Safe housing ‘often out of reach’

MPs warn secure homes are too frequently unattainable for private renters, reports Vicky Shaw

Safe housing is “too often out of reach” for private renters, who face a “complex and costly” redress system that is unfit for purpose, MPs have warned.

Local authorities are constrained by a lack of support from central government, accordingtotheCommonsPublic Accounts Committee (PAC), as they attempt to navigate a “fragmentedanddisempowered” regulatory system, made worse by “piecemeal” interventions.

In a report, the PAC warned it is “too difficult” for private renters to “realise their legal right to a safe and secure home”, with some tenants exposed to “serious illness, harassment or homelessness”.

Thecommitteepointedoutthe private rented sector in England has doubled in size in the last 20 years, and now houses 11 million people.

It said an estimated 13% of privately rented homes in England have at least one Category1hazard,whichequates to “a serious threat to health and safety that landlords are legally obliged to address”.

This costs the NHS an estimated £340 million each year, the PAC said, adding that enforcement is a “postcode lottery”.

It warned that many tenants feel unable to exercise their rights and raise complaints with local authorities as they fear they may be evicted.

ThePACsaidthosewhodowant tocomplainface“severelylimited” access to redress mechanisms, with the “highly complex” system requiring “significant time and resource to pursue court action”.

This will be especially difficult for vulnerable tenants who may lack knowledge of their rights or how to enforce them, it added.

The committee said the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is considering a mandatory redress scheme for landlords, but noted that “the way this is designed will determine how helpful it will be”.

“For example, multiple redress schemes instead of a single ombudsman may create a market forlandlordstochoosefrombutbe moreconfusingforrenters,”itsaid.

The PAC said there is “evidence of discrimination” in the market, with 25% of landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders and 52% unwilling to let to tenants who receive housing benefit.

The committee also warned that local authorities do not have the “capacity and capability” to ensure an appropriate level of protectionforprivaterenters,and accused the DLUHC of not doing enough to support councils to “regulate effectively”.

“The dozens of legislative powers used by local authorities are complex and spread across multiple enforcement bodies, creating a fragmented and disempowered regulatory system,” the report said.

“Localauthoritiessaythatthey could regulate better with more support and sharing of good practice, but the department is not sufficiently proactive at providing this.”

The PAC said the DLUHC does not have a “good enough understanding” of the kind of regulatory approaches that work at local level, and lacks an “early warning system” to identify where private renters are being failed.

The committee also said the department does not hold “good enough data to understand the nature and extent of problems renters face”.

“For example, it lacks robust data on complaints, overcrowding, harassment and evictions, and has a limited understanding of who is vulnerable and how this impacts their renting experience,” the report said.

The DLUHC also lacks data to evaluate the effect of recent legislative changes on the overall operation of the market, and so is “unable to benchmark success”, the committee added.

ThePACurgedthedepartment to set out how it will support renters to understand their rights and improve their ability to exercise them.

It also said the DLUHC should conduct a “realistic assessment” of the resources needed for local authorities to regulate effectively, and take a more proactiveapproachtosupporting local regulators and sharing good practice.

The department should also developa“coherentdatastrategy” to improve its understanding of theproblemsfacedbyrentersand evaluate the impact of legislative changes, it said.

The PAC said the DLUHC’s forthcoming White Paper on the private rented sector offers an “opportunity for significant improvement”.