Problems with private renting caused a steady stream of clients to ask CARBS for advice in the year to March 2018.
Of more than 1100 housing issues – everything from housing benefit to council tax – the highest number (24%) concerned problems with the private rented sector.
It’s significant, though not surprising, that the majority of clients were in the younger age groups (chart below).
For young adults in East Surrey and nationwide, finding a secure home in which to bring up a family is proving more and more difficult.
New research from the Resolution Foundation* shows 1.8 million families with children living in privately rented accommodation, an astonishing 3-fold increase since the early 2000s.
The most common problems facing our clients in private renting help explain why anyone, and above all parents, would find their situation intolerable – inadequate accommodation, (in)security of tenure and possession orders.
Resolution is calling among other things for longer-term tenancies, housing benefit reform, and more 20- and 30-somethings to see home ownership as a realistic prospect once again.
Some of this is (still) controversial. But demand for more effective regulation and fiscal measures more suited to the present, blindingly obvious need, is becoming irresistible.
* Home improvements, Resolution Foundation, April 2018