It is a credit to both councils and the government that, except in emergencies, families are no longer being housed in bed and breakfast accommodation. By all accounts the councils that missed yesterday's deadline to get families out are very much the exception.
But rehousing families in temporary accommodation creates a new set of problems, for which there are gaping holes in policy – "temporary" is, after all, a misnomer given the chronic housing shortage. Many of the 93,000 families now in temporary accommodation could be living there for years.

But how many councils, for example, know the state of the private sector accommodation they are using – particularly if it is outside their borough? The concern is that the government can't demand too much if it doesn't want to pay for it – landlords would flee the market. But swapping one set of squalid conditions for another can't be right. And, surely, if higher standards were demanded of private landlords dependent on housing benefit recipients, they would have to comply?

That is, after all, the principle the government is banking on with changes to housing benefit payment.

The government has to be realistic if it wants a ready supply of good-quality accommodation: it can't be done on the cheap. Already, the government is pouring millions in housing benefit into footing the bill for the growing numbers of temporarily housed households, which has to be unviable in the longer term. New research by the Association of London Government shows just how much more economic it is for councils to buy houses rather than lease them from the private sector. For the money spent leasing three homes for 30 years, four could be bought and permanently owned, it says. Does the Treasury still need more evidence to up its funding for social housebuilding?

For the money spent leasing three homes for 30 years, four could be bought and permanently owned

Newham council in east London is setting up an RSL to house tenants it might otherwise place in private sector accommodation, allowing it to bid for grant and build more homes. Could more councils follow Newham's example and create council assets rather than swelling the bank balance of private landlords?

Finally, there is the issue of the benefit trap that many families in temporary accommodation find themselves in. Rents in the private sector can be three times as much as in social housing, making it uneconomic to try to get a job and lose housing benefit. The ALG wants the Department of Work and Pensions to consider subsidising rent so people in temporary accommodation pay a sum equivalent to a council rent if they get a job and lose housing benefit. That way, the DWP pays less and families do not become stigmatised – and stand a better chance of moving on.

Source

Housing Today