A charity claims that new official figures on rent rises will “create more worry among private renters.”
StepChange charity is referring to government figures showing that private rents increased by an average of 8.9% in the 12 months to April 2024.
The Office for National Statistics data comes as StepChange releases new polling, commissioned through YouGov, showing that 31% of private renters have used a form of credit to ensure they can afford their rent payments in the last 12 months, a figure which was 28% in January 2024; and 50% of private renters have found it difficult to keep up with bills and credit commitments in the last few months, compared to 40% of all UK adults and 44% of mortgage holders; and 33% of private renters have apparently cut back on essential spending the last 12 months, compared to one in four (26%) UK adults.
StepChange says it would like to see the Renters Reform Bill strengthened with measures to support tenants to stay in their homes if they are struggling financially.
Peter Tutton - head of policy, public affairs and research at StepChange - says: “We’ve reached a point where renting in the PRS is increasingly unaffordable, yet the growing scarcity of social housing means that more and more financially or otherwise vulnerable people have no choice but to do so.
“Sky-high rents and wider cost of living pressures mean millions of private renters are scraping by or relying on credit to pay their rent. Even with the Renters Reform Bill currently in the Lords, PRS tenants are given no effective statutory protection from eviction if they do fall into problem debt.
“While it’s important that this Bill is progressed with a clear timeline of when Section 21 will end, we’d like to see changes that would increase security for private renters, with protections from eviction that mirror those which already exist for mortgagors and social housing tenants. In the long term, we need to see a commitment to making housing more affordable and a clearer plan from government to reduce the risk of financially vulnerable PRS tenants losing their home because of rent arrears.”
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As usual another Mickey Mouse out fit grand standing how wonderful they are at someone else’s expense. Keep it up and there will be no rental homes. That’s the reality your words of wisdom bring.
I love that part at the end: "In the long term, we need to see a commitment to making housing more affordable". Have you seen the costs of building a new house these days? Have you seen the electrical infrastructure that's going to be required for all those electric car chargers? Have you seen the levels of insulation, and higher pressure pipework for the radiators to run at lower temperatures, whilst we need yet more tech to bring in air whilst recycling the heat lost from escaping air?
None of that comes for free, Mr Government. You want affordable housing, and yet Mr Average according to your figures earns just £35k a year, wanting to buy one of these new-builds that will be 350K in some areas - more in yet others! which means a mortgage of 10x Mr Average's wage BEFORE TAX! - You want affordable? At what interest rate will Mr Average secure a mortgage and be able to keep up payments on it? Sounds like about 1% to me! - and it would have to be a 40 year mortgage to stand any chance of still having money left over to put food on the table.
Very well put, Simon - all excellent points... and the list, complexity and ever increasing cost of compliance for mainly unnecessary things goes on and gets ever longer.
Also, we noticed the reliability and life expectancy of things like boilers had declined dramatically since - thanks to the genius ofbogus "green" policies - they've been made increasingly "ecco-friendly" and "efficient".... previously, most of our boilers worked perfectly well for about 25 - 30 years and with hardly any maintenance, just annual safety checks and a minor service.... now you'll be lucky to get over 10 years out of one with nothing very major (and so expensive) going wrong with it and/or it actually needing replacing... the total cost of all this to "the planet", let alone us, is huge!
On the tv news yesterday they said that rents had increased by 20% over the past year and mortgages by 115%. Who's getting the better deal? If homeowners can budget and manage to enable them to keep their home then that's what tenants need to do also.
Another charity performing no useful function whatsoever. 😠 Once we were known as a nation of shopkeepers. Now we are known as a nation of charities.😡
It is Parliament's last day today before it rises; that Bill is dead, I think.
Just a little update on the wash up legislation and the Renters Reform Bill. I read the following on the Law Gazette:
"Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the Conveyancers Association, said: ‘We are clearly waiting to see what legislation is able to get passed over the course of the next week before Parliament is dissolved, but from a CA perspective there would be a priority ‘wish list’ if you like in terms of those bills currently going through.
‘The Leasehold & Freehold Reform Bill would top that list, followed by the Digital Markets Competition and Consumer’s Bill, the Data Protection and Digital Identity Bill, and the Renter’s Reform Bill. By passing these, we could solve many of the existing issues for leaseholders, plus sort out the problems of estate rentcharges and managed freeholds, plus we would have the environment to create a Property Agent regulator and also get rid of both cyber scams and fraud in property transactions with Digital ID and enabling Digital Signatures linked to digitally-verified ID.’"
Read yesterday, Landlord repossessions on the rise, be even more with rent controls
Get those Section 21 notices out today!
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