 |
Rennie challenges Minister over local housing allowance
May 12, 2009 3:00 PM
Concerns from local landlords have been raised by West Fife's MP in Parliament. Landlords were concerned about the inability of housing benefit tenants to pay their rent following the introduction of new rules last year.
An estimated half of the UK's landlords are considering getting out of the housing benefit market because they have lost complete confidence in the system.
Speaking yesterday in the House of Commons, West Fife MP Willie Rennie challenged Work and Pensions Minister Kitty Usher MP over the Government's refusal to tackle the problem.
Commenting after the exchange Mr Rennie said:
"The new rules mean that tenants are often left unable to pay their rent. This is putting huge financial pressure on landlords who depend on the rent to cover the cost of the housing.
"Many landlords operate in the private-rented sector having struggled to sell their own homes and have had to become "reluctant landlords" without much knowledge of their rights and of the local housing allowance.
"As LHA tenants do not have to notify their landlord that they are receiving the allowance, landlords can be left with eight weeks of rent arrears. And in many cases the amount of arrears can accrue beyond that.
"Landlords are increasingly struggling to afford to rent homes to benefit tenants while many vulnerable tenants are struggling to deal with the shortfall between their rent and their LHA. This situation is completely unacceptable. The Government has a responsibility to both landlords and tenants to conduct an immediate review into the effectiveness of the local housing allowance."
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats