Enfield Council spent more than any other London borough last year trying to persuade landlords to house homeless people—£2.73 million, according to data from Generation Rent.
The figures, gathered through FOI requests, show Ealing came in second with £2.26 million. Most other councils didn’t come close, with the bulk spending under £1 million.
UK housing activists’ group Generation Rent has been examining how local councils use financial incentives to encourage private landlords to accommodate homeless individuals which will “incentivise them to house households who have approached the local authority as homelessness or threatened with homelessness”. These are one off payments and are not any form of benefit payments.
Enfield’s housing crisis has hit hard for several years especially for families pushed out of private rentals. By summer 2023, the council was spending half a million pounds a month just to keep people in hotels like Travelodge and Premier Inn—hundreds of families with nowhere else to go.
Faced with escalating demand for emergency housing, Enfield Council adopted a stricter homelessness protocol, limiting families to a single housing offer—often in regions far from London, including Hartlepool and Durham—before discharging its statutory duty.
While this approach has reportedly ended the use of hotels for local families, Generation Rent warns of broader consequences.
Data shows that since 2018, London boroughs have ramped up landlord incentive spending by over £8.5 million, marking a 54% increase and reflecting deeper systemic strains.
Data shows that since 2018, London boroughs have ramped up landlord incentive spending by over £8.5 million, marking a 54% increase and reflecting deeper systemic strains.
Across London, councils are now spending £8.5 million more on landlord incentives than they did in 2018—a 54% jump that raises serious questions about long-term housing strategy.
Better Homes Enfield, a local housing advocacy group, has raised concerns thorough social media about the council’s long-term agreements with private landlords which has “exacerbated by them signing up landlords for ten-plus years” which “enables them to charge higher rents, then claim money back via benefits”.
Unsurprisingly Enfield council has not made any statement.
A spokesman for landlord groups, said: “Everyone needs a home, it’s the foundation of our lives. But the rental market is like the wild west. Landlords are often a law unto themselves, rigging the system to line their own pockets at the expense of people experiencing homelessness and the local councils that are trying to house them.
“The soaring cost of renting and the government’s decision to freeze the Local Housing Allowance [which sets housing benefit levels] has put councils across the country in a near impossible position.
“In a desperate bid to avoid placing people in temporary accommodation, they’re forced to pay individual landlords sometimes tens of thousands of pounds just for them to agree to rent out their home. It’s a senseless waste of our public money.
“The government’s housebuilding targets are welcome, but these findings show urgent action is needed to address the widening lack of affordable homes.
“The chancellor must unfreeze Local Housing Allowance in the upcoming autumn budget to give renters claiming benefits relief from towering household costs. Meanwhile, the government also must give metro mayors [such as Sadiq Khan] the power to limit rent increases through the upcoming Devolution Bill, allowing them to slam the brakes on sky-high rents in cities across England.”
Separate research conducted by the homelessness charity Crisis has revealed a stark affordability gap in England’s private rental sector. As of 2024, only 2.5% of privately rented homes were within reach for individuals relying on housing benefit, underscoring the growing disconnect between welfare support and market rates.
Further compounding the issue, a recent analysis by property website Rightmove found that the average monthly rent for new tenants has surged by £417 since 2020. This increase outpaces wage growth by roughly £100 over the same period, placing additional strain on renters across the country.
In Enfield, the situation is particularly dire with data from the Office for National Statistics showing that private rents in the borough have climbed by 10.2% in just the past year, reflecting broader trends of rising housing costs and deepening affordability challenges.