23rd
Sep 2022
Once again Shelter has ‘trumpeted’ somewhat unfounded misleading claims which landlords immediately counteracted its belief that one in seven UK private tenants have had to cope with rent increases in August.
The charity claims are apparently based on its own unnamed research which have been picked apart in a comprehensive response from a trade association’s policy director.
He says: “At a time when inflation is so high and landlord costs are rapidly increasing, the latest official data shows that average private rents across the UK have gone up by 3.4 per cent over the last twelve months.
“This shows that most landlords are prepared to bear the brunt of rising costs to keep tenants in their homes when they can.
“There will be cases where landlords are simply unable to shoulder all the increased costs and need to increase rents accordingly.
“Where this causes difficulties, particularly for tenants on low incomes, the government should end the freeze on housing benefits. Even before the sharp rise in inflation, the level of benefits was failing to reflect the cost of rents as they are today.
“Further increases in rents will also be driven by a chronic shortage of homes for private rent. This is a direct consequence of government action to discourage investment in the sector. Ministers need urgently to develop pro-growth policies to ensure supply meets demand in the rental market.”
Shelter has also suggested in its overblown and unsubstantiated statement that a third of tenants are now spending over a half of their monthly income on rent.
It then says that around 2.5 million tenants have either fallen into rental arrears or are forever having to scrimp on household budgets in efforts to pay their rent, the charity claims that the figure has rocketed by 45 per cent since April.
The charity also states that prior to the onset of the cost of living catastrophe private renters were paying far more in housing costs than those in social housing or with a mortgage, and unless the government puts together a plan that will help those in trouble there will be a massive rise in homelessness cases.
It is demanding the government must put an end to “this ticking timebomb” by unfreezing housing benefit, “which is lagging way behind rents, having been frozen at 2020 levels.”
Richard Merrick of PIMS, comments: “ Well there is only one item between the PRS and these ‘charitable’ activists that is common ground of the government should consider scrapping its housing benefit freeze.”
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