Do you want to know a secret?
Well, it’s not actually a secret at all but it’s something that’s been kept a bit quiet up to now. (And true to form the mainstream press has not reported it.)
So what’s the story?
Well, from October 2011, Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance rates will be set at the 30th percentile of local market rents, not at the 50th (median) percentile as at present.
When this was announced and ever since, there has been much leaping about in the media with everyone from Ken Livingstone to Boris Johnson and even renowned Housing and Benefit Experts like the venerable Archbishop of Canterbury putting in their penny worth about rapacious private landlords – though to be fair much of the hysteria comes not from the cut to the 30th percentile of local rents but from the maximum caps on Housing Benefit and the effect of these on London.
So, if you are an outsider to the confused world of Housing Benefits, you may be thinking everyone will move onto the 30th percentile rate, then?
Way Out
Well, er, not exactly, because a rather big “Work Around” has been allowed by the Government for the local authorities to use.
Smart landlords already know that the councils and housing associations of our land use a number of what are called “Private Sector Leasing” (or PSL) Schemes (PSLS) including a variant called “Housing Association Leasing Schemes” (HALS) to provide provision for homeless households and potentially homeless households. They can also be used as what’s called “Move On” accommodation for people in supported housing schemes.
Sometimes they are run direct by councils, sometimes by housing associations and often by the likes of private providers of which Orchard and Shipman are one of the biggest players. Often more than one scheme will be operated in a single borough (yes, plenty of duplication – we know!) and clever landlords have long been in the game of picking and choosing among the various schemes on offer.
Guaranteed Rent
These Private Lease Schemes are used to provide temporary accommodation for priority homeless or potentially homeless households and the leases set up with private landlords usually run from 2 up to 5 years and provide guaranteed rental incomes for landlords.
So, if you are a landlord the good news is that with these schemes you can get a gold plated guaranteed rent (paid for by the taxpayer) for that period of time with no void periods, usually no need to provide moveable furnishings, no agent fees to pay and in some cases some basic management will even be provided too. (There are only two real downsides: 1) You lose control of who is in your property – so think hard about this if the neighbours at your let property are sensitive types. and 2) Though any damage will be fixed, you’ll probably need to redecorate fully and replace carpets at the end of the period.)
With these schemes it is “happy days” for landlords or, at least it is for those who know about these schemes. (By the way, if you are a landlord and if this is the first you have read about this and are cursing that you have missed out all these years on a guaranteed rent, you are not alone, the marketing of these crazily duplicated and competing schemes by councils et al could be a whole bunch better. Some of our work with the public sector involves working with councils to show them how to market them better.)
But enough of the digression.
50th Percentile or 30th Percentile
Anyway, when the proposed cut in LHA from the 50th percentile of local rent values to 30th percentile was announced, there were concerns this would have a major impact on private sector initiatives like these.
However, pretty early on, the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) announced that Housing Benefit rates payable in respect of temporary accommodation provided by the Council to households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness will in effect be exempted from these changes until the middle of 2013. (The “at risk of homelessness” term is pretty important because we expect that definition to be stretched a long way in the future.)
This means that all leased schemes, be they Private Sector Leasing or Housing Association Leasing Schemes and used for temporary accommodation or prevention, will continue to be set at an LHA figure calculated on the 50th percentile, and this will be preserved for at least two years.
As the other changes outlined in the June 2010 budget (especially the new caps) are likely to have a significant impact in increasing homeless demand and reducing supply through “Direct Lets to LHA Schemes”, this little “Work Around” should give councils a great way of increasing the supply of leased accommodation to make up for anticipated shortfalls.
Increase in Private Leasing and Housing Association Leasing
We expect the councils to significantly increase the numbers of households placed in temporary accommodation. So, expect to also see a huge growth in the use of these schemes and a much wider use of the term “at risk of homelessness.”
At the moment the existence of this work around and out of the Great Housing Benefits Cuts Quandary has been kept quite quiet – which is fair enough when you consider that the likes of the London councils and the landlord associations all want to get more out of Housing Minister, Mr. Shapps to ameliorate the effect of the Housing Benefit shake up. (Good luck to them too, though we think they are wasting their time.)
Mr. Shapps hasn’t pointed to the existence of this work around either because he probably doesn’t want to tacitly admit that there could be more homelessness as a result of the Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance changes he’s bought in. And to be a backstop against homelessness is, of course, what these schemes were originally designed for!
Perhaps he is watching to see how things settle down.
If you are reading this Mr. Shapps, we must salute the clever game you are playing.
We also rather enjoy the way no one “in the know” is talking about this great work around the current conundrum. Having just got back from Moscow and a country where for many years and still today “some things just could not be said”, we find the politics of this rather fascinating.
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I’m David Lawrenson, a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years. 25,000 copies sold.
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