Housing benefit caps to put 30,000 homes out of reach (wales)

Graham_Devon

Over 30,000 homes in Wales will be put out of the reach of people on housing benefit because of new restrictions on how much they receive, it is claimed.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said changes by the UK government will mean a shortage of homes to rent in some places.
Demand will outstrip supply in all but two of Wales' 22 councils, it said.

The UK government said its reforms would restore fairness to a system that has "spiralled out of control".

From this month, housing benefit payments will be capped - from £250 a week for one-bedroom homes to £400 for a four-bed.

The CIH said Wales would be particularly badly affected leaving some local authorities with three people chasing every affordable private home to let.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-16429879

Couple of issues with this report.

If 30,000 homes are put out of reach, that will be 30,000 homes empty.

As ever, another scare story that seems to ignore that, what seems, irrelevant factoid.

So 30,000 homes empty, with the landlords of said houses losing out on rent each month, having to compete for tenants.

Secondly, let's say, based on the above figures, a tenant would get £300 a week for a 3 bed house. Thats basically £1200 for a four week month. Are houses in wales REALLY that expensive?!

Is this report stating that 30,000 people in wales are paying OVER £1200 a month for a 3 bed rental!!?!? What on EARTH are these people living in!?

£700 a month....
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-20708325.html?showcase=true

Thats a 3 bed, with drive AND garage.

If 30,000 people are going to be displaced due to £300 a week not covering the rent, then what on earth are they living in?! Swish apartments in prime locations!?

I know I have made up the £300, but it was a conservative guess based on the above one and four bed weekly payments. It's probably actually more than £300.

What on earth is going on, when people can't survive in wales based on the above weekly amounts and the properties actually available?

Who or what do the CIH work for!?

drc

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Who or what do the CIH work for!?

BTL landlords?

treliac

Graham_Devon wrote: »

If 30,000 homes are put out of reach, that will be 30,000 homes empty..........

..........What on earth is going on, when people can't survive in wales based on the above weekly amounts and the properties actually available?

So rental charges will have to drop - sorry greedy landlords - and in the long run that will help everyone.

If they can't afford to drop, they'll have to sell out to housing associations or such like.

morag1202

Each LA has it's own maximum rate at which they pay rent for each type of property. Swansea's is £114.23 pw for a 3 bed, Cardiff's is £150.00 pw. These rates are based on the actual rents being charged in the area and set to the 30th centile - so 30% of 3 bed property in Swansea will cost less than £114.23. It used to be the 50th centile.

The National cap only applies to a very few areas where the 30th centile is more than £400 pw for a 4 bed.

Have a play with this to find what the actual rates are in various places. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Search.aspx?LocalAuthorityId=137&LHACategory=3&Month=1&Year=2012

BTW there are 22 3 bed rentals available in Swansea for under their cap. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E1305&maxPrice=500&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=3

ukcarper

Makes you wonder righmove Cardiff 26 3beds over £1000 a month 335 below and there are some very nice houses.

Graham_Devon

morag1202 wrote: »

Each LA has it's own maximum rate at which they pay rent for each type of property. Swansea's is £114.23 pw for a 3 bed, Cardiff's is £150.00 pw. These rates are based on the actual rents being charged in the area and set to the 30th centile - so 30% of 3 bed property in Swansea will cost less than £114.23. It used to be the 50th centile.

The National cap only applies to a very few areas where the 30th centile is more than £400 pw for a 4 bed.

Have a play with this to find what the actual rates are in various places. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Search.aspx?LocalAuthorityId=137&LHACategory=3&Month=1&Year=2012

BTW there are 22 3 bed rentals available in Swansea for under their cap. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E1305&maxPrice=500&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=3

Well that makes more sense. So it's £150 per week for Cardiff.
Will this be reduced?

Seems there are 433 properties at £600 or under within 10 miles of Cardiff.

So this whole story seems to be a bit of a none story designed to cause hysteria!?

Not too bad if housing benefits will pay for a house like this in its entirity...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-36120623.html

morag1202

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Well that makes more sense. So it's £150 per week for Cardiff.
Will this be reduced?

Seems there are 433 properties at £600 or under within 10 miles of Cardiff.

So this whole story seems to be a bit of a none story designed to cause hysteria!?

Not too bad if housing benefits will pay for a house like this in its entirity...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-36120623.html

These are the new rates, they came in last April for new claims and a grace period of 9 months from the anniversary of each existing claim was given to existing claimants so they start to kick in gradually from now and for the next year.

IMO these changes will not have a major impact in Wales or any where else where the LHA rates are under the National cap.

robmatic

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Well that makes more sense. So it's £150 per week for Cardiff.
Will this be reduced?

Seems there are 433 properties at £600 or under within 10 miles of Cardiff.

So this whole story seems to be a bit of a none story designed to cause hysteria!?

Not too bad if housing benefits will pay for a house like this in its entirity...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-36120623.html

Remember that to get to a monthly rental figure from a weekly figure you multiply by 52/12 i.e. 150pw is actually 650pm.

So it's even less of an issue than you're suggesting.

chewmylegoff

Graham_Devon wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-16429879

Couple of issues with this report.

If 30,000 homes are put out of reach, that will be 30,000 homes empty.

As ever, another scare story that seems to ignore that, what seems, irrelevant factoid.

So 30,000 homes empty, with the landlords of said houses losing out on rent each month, having to compete for tenants.

Secondly, let's say, based on the above figures, a tenant would get £300 a week for a 3 bed house. Thats basically £1200 for a four week month. Are houses in wales REALLY that expensive?!

Is this report stating that 30,000 people in wales are paying OVER £1200 a month for a 3 bed rental!!?!? What on EARTH are these people living in!?

£700 a month....
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-20708325.html?showcase=true

Thats a 3 bed, with drive AND garage.

If 30,000 people are going to be displaced due to £300 a week not covering the rent, then what on earth are they living in?! Swish apartments in prime locations!?

I know I have made up the £300, but it was a conservative guess based on the above one and four bed weekly payments. It's probably actually more than £300.

What on earth is going on, when people can't survive in wales based on the above weekly amounts and the properties actually available?

Who or what do the CIH work for!?

This is all very well, but it's complete rubbish (the article that you've linked to that is).

Look on rightmove for Cardiff.

There are 341 properties with 4 beds on the market to rent at the moment. There is only one which is above the HB cap, and in fact there are only 2 properties out of those 341 which are more than £300pw!

There are only 62 properties in cardiff currently advertised for rent for >£400pw, and most of them appear to be 7,8,9,10 bedroom houses aimed at students paying about £300pcm each.

So, I conclude that the article is rubbish.

There was a study done by London Councils, which found that approx 15,000-20,000 households in London would be affected by the caps. Since the population of London is about 3 times that of Wales, and the average house price in wales is about £155k, whilst it is well over double that in London, I assume that the article is really a snide piece of propoganda, and what it really means is that only 30,000 properties in the whole of wales would be out of the reach of HB claimants by the national cap - NOT 30,000 properties currently occupied by HB claimants turfing their tenants out.

Edit: should really read the thread before replying.....seems we agree....

Road_Hog

morag1202 wrote: »

Each LA has it's own maximum rate at which they pay rent for each type of property. Swansea's is £114.23 pw for a 3 bed, Cardiff's is £150.00 pw.

So the top and bottom of this story is that, it's ballacks. The rent ceiling is already set in Wales and these new figures are going to have no impact upon them.


Having said that, I don't know how you can charge more than a tenner a week to live in Swansea amongst the Jacks, even worse if you were made to live in Llanelli with the Turks you should be paid to live there. Although it could be worse and you could live in Clartsville.

Running_Horse

In all the arguments to and fro about BTL culture, the one thing that always seems to get missed is many are building their private empires on public money. There must be a better and cheaper way without lining the pockets of the already rich, and without disincentivising the unemployed from getting back to work.