Council Rent Guarantees For Some Private Landlords In Rother

Rother District Council is to begin offering private landlords guaranteed rents for taking on tenants who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. 

At a meeting on Monday (May 24), Rother cabinet members agreed to move ahead with a new programme, which will see the council rent properties from private landlords and then sub-let them on to those in need of housing.

The scheme comes as part of the council’s efforts to reduce its reliance on using privately-rented temporary accommodation by opening up longer term housing. 

Cllr Terry Byrne, cabinet member for housing and homes, said:

“This is a foray into the private rented sector and there is something here for both sides of the equation. 

“There is security of tenure we hope for those in rented accommodation, however we also expect the guarantees of rent to improve the standards of private-rented accommodation we are offering. 

“The private-rented sector is very uncontrolled, very ad-hoc.

"We are trying to bring some order into it and try and look at the way we can use the private rented to help our residents. 

“More and more people are having to rent, so the more regulation we can get the better.”

For properties to be accepted onto the scheme they must meet or exceed quality standards set by the council.

Landlords would also retain full responsibility for the management, maintenance and repair of the external fabric of the building.

In return, however, the council would manage the interior of the building and make good any tenant related damage to the property during the tenancy. 

The scheme will initially run for a period of two years before it is reviewed.

The council intends to secure rental agreements at 30 properties over this period.

While the intention behind the scheme may be to improve the quality and quantity of private-rented housing, this could prove challenging in practice as the scheme would not pay landlords more than the Local Housing Allowance rate (LHA).  

The LHA is the maximum amount of housing benefit a private renter can claim to help pay their rent.

In theory, it is designed so a renter will get enough housing benefit to cover the cost of renting a typical home in their area, large enough for their needs.

In March last year, the government announced that it was to increase LHA so that it equals the average rent of the 30th percentile of rental properties in a given local area. 

In Rother, this means LHA rates fall somewhere between £74.29 a week for a room in a shared house and up to £230 per week for a four-bedroom home.

This rate, coupled with the high demand for housing, could make it challenging for the council to find partners for the scheme.

Despite the challenges, the council hopes to use the scheme as a way to reduce its reliance (and spending) on privately-rented temporary accommodation. 

According to council papers, the authority had more than 100 households staying in temporary accommodation at the beginning of May.

This figure has risen significantly during the last year, although the number of households in temporary accommodation pre-covid was around 55. 

Council figures show the average length of stay in temporary accommodation is 66 days for a household with children.

The average cost of stay is £2,590 per household.

This scheme would be intended as a way of securing more affordable and longer-term housing for those households to move on to. 

The scheme will be funded from external Homelessness Prevention Grant that is allocated annually by the MHCLG.