Private landlords ‘rake in’ £9.3billion in housing benefit

The National Housing Federation (NHF) last week released data about the cost – borne by the taxpayer – of housing benefit, which has risen to £9.3billion, double the amount paid out 10 years ago and the Sunday newspapers knew that the public would be furious. Most of the Sunday papers inferred that the growth in costs was, once again, down to greedy landlords and unscrupulous agents who charge fees to tenants; once again ignoring the true situation, that there is a massive shortage of housing because councils and housing associations are not building enough social housing, builders are not building enough homes for people to buy and the Government’s Right to Buy scheme is removing more homes for the social sector than it is building. The view from the national press is that private landlords are getting rich quick, with their pockets lined by high rents paid by housing benefit. David Orr (left), Chief Executive at the National Housing Federation said: “It is madness to spend £9 billion of taxpayers’ money lining the pockets of private landlords rather than investing in affordable homes. “Housing associations want to build the homes nation needs. By loosening restrictions on existing funding, the Government…