How can the government get away with doing this to renters?

[winterwonder1]

So housing benefit if being frozen next year - yet rents are rocketing (because of the increased pressures on BTL taxation and mortgages, among other issues). Surely vulnerable people will become homeless because of this?

Housing benefit payments to be frozen again in 2025 | Kidderminster Shuttle

Landlords need to cover their mortgages…

FFS, anyone who has a portfolio of HOMES, needs them all taking from them (for the price they paid for them,) via a Compulsory Purchase Order - and all the homes becoming social housing stock.

NO-ONE should have a portfolio of HOUSES for fuck's sake!

Regulation has been tightened in recent years. Keep going, more private landlords will sell up and rents will rise further.

They're not arbitrary rent increases either, the base rate is nearly 20 times higher than it was in 2021 and 10% plus inflation has pushed up costs.

Yes.

Most European social security systems pay housing benefit to those in need in one form or another.

@Feb135 @OctaviaWeber but surely it's not working and only serving a few very rich people because the Govt intervention continues for so many others?

Maybe we can start with taxing Air BNB out of existence. Holidays for people with money but no houses for people to live in the holiday areas. Shit situation of revolving lets ruining the peace for neighbours and wrecking communities.
Why aren’t AIR BNB subject to planning laws? If there enough guest houses and hotels in an area then leave those properties for local people to rent to live in.
My sister has just done up a property in Devon. Letting it out on Air BNB for £1500 a week in summer. Doesn’t matter if it’s empty the rest of the year.

When it's the taxpayer doing so when many can't afford their own property something is seriously wrong.

Agree that houses are just expensive. Not that sorry for social renters as owners and private renters paying the full price are also struggling.
There was that BBC article about shit housing with that poor couple living in sewage despite housing benefit paying their 2500 rent. They had one unskilled delivery job between them. That’s a take home salary of nearly 50k being paid for their rent by taxpayers. Not sustainable for social renters to be given that much money and not something private renters can dream of affording. Of course private renters wouldn’t put up with it as they have more choice but nice money for that landlord.
It’s nearly impossible to live in London unless you’re very rich or very poor. If housing benefit keeps rising what about the paying tenants?

Rents are ridiculous now, and the demand is high. My DP was served a Sec21, and it took him a few months beyond that to even secure a place (his landlord offered him money to leave ASAP, but there was literally nowhere to go). He viewed and expressed interest in so many places. About 30 other people were viewing each place.
I read on here that landlords can't refuse to let to people on HB, so price them out with silly high rents instead.

To hell with them. If they can't afford the mortgage on a SECOND home they have, then they can sell it, and someone can buy it who wants to LIVE in it.

See we have quite a lot of empty houses already. They're sold to foreign investors who never live in them + run down council / social houses that aren't fit for habitation.

The scale of usable buildings that are not being used in this country is eye watering. It's criminal that buildings lie empty when there is so much need.

Coupled with the fact that building new houses has a huge environmental impact - it's better to adapt exvisiting buildings -

There is so much we could do but it's too revolutionary and doesn't benefit the rich.

Who would house people who need to rent then if all the LL’s packed it in? the Private sector houses around 16% of the population, social housing is around the same.

So let’s say LL’s sell all their properties to house buyers. Where would a fifth of the population live who cannot be given social housing as there isn’t enough?

Or are you saying if you owned a second home you would give it to someone for free to live in and continue to pay the mortgage out of your own pocket as most people who rent do so because they can’t get a mortgage?

If private LL’s didn’t exist and owning BTL properties became illegal what do you think would happen? I’m genuinely interested.

Yep. Private sector has it's place. Not everyone is eligible for social housing.
And there should be an option for people who want more bedrooms than social housing would allow you.
I would never want to live in less than 2 bed with someone else (although I am currently in a 3 bed on my own).

I always thought there should be some scheme whereby if you have paid rent sat £x amount per month for x number of years, you can get a mortgage for the same rate (or perhaps 10% less). It's the renting and saving up for a deposit simultaneously that's so difficult and surely there's a way to help people. This would move people on from renting properties to buying them and therefore less competition. There's probably some implications I haven't considered here (not my area of expertise) but something could be done surely!

And how many of those European countries have rent controls?' I'll start.

France has rent controls in areas where housing is under pressure.

Spain has just made its rent controls stricter.

Germany has nationwide rent controls.

years and years ago we used to have "Rent Tribunals" and if you privately rented and t hought you were paying too much in rent you could take your landlord to the tribunal and the rent would be lowered.

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/rent-disputes

Still exists, I wasn't aware.

Oh wow, I didn't know that was a thing.
My DB is really struggling with his rent. His LL puts it up £150 at a time. A huge leap year on year. It has made my DB suicidal.
But then, wont the LL just serve a Sec21 and have a whole new tenant in who does not "cause trouble"?

I get your point to a certain extent, I’ve been a renter and now I’m a landlord . I’m speaking from experience majority of landlords pay a mortgage on the property they are renting out. The mortgage interest has risen so sharply these last few years, most landlords have had no choice but to put up rent to cover the mortgage.
in the past few years being a landlord really hasn’t had any financial benifits for me. If it wasn’t for a long term
. Now I do agree with you that some private landlords can charge too much if they have no mortgage to pay and are just pocketing the whole amount.

Councils are building loads of houses (well, flats) near me. (just googled and this is a bit er unfortunate: amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/20/taxpayers-may-need-to-bail-out-sadiq-khan-london-housing-fund-say-auditors)

But it doesn’t make sense because if we somehow built a million dwellings a year (completing 2739 a day), we would still have a shortage. The whole world wants our houses.

Is the answer to ban private landlording, ban multiple home ownership, ban foreign ownership, and run it all as an arm of the state.

Out landlady owns a huge portfolio of houses, including the one hubby and I privately rent long-term.
The other day our integrated dishwasher broke and she refused to put in a replacement as it's "not an essential." She also argued that she keeps the rent "low" so anything like this is up to us to replace. We've been here 3 years now and asked for nothing.

If the private LL all sold up, house prices would fall. Some of those currently renting would then be able to buy. Also Housing Associations or councils could buy from the private LL.

Imagine 101 houses and 101 people. 1 person is homeless, 1 house is long-term empty, and 100 houses are occupied. 20 of the houses are privately rented to 20 tenants so 20 people own two homes. These houses are sold, and the price drops to a point where 20 people can buy. The houses and the people balance out. The houses are not left empty.

Some of the 20 LL have high mortgages, but they are now legally barred from letting the houses, so have to sell at a price below their mortgage, and go bankrupt. The banks take a hit on unpaid mortgage debt.

(This simplistic example assumes no new house building and no population growth.)

This will never happen because the government protects the banks.

So why bother commenting 🤷‍♀️🙄

I thought it was pretty standard for non essential white goods to not be replaced? For example if my fridge breaks I have to replace it. I've had this in every tenancy I've ever been in. Not that its right but it's not unusual.

@DorianMeile The issue is it is an integrated appliance. No way were we going to pay for an integrated dishwasher we couldn't take with us.