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Housing associations must be handed bigger role to free private renters from ‘poor deal’, report says
Housing associations must be given a bigger role by government in tackling the housing crisis as private renters are getting an increasingly “poor deal”, the boss of one of the North’s biggest social landlords has argued.
Brian Cronin, chief executive of 28,000-home Your Housing Group, has spoken out following a report commissioned by the association examining the rental market in the North West of England.
“Renters in the North West are getting an increasingly poor deal from a failed housing market,” said Mr Cronin, who is a renter himself.
“The only way to break this crisis is to build more decent homes run by professional, responsible landlords.”
Last October Mr Cronin told Inside Housing that the association is aiming to offer lifetime tenancies to private and social renters.
The new 11-page Renting North West report claimed that problems related to the affordability of rental properties are becoming “entrenched”, similar to that seen in the homeownership market.
“The major underlying problem is the fact that our regional housing market is way too reliant on a small group of private sector builders who focus on relatively high-value homes for sale that increasing numbers of people simply cannot afford,” the report argued.
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New research in the report, carried out by Populus, found that nearly a fifth of respondents believe they get a “poor service” from their private landlord.
The report claimed that renters are also having to pass up new job opportunities due to housing worries. A total of 15% of the 1,696 people questioned for the survey said that they had rejected a new job opportunity over insecurities around moving from a short-term tenancy, including early exit costs.
As a result of this “tenancy trap”, this costs North West renters £1,000 a year in lost wages, according to the report.
Nearly half of those polled said they wanted a longer-term tenancy. More than eight out of 10 respondents said security was the reason for this.
The report concluded that this is why housing associations should step in.
“Housing associations are increasingly developing, as well as managing housing, and they also tend to offer longer, much more secure tenancies than private landlords,” the report stated.
“Because many also own different types of housing over several different locations, we can also see a future where opportunities within portfolios for people to upscale, downsize, or even move geographically could be created within a single tenancy.”
It concluded: “This report calls on all politicians to develop new thinking with the sector on how to bring land and investors together with housing associations so that development can start to happen at the speed and scale necessary to help tackle the housing crisis.”
Your Housing Group said it will be publishing further policy proposals in this area “soon”.
The landlord, which operates across the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands, completed a demerger and restructure in 2017.
