On the frontline of the cost of living crisis in the UK rental sector

One fifth of all households in the UK rent their homes in the private sector, but with rising rental prices and dilapidated properties, are renters getting value for money?

The government promised a white paper to increase renter's rights, however questions still remain over the number of homes being built. Last year the English Housing Survey said nearly a quarter of private rented housing was below standard.

                                                                                                                                                                                        We get quite a lot of slugs so every morning . You'd see little slug Trails

yeah let me show you the kitchen Haley's been renting this home for five years

but has faced an uphill battle to get problems in it sorted this is after

cleaning it regularly . You can still see that the staining from the black mold

and this is where you should keep your food yeah or your groceries I try and

keep everything enclosed I couldn't keep any fresh food in there because it would

just go moldy and go rank but for many private renters like her raising issues

with landlords comes with a fear of increasing rent or having their tenancy

ended so this is the shower . We me and my partner have not been

allowed to use this shower despite the fact it works they haven't been able to

use it for 11 months and what we've discovered is that it's leaking in

various different places you've been washing in this then every year for the

last 11 months I would fill it up about three inches . We can't afford in the cost

of living crisis and an energy crisis to be running a bath every time we need to

watch last year . Haley was told her rent was due to increase by over 25 percent shut

shortly after that she was served as section 21 notice a so-called no fault

eviction giving her eight weeks to leave it was just such a blow because we'd

already it was 10 it was like nine ten months into you know the and not having a 

shower and the houses did was deteriorating in quality quite rapidly as we were going

into winter the house prices and renting prices in Bristol have just gone like

they're just way too high and then when he handed us to section 21

it kind of you saw it coming almost like he'd have to do so much work on the house that we'd

have to leave at some point for him to do it but it was like super devastating 

because we had made this our home we contacted the government . Who told us they're committed

to increasing renters rights we will bring forward a renter's Reform Bill in 

this Parliament abolishing no fault evictions so tenants can have greater . 

Security in their homes close to a quarter of private rented housing didn't 

meet the decent home standard according to last year's .

English housing survey meaning they were in disrepair couldn't be heated or

insulated or could pose a risk to health . Currently attendants want to fix 

problems in their housing they have to complain firstly to their landlord and

then to their local Council . If that doesn't work they can apply it to a

court but that can be expensive and time consuming social housing tenants can

have these problems investigated and resolved for free by a housing Ombudsman

but it's up to private landlords . Whether they want to opt into that scheme so the

number of private landlords signed up is a drop in the ocean we have just over 90

private landlords who have joined the scheme and it's great that they have but

there's probably over 2 million private landlords out there England's

housing Ombudsman says the government should legislate to give him Powers over

the private rented sector . I think it's very challenging to encourage landlords

to volunteer to be part of an ombudsman scheme without making it mandatory there

are clearly some private landlords who have decided to join .  I think

inevitably yes you make it a statutory responsibility you are not going to see

a significant number of private landlords becoming members of redress

schemes the department for leveling up have told us they want to introduce a

new Ombudsman for the private rented sector . Some landlords are blaming

the government for the problems renters are facing . I think the government has got to into

rental properties because it's the lack of them that are pushing prices up .

#UK  #England  #RentCrisis  #RentalSector  #LivingCrisis  #CostOfLiving  #Frontline #EnglishHousingSurvey #January #2023  #Government   #Homes #Standard #English