Welcome, and in our Newsround we cover the headlines that have hit the housing news this week.
£30k of grants available for older & disabled tenants
A new £50m fund has been released by The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities to make adaptions for older and disabled tenants in England to ensure that they can carry on living independently.
Landlords will be able to apply for funding if they have a tenant living in their property that requires adaptation. The Older Person’s Taskforce say that there are 12.4m people in Britain aged over 65 and this is set to rise to 20.4m by by 2041.
Propertymark called on the government to improve access and promote the Disabled Facilities Grant to private landlords to try to get more private rented property accessible for disabled and older tenants.
A good incentive and use of funding.
Council housing at the heart of a Labour government
Angela Rayner, the new shadow Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary has vowed to put council housing back into her reform agenda, which she says will help reduce the demand in the private rental sector.
She herself puts where she is now down to having been given a council house when she was a single mum which meant having that security enabled her to go out and work and better her skills. This kind of levelling up transformed her life and prospects because it was done right. She says
Labour has a comprehensive plan to create good jobs across the entire country and raise living standards for all through our New Deal for Working People.
Alongside decent work, Labour has a plan to fix the housing crisis by building more homes, homes people can afford to live in with priority given to local people – and yes, that means more council houses.
She goes on to say that a labour government will provide this alongside creating a stronger sustainable economy.
Maybe this is the change we need.
Council allocates funds to buy from landlords
Newham Council has put aside an initial £20m into a preventative scheme that will buy homes from landlords that are evicting tenants thus enabling them to stay put and prevent more homelessness.
It has earmarked 44 properties at £450,000 each which includes refurbishing them. This is seen as a way out of the property crisis.
Jonathan Rolande from the National Association of Property Buyers says
It is brilliant to see councils brave enough to take a longer-term approach to the housing crisis and doing so may well prevent many families from the misery of homelessness.
Bringing more homes back under council control and building them wherever possible is the only way out of the property crisis for millions of people. It would after all be an investment in the future, it would suppress rents for everyone and reduce the benefits bill for those that need it.
A great initiative from Newham Council.
Government hits landlord profits
A new research has showed that the average property portfolio size has fallen by 5.6%, from 9.1 properties to 8.6 in the first quarter of 2022 and 2023.
The report from Benham and Reeves claim this is due to unfavourable government policies towards landlords.
Marc von Grundherr says
It’s getting harder to be profitable as a landlord, and that impact is starting to show.
Losing income tax relief had a big effect, while many investors are understandably worried about the upcoming changes to Capital Gains Tax, minimum EPC rules, and the elimination of Section 21 evictions.
He further states that unless the government reverse some of these changes rental stock will continue to diminish and drive landlords away.
Snippets
UK rents hit another record high
Some tenants look outside UK to escape high rents – claim
Gas Safety tips for agents to pass to landlords and tenants
COMMENT: Will labour come round to loving landlords?
Big rent premiums found in locations near Crossrail stations
Trend of more tenants with fewer rental properties to continue, agents say
Rogue landlord illegally evicted family at christmas
Rental market sees surge in demand as academic year begins
Tougher powers over HMO’s to be subject of autumn consultation
Newsround will be back next week.