A prominent agent has stepped into the debate about Universal Credit payments to tenants, and the controversial welfare reforms proposed in Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement this week.

Patrick Bullick, owner and managing director of London agency Stanley Property, is also a former Propertymark board member and chairman of the London region of the National Association of Estate Agents.

In a blog he says that pre-Universal Credit, housing benefit was paid directly from the local authority to the landlord. This was sometimes complicated but at least the landlord did receive the full rent. Under Universal Credit, the default position is for the housing benefit element to be paid to the recipient, who in turn pays the landlord.

He comments: “The pressures of life on a very low income means that those tenants who receive the benefit themselves often de-prioritised paying their rent and fall into arrears. The court system is sclerotic and housing benefits officers across the country advise tenants not to leave before a Court Order.”

The result of this, he says, is that landlords have become very wary of letting to tenants on housing benefit. He suggests this isn’t discriminatory, just sensible.

“A landlord with three or four tenants offering to rent their property still has the right to choose which tenant to accept, and only a complete Muppet would accept the one on benefits” he claims.

Now Bullick wants a return to the old system of the rent being paid directly by the local authority to the landlord – and claims the alternative is an increase in homelessness.

“More and more families on Universal Credit end up in emergency accommodation. A tragedy for those particular families and ludicrously expensive for the hapless taxpayer. Those individuals who are really on the edge, and who used to live in hostels, end up being shoved out onto the streets – homeless and hopeless.”

He says a return to the previous system may take some ‘choice’ from the benefit recipients but Bullick insists it’s hardly ‘Nanny State’ to make sure the taxpayers’ money is spent wisely, and people are kept from a life on the streets.