Looking to the private sector
Stephen Convill looks at the lessons so far from a pilot project in Denbighshire on the discharge of the homelessness duty into the private rented sector
With more than one eye on the forthcoming Housing Bill, Denbighshire Council’s housing options team is setting about redefining its relationship with local private sector landlords, against a background of austerity. Good luck, you chorus!
Similarly to Conwy and Gwynedd, Denbighshire has a relatively large private rented sector (16 per cent, according to the 2011 Census) as opposed to social rented sector (13 per cent). As elsewhere, it is not a uniform picture. There are HMOs and swathes of bungalows in Rhyl and holiday lets in Llangollen and the surrounding areas. Many landlords live in, or near, London, so attendance at Landlords Forums can be problematic.
We must know how our local market is stratified so we can target our efforts at the most affordable properties. Our plans involve firstly talking to landlords about what they think of our ideas and do they have any of their own. Our secret weapon is a landlord who will cajole their peers into responding to our survey.
We desperately need the private rented sector, particularly to rehouse single people with only 21 ‘non-sheltered’ one-bedroom allocations last year. We deploy a range of strategies – deposits, bonds, social lettings, reward schemes – with varying success. Move on arrangements from Supporting People accommodation are insufficient to maximise the potential of these projects, which are essential to need to meet new ‘Housing Act’ prevention duties.
Our transition to a cashless or low cost incentive regime will largely depend on the success of a proposed approved tenant scheme (a certificated portfolio of tenancy skills acquired while staying in supported accommodation) and a plain language landlord and tenancy pack. Since the average reading age of Denbighshire residents is 11, a standard legalese tenancy agreement is only a slight improvement on Latin! Ten Dos and Don’ts make much more sense.
An encore? Persuade landlords to let family houses to sharers!
Stephen Convill is senior housing options officer at Denbighshire County Council