Tenants in the private rented sector should be given new rights to stay in their home as long as they want, according to Civitas.
The think tank also suggested that tenants should receive guarantees that their rent will not increase above inflation.
In a report entitled The Future of Private Renting, Civitas called for a new regulatory regime in the private rental sector which would prevent landlords exploiting the shortage of homes at the expense of tenants and taxpayers.
The number of private renters needing housing benefit to meet their costs has more than doubled in the past decade, from 722,000 in 2003/4 to 1.7 million in 2013/14. This figure is forecast to reach 1.85 million in 2018/19, according to the report.
The report also said that the amount of housing benefit rent subsidies claimed in the private rented sector has more than doubled in real terms over the past 10 years, from £3.9bn in 2003/4 to £9.5bn in 2013/14, and is set to top £10bn in 2018/19.
The report argued that the private sector should be required to offer indefinite tenancies “as the norm”. It also argued that once an initial rent had been agreed, index-linked ceilings on rent rises would give renters the security they needed.
Daniel Bentley, author of the report, said: “As private renting grows it is important to ensure that it offers a fair deal to those who have little choice but to rely on it.
“Unfortunately the housing benefit system, which effectively props up purchasing power at the lower end of the market, militates against fair prices by subsidising landlords’ rent demands.
“This vicious circle will only worsen as the private rented sector comes to represent an ever-larger proportion of the housing market and more and more tenants have to fall back on housing benefit.”
Comments
Yet again, ignorance is bliss. Tenants CAN already stay in properties indefinitely( many die in their rental property). It looks yet again like this so called think tank is very inexperienced in the ways of our economy, particularly in how the accommodation contracts work, or should we say work with reasonable tenants, who it seems they never meet.
The last thing our people need is a collapse of the economy, the housing market keeps the construction industry going and now growing again, after 20+ years of neglect. If the trades are busy, so are a lot of supply businesses, thus jobs for all.
If all the existing contracts/laws are changed without due consideration of the possible consequences, yet again the tenant will have to pay, as with the deposit schemes forcing up the rents because it has caused another layer of bureaucracy which has to be paid for.
The natural mechanics of supply and demand will never go away, whatever the politics. Look at the numbers!! Can these people not count?
What is needed is really low cost housing which can be built quickly, new ideas about how to provide it. For example, where are the hostels for the migrant workers, what are the regulations that prevent them. We have tenants who would love to live in a decently organised container/mobile home with their co/workers from their own country...and thus pay less rent, remember Aufweidersen Pet, well not that bad, but our designers are producing ideas for this type of unit all the time. Another relevant point is that people coming into the country have come from much more crowded living, we landlords are the ones who are making them live in what to them is very spacious accommodation.This would free up the house or room for which they are having to pay market rent. The pressure would then be lessened on the bottom level of accommodation, then there would be more competition to attract tenants, thus more compliant landlords. By the way, these think tanks must attract people with unfortunate experiences, they do not seem to be aware of the many tenants who are perfectly happy with their landlord, and who recognise that landlord and tenant form a partnership, the landlord needs the rent to cover the mortgage, and the tenant to be reasonable. The tenant needs the condition of the property to be maintained, and research shows that almost 80% of tenancies fulfil that partnership.
Fact-lots of long term tenants do not want repairs and improvements done as they do not want to be disturbed!!!! What is the despairing landlord to do- harass them. We almost prefer a 2 yearly change of tenancy so that we can get into the property to maintain it and keep it up to our standards.
FYI Many landlords no longer take people on benefits because they do not receive the rent as it is paid to the tenant who does not pass it on. Also to deal with this market requires yet another layer of work to be done trying to get the money paid, the tenant to behave reasonably, or to evict them.
FYI- a landlord needs 13 + properties to live of them at a modest level, and just do the sums again, a new boiler and the mortgage, would a profit be made that year? No.
GB said: "Will Civitas along with Shelter and Generation Rent find new homes for all these newly homeless tenants!"
As other commenters have pointed out your "properties" will not disappear when you sell them. Maybe your tenants will finally be able to buy as prices come down to their market level - instead of the artificial highs sustained by government policy, crooked banking and the whole rigged game which has only been kept going by fraud and vast injections of taxpayer money.
You also said "If tenants want to stay in their homes they should buy instead of renting" - which might at last be a possibility once the market corrects and you and your like are forced to sell.
GB: "Will Civitas along with Shelter and Generation Rent find new homes for all these newly homeless tenants!"
Nope, but the market will - For you to sell, someone has to buy.
Looks like landlords are going to need stop moaning and start pricing regulatory risk into their business plans. Your are outnumbered and the political parties are starting to catch on to the growing voting power of the increasing numbers of economically marginalised tenants.
You reap what you sow.
To the commenter "GB" above: it is the tenant who has to pay the mortgage. This is known as rent and the landlord merely passes a portion of it on to the bank.
Since the tenant pays for the dwelling and lives in it he or she has the moral claim on it and it is legitimately his or her home (as you seemed to concede.) In a legal sense the bank is the owner of the property - it can repossess if the mortgage, which is secured against it, is not paid.
A landlord is an intermediary who contributes little or nothing ("upkeep"? Have you seen the state of private rentals? Upkeep is a bad joke.) Landlords have neither a moral, nor ultimate legal claim on any mortgaged property. They'd do well to get out of the way and let the market take care of itself.
GB- would your properties be destroyed when you sold them?
"The think tank also suggested that tenants should receive guarantees that their rent will not increase above inflation."
So will BTL Landlords be on a lifetime fixed rate mortgage rate?
This is typically narrow think tank not real world thinking. How would any lender ever give consent to let - even on a BTL loan?!!! - if they did not have the ultimate sanction to recover their loan, possession of the property.
Or would that only be allowed if the lender took on a permanent sitting tenant?
Maybe Civitas also has a scheme for permanent employment too and going back to a 9 to 5 job for life, as opposed to having 5 to 9 jobs in a lifetime?
What nonsense where do these think tank members come from?
If tenants want to stay in their homes they should buy instead of renting.
The property may be their home but it still belongs to the landlord who has to pay the mortgage and for the general upkeep. If the landlords circumstances change and they need to sell where would that leave them with indefinite tenancies. If something like this came in I for one would have to sell my 5 properties and I would imagine thousands of other landlords would do the same. Will Civitas along with Shelter and Generation Rent find new homes for all these newly homeless tenants!