‘Just about managing’: Newham’s struggles with private renting

SLUGLINE

Monday, 27th November 2017

‘Just about managing’: Newham’s struggles with private renting How private sector renting and extortionate landlords inhibit the success of working families Aadil Champsi and Justin Yim “I would try to work more hours, I’ve tried to ask people for maybe a better job, better pay, because sometimes you do more hours but the pay it’s not really enough.

The problem is the rent and the rent is very high”, says Lina, a single mother who works part-time and lives in Inner London.1 Lina tells a story that is not at all unique – one in eight Londoners are affected by the phenomenon that is known as ‘working poverty’. 1.3 million Londoners hold employment but are ‘just about managing’, as Theresa May puts it, to meet their rent and other demands.2 The truth of the matter is that London’s stark disparity is often hidden – there may be few people in absolute poverty but there are millions who cannot keep up with the increasing cost of living in this glitzy and sometimes flamboyant city we live in.

To make matters worse, accessing affordable housing is a Herculean task for many who then resort to high rents in the private sector, squeezing households’ spending ability on their own needs. Private renters find that this option is not

LONDON BOROUGH OF NEWHAM

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th

highest proportion of working age population in full-time employment (82.7%) in London 20167

only expensive, it also forces tenants to live in poor quality housing with insecure tenancies, Seb Klier, Campaigns and Policy Manager at Generation Rent tells us.

Generation Rent is one of only a handful of third sector campaigners promoting rights of private renters to housing that is secure, affordable, well-managed.

It is most telling that whilst 15 per cent of people in the U.K. live in relative poverty before housing costs, this figure rises to 21 per cent or over 13 million people after housing costs are taken into account.3 Gone are the days when finding employment gave one social mobility and security. Mr. Klier explains this as “because housing costs … are such a fundamental part of someone’s cost of living, if you don’t have a way of providing long term affordable housing for people then you are going to see increases in poverty.”4 There are now almost as many employed private renters in poverty as there are unemployed social renters in poverty.5 The London Borough of Newham specifically has found itself in a situation with ‘just about managing’ families. Newham stands out for its high levels of deprivation,

8th

most deprived borough in England 20156

Highest proportion of private renters across London (42%) 20158

A seemingly paradoxical situation: high level of deprivation, with high proportion of employment population and private renters. Sources: ONS, GLA; Graphic: JY

employment, and private renting – a seemingly paradoxical situation. We walked around several parts of the borough but this phenomenon is intangible, despite its magnitude.

There are several challenges that Newham residents have, including tenure security. Ann Easter, Councillor for Canning Town North, spoke to this paper about a constituent who moved to London but eventually his employment contract expired and he had to resort to underemployment, working at Asda.9 Eventually, his tenancy ended and their landlord decided to up their rent by a significant amount which the renter could not afford. “There’s no way that a person working for Asda is gonna be able to find a thousand pounds a month”, Cllr. Easter exclaimed. The couple and their young children, including an infant, were soon evicted.

“I know people who go without food during the school holidays because they can’t buy their children food [Newham provides free school meals]. You know, that’s a big thing if your child is having a home cooked meal – it may not be fantastic nor terribly imaginative but it’s a cooked meal in the middle of the day. And when they are on holiday, particularly the long summer holiday, you’ve got to find them food,” Cllr. Easter tells us.

It is no secret that people around London are in precarious situations which have far reaching consequences on themselves and their families. These families wake up in the morning and work their hardest just to provide for their families but constantly face evictions and the threat of homelessness from landlords and a government which does not do enough to protect their interests.

Private renters also have challenges in terms of the quality of their housing. Renters are vulnerable to exploitation and live in worse conditions because they have no choice. Cllr. Easter reminds us that the quality of one’s home affects their quality of life: “there’s a fairly high instance of mental illness, and part of that I think is caused by living conditions.” Such is the housing environment we Londoners live in today. Housing is seen as a commodity that can be exploited for wealth rather than what it should be seen as: it is not just a place for somebody to live – it should be a ‘home.’

A recent raids by Newham Council discovered 47 people living in a property meant to house nine.10 In fact, 17,907 households (17.5 per cent) in Newham live in homes technically too small for them.11

We tried to understand why Newham particularly had such a challenge with housing and went to Councillor Terry Paul, Mayoral Advisor on Housing and a highly driven and blunt individual who keeps in his coat a book on housing. Cllr. Paul tells us “working families in any decade have always struggled, but the issue is the condition that these people live in.”12 He blamed it on thirty years of government policy from both colours. “If the first thing out of a politician’s mouth is not to get rid of right-to-buy, just forget anything else they have to say”, Cllr. Paul tells us.

Social housing was lost in right-to-buy and has not been rebuilt at a fast enough rate to help, with a waiting list growing to over 10 years. Cllr. Paul depicts the situation for us: “We have social housing, there’s possibly 17,000 homes, over the last 20 years probably about 50 per cent of that has been sold. Our waiting list is about 22,500 people probably. I lose roughly just under 200 homes through right to buy, and give out a net 275 homes roughly a year.

We don’t have enough housing. Every year we are losing homes, it’s like a hole in your bucket.”

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Working families in any decade have always struggled, but the issue is the condition that these people live in.

Councillor Terry Paul

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We live in a country where people who struggle to make ends meet also struggle to get support from their government. Local Housing Allowances, Universal Credit and Bedroom Tax are all policies meant to help people but the effectiveness of these is slowly diminishing. Therefore, those most vulnerable to increases in rent find that their government fails to support them as they struggle to keep themselves in their homes. Cllr. Paul argues that the only way to help working families in deprivation is by “giving people more disposable income but also giving them more skills so they can get paid better.”

Private renting is not a bad thing - if anything it avoids a buy-to-leave situation, Cllr. Paul reminds us. Buy-to-leave is where government policy could be more effective in pushing homeowners to rent out their flats and reduce the scale of the housing crisis. Cllr. Paul ends on a note

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A household of five shared this “shower” in the basement of a Butcher’s shop whilst another had a stained toilet circled by empty beer cans. Photo: LB Newham that it is all about managing the misallocation of housing appropriately and balancing landlords and renters needs, which policy plays a part in, and that we need to figure out “how to improve disposable income for those who are in the bottom.” Mr. Klier tells us people have got into buy-tolet because they lack trust in other investments and changing the attractiveness of this “basically opens up a massive can of worms.”

Whilst it is true that Newham borough has a serious private renting problem, it is also the most innovative both in London and the nation when it comes to promoting renters rights. Newham introduced ‘Selective Licensing’ in 2013, ensuring that all tenants are renting in safer conditions.

This policy has been taken to kindly by landlords and renters alike. In the last four years, the borough has prosecuted more landlords who do not meet requirements than any other London borough and issued more than 2000 improvement notices to tackle poor conditions.13 Moreover, there have been 1,217 prosecutions of criminal landlords in Newham.14 This makes a major difference as without selective licensing existing regulations are bureaucratic and the judicial system is slow in tackling landlords’ transgressions. This policy has been so successful that Newham alone accounted for 70 per cent of all prosecutions of landlords in London last year.15 However, this policy, that is of national significance as it is a win for the average tenant, expires at the end of 2017, with no sign that central government will allow it to continue. At the time of going to press,

Licensing: national to local There are three tiers of property licensing in England: –– Mandatory licensing: applies to all large Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), anywhere in the country –– Additional licensing: applies to smaller HMOs, where the council adopts a scheme –– Selective licensing: applies to other non-HMO private rented properties, where the council adopts a scheme.

All three of these tiers of licensing are in operation across the whole of LB Newham. Source: Shelter 16 central government had still not made a decision despite the usual six-week turnaround passing. Mr. Klier argued this is possibly due to the strong lobby against any kind of further regulation from the two main landlords organisations, Residential Landlords Association and the National Landlords Association.

To solve the impasse, Cllr. Paul calls for a fundamental reform of the private rented sector and believes it is important to look at both sides of the private renting debate to find the best solution. Mr. Klier reminds us, “improving the private renting sector can only be done if you have decent policy on social housing, homeownership and also around the wider macro-economic issues.”

Newham Council and the third sector have played their role. The onus is now on central government to protect working families from poverty and exploitation.

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ENVS3044 Cities and Social Change Aadil Champsi and Justin Yim ‘Just about managing’: Newham’s struggles with private renting

Word Count: 1,550 words

Bibliography

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Photos Sources 1. LB Newham. Photo of shower in home. n.d. Property Licensing and Smart Enforcement in Newham ­ Anthoney Quinn. London. https://www.housingrights.org.uk/sites/default/files/Anthoney%20Quinn%20Presentation %20PRS%202015.pdf 2. LB Newham. Photo of toilet in home. n.d. Property Licensing and Smart Enforcement in Newham ­ Anthoney Quinn. London. https://www.housingrights.org.uk/sites/default/files/Anthoney%20Quinn%20Presentation %20PRS%202015.pdf