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10th April 2008

Ain't Nothing Going On But The Rent
A Blah! member's rant about the unfair house rental market

You'll hear lots in the months and years to come about the government wanting to build New Towns, places choc full of 'affordable homes' and lots of 'About Time Too!' votes and many 'Not In My Back Yard!' protests. Gary White writes.

Why has this come about?

Well, a while ago, my local housing authority (and yours too probably) sold off as much of its council housing as it could get away with, the rest it gave to the local housing association (itself wearing a different apron - run by one of its cronies).

Now, to get a council (or housing association) house these days, chances are you've got to be in a real tight spot. Either your family is way too big for your home or its falling down or worse. So what happens when your just an average Joe, like me with a wife and a kid?

Here's my story:

I am a reasonably well educated 40 year old, living between York and
Scarborough, who had the misfortune to be made redundant a year ago. Since then I've had difficulty finding work, that which is available doesn't pay much and commuting would break the bank - if it wasn't broke already.

It's broke because I live in rented accommodation and the 'fair' rent as
judged by Ryedale (my local council) is many years out of date and does not reflect that currently being asked for by landlords. so on top of the housing benefit I receive I must pay £100 per month from my own pocket. I've spent all (what little) I had in the bank.

Six months ago I applied to go on the council and other housing association
registers and was told that as we (myself, partner and two years old son) have accommodation already then we would not be a priority.

This morning I received a letter from the housing association - Oh Joy (and
other words to that effect) I thought - I'm finally moving up the list or maybe even going to be offered a house...

Not so. The letter stated the authority was now reviewing its lists every six
months and I should sign and return it if I wanted to stay on the housing list. No pre-paid envelope. In fact no return envelope.

So I duly rang the number on the letter, waited in the queue and quoted my
application number. I was told there is no first-come first-served policy anymore and that although I'd been on the housing register for 6 months I was in no way any nearer to being offered a home.

I was told that although the call taker sympathized, that thousands of people
were in exactly the same position as me, that they could not advise me one way or the other whether it was worth me staying on the list - it was my choice.

This is a very clever way for your local authority to manage it's housing list,
lower its apparent number of people in need of housing and therefore meet its government set housing targets. They know that the response to any letter which does not include either a big red bill or a free gift is two in ten. Without an enclosed (pre-paid) envelope it's even less.

Even though our income does not cover our meagre costs (we do not go out to the pub, we stripey shop at tesco etc) we are always in the red and constantly getting deeper into debt, we will not be offered accommodation unless we become classed as an 'emergency case' (i.e. homeless).

This is a situation which is fast approaching as my landlord wishes to sell our
house and we can not find alternative accommodation. We've been looking in fifty mile radius for over a year and when we do see property advertised which at first glance might seem suitable we then realise that:

(a) We can not afford it. We already pay £480 per month and all rents are
higher than that.

(The council benefits officer years ago decided a 'fair rent' would be approx.
£420 per month in this area, has stuck to it ever since and Housing benefit is a max 80+% of the 'fair rent' figure.

(b) And this one is the crux of the problem - Most (if not all) landlords and
agencies in this area advertise the fact that anyone with Children, Pets and last but not least ANYONE in receipt of benefits (DHSS, Local Housing Authority or other) will not be considered!

How can it be legal to exclude all benefit recipents when current house prices are so high, mortgages are difficult to obtain for first time buyers, rental housing is in such demand that the government is stating that entire New Towns MUST be built? Surely there are entire towns of un-rented private housing sitting vacant because honest folk either aren't allowed or can't afford to rent it?

Several of our fellow European states have passed legislation (many of them some years ago) making it illegal for any landlord to refuse families (or single parents) accommodation because they have children, are in receipt of benefits or have pets etc. Landlords and Rental Agencies wishing to prohibit such applications must have their reasons Heard AND
Approved by their local courts BEFORE they are allowed to Let that property to ANY Tenant.

So here I am, at the age of 40, due to redundancy, low local wages, commuting distances, high rents, landlord exclusions and my local council's (un)fair rent classification having to think about taking my family (cap in hand) to live with my 70 year old parents.

This is because to be able to afford to live around here at the moment you need to tick all the boxes - and to do that you have to be living in one!

 

 

 

UPDATE:
The Blah! Party have collected the following shocking data courtesy of Shelter (www.shelter.org.uk).

One in seven children in Britain – almost 1.6 million overall – are growing up homeless or in bad housing.

Homelessness     

• There are 79,500 homeless households trapped in temporary accommodation in England.

• The number of people and families trapped in temporary accommodation has increased by more than 77 per cent since 1997.

Overcrowding     

• In England, 526,000 households are overcrowded. In England, 905,000 children live in overcrowded households.

• In England almost one child in every 10 lives in overcrowded housing

• Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups are more than six times more likely than white households to be overcrowded. BME households account for nearly a third (32%) of overcrowded households.

• Children growing up in overcrowded households are up to ten times more likely to contract meningitis.

 

Effect of living homeless or badly housed Living in bad housing can ruin your health, education and future chances in life. Shelter’s own research has shown:

Health     

• Children in unfit or overcrowded housing are almost a third more likely to suffer from respiratory problems, such as asthma and bronchitis, than other children

• Children in unfit housing are more likely to attend Accident and Emergency than other children - one in four children living in unfit housing go to A&E in a year

• Almost 310,000 children in bad housing in Britain are suffering long-term illness or disability

• People who live in bad housing ate almost twice as likely to suffer from poor health than people who don’t

• Mothers living in bad housing are almost three times more likely to be clinically depressed – equivalent to more than 60,000 mothers in Britain

Education     

• In England, children in bad housing are twice as likely to leave school with no GCSEs

• More than 40,000 young people aged 16-18 years living in bad housing in England have no GCSEs

• Each year, more than 57,000 children living in bad housing in Britain are excluded from school. Children in bad housing are twice as likely to have been excluded from school

• Children in bad housing are twice as likely to be persistently bullied

 

More information:
Visit: www.shelter.org.uk or
you can download a PDF file from the Government web site which shows statistics on Housing and Homelessness. [ DOWNLOAD ]
You will need Adobe Reader to view this file.

 

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