Housing Solicitors

A report in the Croydon Advertiser has revealed that since the bedroom tax was introduced, more than 600 social housing tenants in the area have fallen into arrears with their rent.

A spokesman for Croydon council said that in October 2013, a total of 639 social housing tenants with spare bedrooms had fallen into arrears with their rent – although this figure had fallen to 407 by February this year.

However, a total of £20,438 is now owed to Croydon Council by tenants who are under-occupying council homes. Croydon Council has not yet evicted any tenant who is under-occupying and in arrears with their rent, however.

The news coincides with a report in The Independent which shows that the sale of smaller council houses has caused a shortage in affordable housing for council tenants unable to afford the rent on two- and three-bedroom council flats because of the bedroom tax.

Council tenants with a spare bedroom have faced a cut in their housing benefit in line with the government’s cap on welfare payments.

Many tenants do not wish to leave the homes they may have brought up their family in and accordingly struggle to try and keep them.

A group of five disabled council tenants recently lost a High Court battle over the bedroom tax, after they claimed they needed an extra bedroom for family or a carer to stay occasionally. The claimants alleged cuts to housing benefit by the government were a breach of human rights.

The High Court ruled, however, that the government’s changes to welfare and housing benefit were lawful.

Research by The Independent newspaper also shows that thousands of smaller council properties have been sold off to private buyers since 2010 – in effect making it more difficult for tenants to move to smaller council homes because of shortages in council housing stock. Many private purchasers of smaller council properties bought under the Right-To-Buy scheme, which was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.

Labour’s spokesman for housing, Councillor Alison Butler, said that the bedroom tax “misses the point” regarding the problem faced by some of Croydon’s council tenants:

“Whatever your views on the bedroom tax and other housing benefit restrictions, they can only be fair if there is a smaller alternative for people to move to,” she said.
"In Croydon, this is simply not the case – so people are being penalised for something they have no control over."

Figures obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act show that since 2010 – when the coalition government came to power – around two-thirds of council properties sold under the Right-To-Buy scheme were small one- or two-bedroom properties suitable for single tenants, couples or single parents.

Among the London councils Hammersmith, Southwark and Lambeth, around 75% of sales under Right-To-Buy involved smaller properties with one or two bedrooms.

Southwark Council has recently been the subject of controversy over its redevelopment of the Heygate Estate at Elephant & Castle in South London.

Some tenants on the Heygate Estate who had bought their properties under Right-To-Buy were compensated at rates much too low for them to be able to afford to buy another property in London; whereas some of the flats planned for the new housing development on the site will be sold for figures in the region of £700,000.

Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors

Duncan Lewis Housing solicitors can advise on Local Authority housing and issues such as housing possession, unlawful eviction and disrepair of rental property.

Duncan Lewis housing solicitors can also advise owner-occupiers on issues such as debt and mortgage repossession.

For expert advice on housing law and Landlord & Tenant issues (rented property) contact Duncan Lewis Housing solicitors on 020 7923 4020.