they continue to tax and legislate against the PRS LLs we simply sell up and move on to more lucrative and less grief giving investments.
Thousands of families will be demanding homes that Government and Councils do not have.
It’s no good them burying their heads in the sand.
It’s happening and it’s happening NOW.
I wrote to Sam Chapman Allen leader of Breckland District in Norfolk and head of District Council Network to tell him landlords selling, stock plummeting and rents rocketing. They would not give me a clear reply but I sensed they did not buy what I was saying. So I told them I hoped they had a big B&B budget. And lo and behold a recent article announced we have highest no of people ever living in temporary accommodation????
Well done Catherine for continuing to bring out the truth everywhere! You probably are doing a lot of good, although you won't feel that now from the disheartening replies that you inevitably receive when you highlight the issues.
Most government, council and charity people are dummies. It's only when you point to how it directly affects them do they jump.
Given the actions and attitude of many local authorities toward the PRS, no council is going to be at the top of my list as a potential buyer. I will rule them out, plenty of other deserving buys to sell to.
I've certainly got 2 or 3 properties I would happily sell to my local Council as long as they didn't evict the tenants. Basically the ones I charge the ludicrously low LHA for.
I sympathise Jo, but even if the local Council did buy them, what would be the purchase price? Quite a lot below an open market valuation I'd guess. Compulsory purchases?
The number of families in hotels has greatly increased since the imposition of indefinite periodic tenants on landlords in Scotland.
The numbers will greatly increase in England too.
The whole strategy has been disastrous. If the authorities had wanted to make private rental accommodation available to families they should have introduced legislation making it much easier for landlords to get their properties back for no fault "reasons", not much harder. That way the supply of accommodation would have increased and as a result of that all tenants would have had much more choice of where to live - and rents would have fallen, not risen.
Fine idea, but do any of us really think it will happen 🤔 also why is this all about London again 🤐
Rogue local authorities are much worse at looking after property than private landlords. The properties deteriorate tremendously when they are leased to local authorities for a fixed period of time - everything is stolen and broken - and the utility bills are not paid.
Selling to them will reduce the quality of the housing stock in this country.
The immediate way forward is to scrap "licensing" and the rental reform legislation, both of which are making it much harder for tenants, particularly families, to rent anything.
If money is needed to build more housing then perhaps the government could set up a building company and sell shares in it- there should be some scheme which could work.
Croydon sent up a development company called Brick by Brick. That was a disaster. Council dummies running businesses doesn't work. Also see Thurrock Council investing hundred of millions into a solar farm that is worth a fraction of the price. Whatever is done the kids need a lot of supervision!!
I think you would need to give people an incentive to invest their money - a guaranteed return. As it is, we give our money through taxes to improve the infrastructure of the country, but that doesn't always happen. Our money is wasted. The NHS is an example - why not build hospitals where everyone has a private room and bathroom as happens in private hospitals like the Wellington in London. The money that could be used for that is used to pay agency staff at enormously high hourly rates.
My girlfriend works at the NHS. Some of the administration staff are abysmal. Employees; who are typically not from our shores; are on long term sick. Even if they come back they go down with something else for months at a time. They compete with who can do the least. Some managers refuse to let staff go to other departments to cover because they know their own bad staff if they go to a lazier department 'will learn' how bad it is elsewhere and bring back the 'infection' to their own department and be even lazier!
That is a perfect example Nick - wasted money!
I think it all comes down to very poor organisation, lack of a coherent, logical framework for budgets focused on improved patient care, and a determination to get rid of profligacy.
We are now learning that consequences no longer exist. It will be just a matter of time before they will need to rethink all these woke policies.
There is a fair system and there is stupidity.
I'm glad I work part time and look forward to retirement, though plenty of overtime for me due to the points that Nick's girlfriend has raised, but in my case not the NHS but MOJ!
GREAT
Now they want to use my money to buy my house
Ah yes another stupid idea from dumb & dumber.
No need of a fund to buy from Private Landlords to House people.
The Private Landlord’s are housing them already for free. Paying billions in taxes and Licensing Schemes etc etc.
Let’s have another Fund from Tax payers to buy them for ourselves and loose all this income Revenue.
Brilliant idea how did a group of Councillors come up with that (probably took a master degrees from Harrow, Eton, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard & LSE to come up with that).
Its nothing to do with the Pandemic in the last couple of years as they say but all to do with THE RENTERS REFORM BILL / Section 21 and Section 24 to a lesser extent.
So this idea will not House one single person extra as it’s not creating any extra Property but using the same.
The Media keeps telling us how Popular the Auction’s are becoming, full of Landlords Property of Course, wake up, wake up.
Isn’t this back to “Council Housing” ???….
I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to use compulsory purchase legislation to buy the houses which remain empty after the Renters Reforms legislation becomes law.
Heard short bit on national radio that a fortnight ago had seen the highest ever demand for councils temporary accommodation.
The councillor who spoke said temporary accommodation had become "silted up" because of a lack pf private rentals for people to move out of it into.
As a result, more people were stuck in council B&B accommodation, rather than moving onto temporary accommodation.
Only a short item, so don't know if that councillor had ben asked if he thought the Rental Reform Bill would make matters worse.
But wasn't the whole idea of selling off council housing was that they didn't want the responcibility of maintaining them or wipping the backsides of their tenants on their sink estates
And if the Rentsl Reform Bill has its evil ways, tenants evicted under S8 for non payment will be deemed to have made themselves homeless and therefore not entitled to rehousing. BUt they will become part of the B&B horde. Watch it skyrocket.
People who don't take personal business risks like us LL's always know the right way to do things! That's until they are actually tasked with the job. :)
I have just read the following report from the Chartered Institute of Housing - record-numbers-of-households-and-children-now-living-in-temporary-accommodation published 25 July 23 It makes for interesting reading and very much backs up what we all forecast would happen. I thought I would mention it in case any of you are interested in reading.
It's not a bad idea and could go further to incentivise landlord selling to council that they give CGT relief to make proposition more attractive.
I suspect the likelihood is that councils will impose higher and higher selective license fees and regulations to force landlords to sell.
l would gladly sell to the council if of course if they scrapped Capital gains Tax.... simple
Phillip I agree they could have the lot we are sick of them.
I was once in a chain of 7
and I was only one putting up the money other selling to buy, what a nightmare and chain broke 3 times.
Make me an offer I can't refuse, they need to put their money where their mouths are, which isn't going to happen is it ?
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