One in eight personal rented properties poses ‘severe menace’ to occupants’ well being, damning report finds

A couple of in eight privately rented properties in England pose a “severe menace” to the well being and security of their occupants, a damning report has revealed.

The Home of Commons Public Accounts Committee discovered fast-rising rents and low requirements within the personal sector imply that “protected, appropriate housing is simply too typically out of attain for renters”.

They usually stated that sickness and accidents ensuing from class one-rated well being hazards – which may embrace dangers reminiscent of electrical faults, harmful stairways, carbon monoxide leaks or structural weaknesses – have been costing the NHS £340m a 12 months.

A “postcode lottery” in requirements noticed as many as 21 per cent – multiple in 5 – of personal rented properties in Yorkshire and the Humber presenting a severe menace to well being, in comparison with 9 per cent in London.

As escalating home costs have taken house possession out of the attain of many Britons, the personal rental sector has doubled in dimension over the previous 20 years and now homes 11m folks, stated the report.

Non-public tenants spend a mean 32 per cent of their earnings on their lodging, in comparison with 18 per cent for owner-occupiers and 27 per cent for these in social housing.

The report discovered that many tenants have been reluctant to complain about well being and security dangers of their properties due to worry of “no-fault” eviction.

When making an attempt to implement their authorized proper to a protected and safe house, they face “an inaccessible, arduous and resource-intensive court docket course of and the chance of retaliatory eviction”, the report discovered.

The cross-party committee additionally discovered proof of illegal discrimination within the sector, with 25 per cent of landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders and 52 per cent refusing to take tenants on Housing Profit.

“Piecemeal” adjustments to the legislation round personal renting launched by Michael Gove’s Division for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) over current years had made the system even transfer “complicated and troublesome to navigate for tenants, landlords and native authorities”, the committee discovered.

It warned {that a} white paper on the sector due later this 12 months might be hampered by the division’s “poor understanding of the problems within the sector together with overcrowding, harassment and evictions”.

Committee chair Meg Hillier stated Mr Gove should use the white paper to begin to flip round his division’s document on addressing “the determined housing disaster on this nation”.

“Unsafe situations, overcrowding, harassment, discrimination and dodgy evictions are nonetheless an enormous subject within the personal rented sector,” she stated.

“And but the sector is a rising supplier of properties and rents maintain rising that means that protected, appropriate housing is simply too typically out of attain for renters. Renters with an issue are confronted with a fancy and dear redress system which isn’t match for goal and plenty of tenants hand over on the first hurdle.

“We have to see a change in steadiness.”

The deputy director of housing marketing campaign Technology Hire, Dan Wilson Craw, referred to as for the creation of a nationwide landlord register to assist councils implement security legal guidelines.

“None of us ought to must stay in a house that would make us ailing, however it may be an uphill battle for personal renters to get landlords to repair something,” stated Mr Wilson Craw.

“It’s attainable to take a landlord to court docket, or increase a grievance along with your letting agent’s redress scheme, however the truth that a landlord can evict you with no need a motive places many tenants off complaining within the first place. As he designs a brand new tenancy system, Michael Gove should make sure that landlords can’t use threats to keep away from their duties.”

A DLUHC spokesperson stated: “Councils ought to use the powers we’ve given them to crack down on rogue landlords, together with issuing fines of as much as £30,000 and banning those that hire out unsafe properties.

“As a part of our mission to enhance housing situations and to provide residents the ability to carry landlords to account, we’ll introduce new laws to enhance the standard and regulation of social housing and discover proposals for a nationwide personal landlord register in England.

“We’ll additionally publish a landmark white paper this spring and seek the advice of on introducing a legally binding respectable properties normal within the personal rented sector for the primary time ever.”