Ben Reeve Lewis Friday Newsround #152

[Ben Reeve Lewis is on holiday …]

Ok. Preamble to one side.

This week I am driving down main street, Provocative-Ville Arizona, with the top down, the radio on and no right turns into Conciliatory Close, or Tactful Drive……

I draw the attention of my honourable friends to a short article that caught my eye in Inside Housing.

The big benefit bill

The news that by 2019 the amount of housing benefit being paid to private landlords will be around the £11 billion mark.

Based on IDS’s portfolio DWP figures that this year alone £9.5 billion is already being paid out in housing benefit.

Generation Rent’s Alex Hilton fuels the controversy saying:

“This ‘subsidy’ is encouraging the popularity of buy-to-let, propelling property prices higher and making homes less affordable for those renting.”

Adding:

“Because landlords know the taxpayer can pay off their mortgage, this cash perversely fuels the housing bubble, which drives up rents, forcing more people to seek housing benefit.”

The two options

To my thinking at the moment there are two possible ways of driving down housing benefit payments:

These are the current government approach which demonises people on housing benefit, including the growing numbers of working people whose crap wages keep them below the poverty line;

Or, restricting rent levels.

The latter is of course completely out of discussion because it restricts free market growth and is therefore heresy of the “Earth revolves around the sun” kind, but if cutting HB levels is the main aim surely there are actually two approaches? One the accepted route and the other which will make the sky fall in.

The only question then is which of the two approaches has the least socially devastating, long term consequences?

Where did the queue come from?

Frazzy drops me off at my office at 8am routinely everyday on her way to work. A year ago the front door of the homelessness unit where my office is based were mercifully free of any queues. Since around Christmas the queues start at 8am.

This morning 10 deep by 8:10am.

Perplexed by this sudden explosion we took on a graduate trainee and tasked them with polling the queue to ask what caused them to be there. Various reasons but the winner by a clear head, flank, tail and hoof is benefit cuts making rents unaffordable.

Swings and roundabouts

Rents run away with themselves, benefit cuts drop people out of the race and consequently the homelessness bill goes up.

So what we as public tax payers lose on the benefit front simply ends up being paid for by the homelessness bill. Hardly a cut at all then, merely pushing the debt around. Like hiding your Cauliflower under the mashed potato so your parents wont see you haven’t eaten your greens.

£15,000 per homeless family

A generally accepted figure that is bandied about in my business is £15,000-ish to rehouse a homeless family from start to finish. A difficult thing to quantify but it takes into account paying for staff time, the cost of temporary accommodation, finders fees, bond schemes etc etc.

My office is now getting a footfall of 500 a week, we are one out of 33 Local Authorities in London where the cuts are really biting against soaring rents. Regular readers know maths isn’t my strong point but you don’t really need to do a calculation to see how many billions it is costing us all on the homelessness bill while rents remain out of reach for an increasing number of people.

A simplistic case

Lets look at a simplistic case for rent control. Landlords say that it will drive away people from the rental sector into other more lucrative markets.

Fair enough, I can see that argument but what will happen to the properties left behind? Will a 2 bed flat in Peckham suddenly disappear through a worm-hole and reappear in Aberdeen? No of course not, it will still be available locally, albeit it through a different market model that may better suit the needs of a particular community.

For many years I have been against rent controls for pragmatic reasons set out by landlord groups but lately I am seeing too many people in the homelessness queue, literally, to not form the opinion that it is becoming increasingly pressing in the capital (Other regions admittedly aren’t so desperate),

So it may be time, as some are saying for a separate system in London.

The criminal alternative

The flip side associated to an unaffordable rental market is the rise I am seeing daily in criminal landlords cramming as many people as possible into the smallest of spaces, where people occupy insanitary death-traps which are the only thing they can afford.

If people had more choice, i.e. affordable rents, then this new generation of slum landlords wouldn’t have such a ready market.

To my mind landlords will always complain about rent control in the same way that workers moan about their employers but still end up working there for years because it’s what they know.

Anyway, having ruffled quite a few feathers I end my polemic in the full knowledge that I am going to be accused of a being a fantasist, a socialist, naïve, an idiot, and move on to other stories.

TV Poverty Porn

I’ve done more than my fair share of filming for TV documentaries on the housing crisis these past two years, often being “Rent a gob to go to” for many production companies, which is why I read with interest a piece on 24 Dash  about a call to end what they call ‘TV Poverty Porn’.

I heartily agree. People ask me if I saw last night’s salacious documentary and I have to reply “No”….its too much like being at work for me. Do greengrocers go home and watch programmes about Cauliflowers?…..well maybe they do but I actually prefer documentaries about cauliflowers.

Recipe alert!

Which reminds me. If you don’t like Cauliflower, try roasting it instead of boiling. Cut into florets, drizzle with olive oil, paprika, salt and lemon juice and then add to cheese sauce or just serve up on its own. It’s a revelation, trust me and you wont have to hide it under the mash anymore.

Council Homes Chat

The article promotes a forum, “Council Homes Chat”, of which the article says:

“CouncilHomesChat was set up to tell the side of the story that the media so often fails to tell. It provides those who live, work and believe in social housing with the opportunity to tell their stories and shout about their positive experiences. It’s about changing the conversation and challenging the damaging stereotypes. Ultimately, it’s about getting people to care again about social housing and to realise how it benefits us as a society.”

Hear, Hear.

I remember back when Thatcher introduced the right to buy, many people of my parent’s generation refused to do so on principle and an idealistic belief in the morality of social housing.

A prescient approach as it was recently reported that since it’s inception something like 74% of properties bought under the right to buy are now in the hands of private landlords, thus feeding the £9.5 billion housing benefit bill.

Where is Thatcher’s property owning democracy now then? Queuing up outside of my homelessness unit, that’s where.

Out of reach …

Of course I can make these admittedly inflammatory statements in the calm and secure knowledge that by the time most of you landlords read this and can comment in an angry way, I shall be sitting by the pool in Florida sipping a Margarita, so do your worst haha.

My first holiday in 4 years, and by my recent and rather shocking calculation only my 8th in 40 odd years, so allow me my delirium, your delicate feelings are not priority this week. I’ll speak as I find.

See ya in two weeks