3rd
Mar 2014
Approaching £11 million housing benefits was handed out to private landlords in Haringey from tenants in 2103.
The Trade Union GMB successfully requested a Freedom of Information and Haringey Council announced that out of their private landlords operating within their borough, that the Top 20 richest private landlords had received in total a staggering £10,709,258 from tenant’s housing benefits last year.
It also revealed that the 20 landlords are all private companies, one of which received the largest payments of £1,065,580 from housing benefits.
A few days ago the Daily Mirror reported that within the Top 20 another company which belongs to multi-millionaire Andrew Charalambous, UKIP’s housing spokesman had received £745,315 in the benefits hand outs.
Keith Flett, secretary of Haringey TUC wants the government to introduce rent capping.
He said: “It looks quite anarchic – large sums of money being extracted from council tax payers, that’s what it comes down to. Why are they paying housing benefit? Because the private rents are too high.
“There should be rent controls which would solve a lot of these kinds of issues. The rents were capped in the UK for many years until Mrs.Thatcher appeared.
“If they said the rents are capped people like Mr.Charalambous might say, ‘I don’t want to get into that anymore.’”
Mr.Charalambous said: “We want more social landlords, it’s obvious we’ve got a housing crisis.
“If you discourage landlords from accepting social housing then the tenants are moved in to their housing based on chance rather than choice.”
Councillor Zena Brabazon, wants the council to introduce strong measures to ensure that the private renting sector within the borough supplies good quality affordable housing: “The landlords are the biggest winners from public funding.”
44 per cent of the total of 32,095 private renting tenants in Haringey are housing benefit recipients and the number stands at 14,212 people.
P.I.M.S.co.uk agrees that this is huge burden on the taxpayer from just one borough, but calling for rent caps to be imposed on the private rented sector is unjust as previously reported in January.......
DCLG published that over the period from 2005/2006 to 2012/2013, the average weekly rents charged by local authorities increased from £55.27 to £78.78, a staggering 42.5 per cent.
The Office for National Statistics meanwhile reports that in the same period between August 2005 and August 2013, rents in the private sector increased by only 7.2 per cent. With an RPI increase of 30.3 per cent over the same period of time, means in effect that private rents have reduced in real terms.
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