News

Private rents hit all-time high

The average buy-to-let investor in England and Wales earned a total return of £12,129 in the year to September, and that figure could double over the next 12 months.

According to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services, the average BTL investor enjoyed a total annual return of 7.4% in September, up sharply from 6.1% in August. 

'Bedroom tax costs could heat family home for a week'

The average financial loss faced by social housing tenants as a result of the government's controversial bedroom tax could heat a family home for almost a week, a North West-based housing association has warned.

According to the Regenda Group, the average £14 a week cut in housing benefits which tenants are facing is equivalent to the cost of six days heating every week. 

Britain’s bedroom tax shame

Housing is a human right. That isn’t just my opinion, but also that of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 of the declaration, concerning the right to an adequate standard of living, is clear on the matter:

‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.’ (emphasis on housing is my own). 

4,000 beds for homeless lost since 2010

Homelessness projects are closing down, levels of staff are reducing and bed spaces are being lost as housing budgets are squeezed, research published today reveals.

Homeless Link, an umbrella body, said 133 homelessness projects had closed and 4,000 beds in hostels and second stage accommodation had been lost since 2010. 

John Hemming bedroom tax advice 'misguided'

A Birmingham MP has been called ‘misguided’ over his ‘idiotic’ suggestion that social housing tenants should get a lodger to avoid paying the bedroom tax. 

Lib Dem MP for Yardley John Hemming suggested that with few one-bedroom properties available in the city, tenants would do better to take someone in. 

David Cameron’s benefits crackdown ‘will hit single parents hardest’

David Cameron may be forced to rethink his plan to deny under-25s an automatic right to state benefits because many of the people losing out would be single parents.

Nick Clegg is worried that parents could be affected by proposals to restrict housing benefit for the more than one million “Neets” – young people not in education, employment or training – under a strategy announced by the Prime Minister at last week’s Conservative Party Conference. 

David Cameron vows ‘bold action’ on under-25s

The Conservative Party will look at axing housing support for under-25s as part of its manifesto for the next election, the prime minister confirmed this week.

Setting a clear direction of travel, David Cameron told delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Wednesday that he wanted to see ‘bold action’ in ending welfare dependency among young people. 

Bedroom tax: MS sufferer wins human rights appeal

A WOMAN who cannot share a bedroom with her partner because of disability has won a landmark ruling that reducing her welfare benefits under the bedroom tax is a breach of her human rights.

The woman, who has multiple sclerosis, won her appeal against Glasgow City Council’s decision to apply the 14 per cent deduction for her “spare” bedroom at a tribunal hearing. 

Disabled tenants get ok to fight bedroom tax in Court of Appeal

Adults and children with disabilities who are challenging the government’s bedroom tax have been granted permission to take their fight to the Court of Appeal after losing a High Court challenge earlier this year.

Giving his reasons for granting an appeal hearing, the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Aikens said that the cases "raise issues of public importance concerning the amended housing benefit scheme and the needs of disabled/ young people and so should be considered by the Court of Appeal. Further, the points raised in the grounds of appeal and the proposed ‘skeleton’ argument have a reasonable prospect of success.” 

Bedroom tax guidance panned

‘Bizarre’ government guidelines place onus on landlords not local authorities to define a bedroom

Government guidance issued to local authorities this week on how to classify a bedroom for the purposes of the bedroom tax has been panned as ‘bizarre’ and ‘wrong’ by experts. 

Rents hit 11-year high to £779 per month

Rents have hit an 11-year high with 17 per cent more tenancies being granted this year than last, a report has shown.

Sequence, a chain of estate agents with 290 branches nationwide has published their most recent report, which shows rents rose 4 per cent in August and 11 per cent annually to £779 a month.  

Over half of bedroom tax victims forced into debt

More than half of families hit by the government's controversial bedroom tax have been pushed into debt, new research has revealed.

A survey of 51 English housing associations by the National Housing Federation (NHF), found that 51% (32,432) of residents affected by the widely condemned under-occupancy policy have been unable to pay their rent between April and June. 

Party leaders urged to reject benefit claimant 'stereotypes'

A new campaign has kicked off with a letter to the UK's political party leaders urging them to reject misleading stereotypes of benefit claimants and instead focus on the needs of ordinary families on welfare.

Launched today by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the 'People Like Us' campaign claims that the current debate about social security is failing ordinary families.