RLA : RPI : HB numbers do not add up

News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members

other artilces from the February / March 04 issue

HB numbers do not add up - February / March 2004

Surprisingly, perhaps, the number of private rented sector tenants receiving housing benefit increased last year.

Part of the surprise is that, as the recent RLA housing benefit briefing paper pointed out, the numbers of private sector tenants receiving housing benefit had previously been declining at a far steeper rate than was the case for the number of local authority and social housing tenants receiving such support.

Perhaps more to the point, the number of tenants receiving housing benefit in any sector must depend upon both their economic circumstances and the availability of landlords willing to accept tenants reliant on housing benefit. And with all the trouble there has been in making housing benefit payments, this sector can hardly have become more attractive to private landlords.

So the increase points to two possible conclusions. Either local authorities simply do not have housing available, a goodly amount having been transferred to the social housing sector, or else housing benefit tenants simply prefer private rented accommodation.

If so, their preference may be in danger if the Pathfinder trials of proposed new housing benefit arrangements are anything to go by. These have raised fears that many landlords, finding themselves at greater risk because benefits are paid in arrears via the tenant rather than directly to themselves, may desert the sector. This will be especially so if tenants succumb to the temptation to look only at cheaper accommodation, so driving down standards.

Yet the Government's own figures show availability of private rented accommodation for housing benefit tenants is a must if all are to be housed.

other artilces from the February / Marc 2004 issue

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