x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.
STAY CONNECTED!
    
newsletter-button

London councils prepare for mass exodus of tenants

25 October 2010
Written by rosalind renshaw

Local authorities in London are block-booking private rental accommodation outside the capital.

They are preparing for a mass exodus of tenants currently in private rented accommodation when Local Housing Allowance is capped to a maximum of £400 per week in April.

It is widely predicted that housing benefit tenants who have been placed in private rented accommodation in London will have to be moved on.

Private landlords will not lower their rents, and tenants in receipt of Local Housing Allowance could have nowhere else to go in London.

At a meeting last week of London Councils, Nigel Minto, head of sustainable communities at London Councils, said: “Some central London boroughs have been doing block bookings in outer London because they know that they will not have the accommodation in the private sector.”

Minto said the council was booking accommodation in towns such as Hastings, Watford, Slough, Reading and Luton because the rents in those areas are much lower than the average rates charged by central London landlords.

He said the councils were also starting to view bed and breakfast as a long-term solution.

Comments

  • icon

    ACE- Corby thats harsh.

    • 27 October 2010 14:08 PM
  • icon

    Exodus next April!
    Who is paying for this so called 'block booking' 6 months in advance?
    What nonsense!

    • 25 October 2010 13:06 PM
  • icon

    With Courts being shut the waiting time to get a non paying tenent there will take years. We might be out of this recession by then.

    Keep on truckin.

    • 25 October 2010 13:00 PM
  • icon

    I agree with the comments below, however as the LHA will be capped and therefore more landlords will be wary of taking tenants on housing benefit surely it would be more benefical for the government to U-turn the way benefit payments are paid.
    Pay the landlord or agent direct and in advance not in arrears, this would encourage more landlords/agents to take benefit tenants as at the moment we have to wait for the tenant to fail to pay for 2 months before we can get any payment and the 2 months lost is never recovered.

    • 25 October 2010 12:04 PM
  • icon

    Excellent News!!

    Send them all to Corby

    • 25 October 2010 11:04 AM
  • icon

    Well I agree with the first half but not the second. Everyone seems to be acting as though the sky is going to cave in next week when it will be this time next year. That's because as you rightly say having booked the alternative accommodation - and just how do you do that months before you need it? - the left hand probably not knowing what the right hand is doing will as you say rightly advise the tenants to sit tight. Before they put anyone anywhere else LAs will want to know the Landlord is serious and my guess is will want to see at least a copy of a Summons. As they are going to be under such pressure they may even want to case to go all the way to an Order being issued before they pick up the tenants as Statutory Homeless. Don't blame the Tories completely though - the HB/LHA bill has been growing for the past 15 years. But I still have not seen the answer to does this apply to existing claimants on currect property or only when they move? Incidentaly all this accommodation being booked in locations by the sound of it hours and many miles away from the current property. Are the tenants going to mass migrate then. Next claim will be ststus cleansing - you heard it here first!!

    • 25 October 2010 10:35 AM
  • icon

    This sis going to be a disaster. LA's tell their tenants not to leave until a bailiff turns up as they will be intentionally homeless otherwise. The courts are going to be booked up until after the summer with possession orders and bailiff appointments. There will be a hugh increase in homeless in central london. If LA rents are capped then most of the local estates in our area will become ghost estates, values in these buy-to-lets will fall (like I really care) and rent values in these areas will fall too. The government will be creating LA ghettos where everyone on that road/estate/area will all be paying low rentals and the private rented sector will live nearby in gated communities. So much for the big, caring conservatives on this one!

    • 25 October 2010 10:20 AM
Breaking News
MovePal MovePal MovePal