As the dust settles after the general election there is a clear need for policy and practical solutions that have cross-party support. Private renting is an area which needs urgent attention.
The Housing White paper published in January demonstrates that policymakers are increasingly looking to the private rented sector to accommodate younger households; half of younger households are private renters.[1] At the same time Welfare Reforms and taxation changes are changing the financial situation of private landlords. The Residential Landlords Association and ourselves at Sheffield Hallam University conducted a survey of two thousand landlords to investigate these changes. Our findings suggest that the limited housing options for young private renters is something the new government will need to pay urgent attention to.
The findings of the survey can be found here and they suggest that the vast majority of respondents are happy to let to all or some under-35s. Unsurprisingly, younger households are a major source of tenants with one-third of landlords seeing an increase in demand from this group. However, many landlords have decreased their lettings to some groups of under-35s in recent years. So why are landlords decreasing lettings to under-35s when demand is increasing?
There are specific reasons why landlords are unwilling to let to some groups of under-35s – particularly Housing Benefit/Universal Credit (HB/UC) claimants. Reasons given tended to fall into two categories − difficulty in managing the accommodation and fears about financial loss. There are particular concerns about the administration of HB/UC and direct payments to tenants. Those landlords who still let to HB/UC claimants are also changing their strategy towards this group. Four-fifths of landlords who continue to let to this group had put in place additional safeguards in recent years. The most common safeguards are the use of guarantors and/ or direct payment to the landlord.