The National Residential Landlords Association has joined forces with two housing charities to call for the government to boost support for young renters.
It comes after Shelter warned last week that up to 230,000 tenants could be at risk of losing their home due to arrears when the ban on evictions ends on August 23.
The NRLA refuted Shelter’s prediction, saying it did not take account of steps landlords were taking to sustain tenancies.
The landlord body also accused campaign group Generation Rent of scaremongering over claims that homelessness could treble due to evictions from private rented property following the pandemic.
It has argued against government plans to end Section 21 “no-fault evictions”, which Shelter and Generation Rent want ministers to bring into force as soon as possible.
Today, in a joint statement with homelessness charities Crisis and Centrepoint, the NRLA is calling for ministers to bump up the benefits available to support to young renters.
It says this group will be especially vulnerable to losing income and even unemployment as the furlough scheme is scaled back.
A survey by the NRLA conducted in May found that 24 per cent of private renters aged 16-24 and 27 per cent of those aged 25-34 are reliant on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
From August the scheme will require employers to pay National Insurance and pension contributions, while the government’s subsidy will reduce from 80 per cent of wages to 70 per cent in September and 60 per cent in October.
The NRLA, Crisis and Centrepoint are calling on the government to boost the safetynet in three ways:
- Following the decision by the government to increase the Local Housing Allowance to cover the bottom 30 per cent of rents in any given area, ministers should go further by suspending the benefit cap. The Social Security Advisory Committee has warned that the full value of the extra support already provided by the government is not benefiting all claimants because of the benefit cap, particularly in areas with high rental costs.
- Advance loans provided to Universal Credit claimants to cover the five-week waiting period to receive the first payment of the Credit should be converted to grants, ending the debt that is “baked into the system”.
- Changes should be made to the Shared Accommodation Rate, which limits the amount that those under the age of 35 can access in housing support to the cost of renting a room in a shared house. This should include immediately bringing forward plans announced in the Budget earlier this year to extend exemptions from the SAR to include rough sleepers aged 16-24, care leavers up to the age of 25, and victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking.
The groups say the government should also give serious consideration to accepting the recommendations of the Social Security Advisory Committee to scrap the shared accommodation rate for all under 35s.
NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “Young renters have borne the brunt of the COVID crisis.
“Many have relied on the furlough scheme to enable them to pay their rent. “As this support reduces there is a serious danger that they will struggle to meet their payments.
“The vast majority of landlords approached for help by their tenants have responded positively and that will continue to be the case as they do all they can to sustain tenancies.
“But both tenants and landlords need the security of knowing rents can continue to be paid, just as with mortgages and rents for social housing. Plans need to be made to ensure that there will be adequate support in place to enable all tenants to continue to afford their housing costs.”
Centrepoint chief executive Seyi Obakin says: “There is now a wealth of evidence that the younger you are, the greater the economic impact of the pandemic will be.
“The number of young people contacting Centrepoint’s helpline has increased by almost 50 per cent since before the pandemic and our supported accommodation is stretched, but we’ve yet to see clear leadership from ministers on how they soften the negative effects.
“That is why we urgently need to see more government money to help with renting and living costs for those young people facing unemployment or reduced incomes and a better support package to help those newly out of work stay economically active. There are no simple solutions here, but business as usual is not good enough. We cannot leave young people to navigate this post-lockdown world alone.”
Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes says: “In our society everyone should be able to rent a safe, affordable home where they can thrive. So, it’s extremely worrying that over the coming months we may see a wave of young people losing their homes, as government support is rolled back, unless further action is taken.
“We know that across the country thousands of young people are bracing themselves for the anxious months ahead as they struggle to pay high rents on reduced hours and low wages.
“This is set to become all the worse when the eviction ban comes to an end next month.
“It’s crucial that we now focus our attention on ensuring that thousands of renters get the help they need to stop them from being swept into homelessness.
“That’s why we are urging the government to permanently invest in housing benefit and suspend the benefit cap, so that people can afford a safe and secure home.”
