UK highest for homelessness in developed world.

Witzend I agree Labour should have ensured money from the sale of council houses was invested in new social housing.
I’ll never forgive the LibDems for announcing once out of coalition they now knew more and the bedroom tax should be abolished
My hope is for a less punitive government, one that will invest in public services , including the probation and prison services to ensure alternatives to custody and more rehabilitation in prisons

Another factor affecting the housing market is the increasing use of houses as short term holiday lets in tourist areas. There has been a marked increase in this over the last few years.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61966359

Perhaps, as a temporary measure, short term lets and AirB&Bs should be more carefully monitored and perhaps a govt incentive given to them being used for long term lets/tenancies.

Rents are only part of the issue, short term and rolling tenancies don’t help giving renters zero security.

In many other countries tenancies are far far longer giving renters security, resulting in many of them treating the home with respect and improving it as one would with an owned property.

MaizieD

Another factor affecting the housing market is the increasing use of houses as short term holiday lets in tourist areas. There has been a marked increase in this over the last few years.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61966359

Crossed posts! I agree.

Net migration in 2022 was 745, 000 and not expected to be much less for 2023 ( numbers expected to be announced soon) Just to house these 1,500,000 new arrivals we would need to have approx built roughly 400,000 homes working on 4 people per home. In addition we don't have enough accommodation for the population already here. Is it any surprise that we have so many homeless.

I once read an article which stated that the number of properties purchased by foreigners in the UK is only 250,000 which is a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of properties in the UK.

It doesn’t help when you now have single people still living in three or four bedroom social housing because children have left home. Surely these single people should be moved into 1 or 2 bedroomed places freeing up larger properties? I know it’s a contentious issue as these are peoples “homes” but with many families living in very cramped and overcrowded homes what’s the alternative? I know three single people still living in 3 bedroom social housing.

I think there should be a law that says if a house comes on the market and a first-time buyer offers the same as someone wanting to buy to let, then the first-time buyer should get it. My DD got her first home because the kind lady vendor wanted to sell it to someone who would live in it and appreciate it. The vendor had other offers from would-be landlords but turned them down. My DD could not believe her luck.

I remember a man on a beach near Calais, some years ago, quite well dressed, family with him, being interviewed on local tv, (Kent), why he was trying to get to England.
His answer? ‘They give me house.’

I think that's an excellent idea.

The homeless have to be helped but not sure that any government is up to that. More money put into mental health would be a good call.

The atrocious provision of social housing since the ‘right to buy’ legislation was introduced under Thatcher, shames our country. Subsequent governments, including those of Labour, have never altered this. There is also the failure, again by successive governments, to facilitate the building of much needed and much promised housing of any description. Restrictive planning regulations and blatant NIMBYism and cronyism don’t help. Of course huge, seemingly unregulated, legal migration has long been permitted. Visas have been issued willy nilly for years, often under the guise of study and with absolutely no thought for the resulting impact on public services and the existing population. Small boat problems are a drop in the ocean in comparison but are obviously expensive. Not to mention illegal immigration which will not show up in any official statistics. The problems go way back but are resulting in failing public services all across the board as well as a real housing emergency that is not being addressed in any way either now or in the past. The media et al do not dare report the stark truth-we are on the way to becoming a failed state and I do not know what can be done without robust governmental intervention which I don’t think the Conservatives, let alone Labour, have the stomach or the money for.

My son had two buy to let flats, one bedroom , nice area, well decorated with white goods. He was a good landlord and knew who was living there. If there was a problem it was dealt with straight away. He has now sold them both because it is getting more and more unattractive to be a landlord and just not worth the risk of perhaps getting tenants who either don’t pay or do damage or if really unlucky, both. He feels really sorry that he is adding to the problem of there being so few properties available to rent but also relieved that he can now just invest his money in a high interest account and not have the hassle. There must be very many doing the same. The government in the last few years have changed legislation to favour the tenants .

Not sure if so called 'no fault' evictions are the issue - if landlords now have to give a reason and go to court to get their property back then the stigma will follow any tenant who has been evicted for antisocial behaviours, failing to pay rent, damage to the property etc. At the moment this sort of tenant is moved on without a reason being given. If no fault eviction isn't available then the case will have to go to court, leaving a record which won't help that tenant find another place to rent. The issue is that the government has been failing to take responsibility for social housing, selling council housing and expecting housing to be provided by private landlords who want to make money from investing this way! Then they tax the landlord so they no longer make enough profit for the investment in property to be worthwhile, then threaten to put in rent caps and remove the owners right to get their property back, and make it even more difficult and stressful and expensive to get rid of a bad tenant (who may be using/dealing drugs, making unbearable noise and disruption to their neighbours, threatening and aggressive, and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to the property as well as not paying rent, landlords don't generally want to
evict good tenants) and so landlords will sell up and make different investments as it's often not worth the stress and effort. It's absolutely the wrong model of housing provision, but it not going to be solved by removing so called 'no fault evictions'.

The requirement for any rental property to have an EPC rating of at least C is ridiculous and will only lead to landlords whose properties don’t come up to that standard selling up. At present a property has to have an F rating before it can’t be rented out so that’s a huge jump. I wonder how many homes owned by posters here, which aren’t fairly new, have a C rating? Mine is less than 10 years old, has full double glazing, lots of insulation and is all-electric powered by an air source heat pump, and was rated ‘C+’ when we bought it. Just how much would the average landlord have to spend on improvements, even if C rating is achievable?

A lady on our estate died 10 months ago. Her house was owned by housing association. It is still empty now, gardens overgrown damage done to doors and windows by people trying to get in, and no one from association even been round to check on it

How does landlords selling properties mean there are less properties? The houses and flats still exist. A glut of sold off rental properties could lead to a fall in house prices which would allow more people to buy.

Ilovecheese

How does landlords selling properties mean there are less properties? The houses and flats still exist. A glut of sold off rental properties could lead to a fall in house prices which would allow more people to buy.

I’m not sure it works that way.

To buy you need x deposit and x income.

To rent, you might need an income, but, unlike mortgages, it’s propped up with Universal `credit housing payments.

Unless house values collapsed, there will still be people that cannot buy.

Even with a fall in house prices people will still need to have a deposit and pass scrutiny for a mortgage, ilovecheese. There will always be people able to afford properties sold by landlords so a fall in house prices is by no means assured.

In a broader perspective, I think we have to realise that we are not only seeing the results of a the population increase here.

Since the 1970s family homes have tended to become larger, as families were no longer content to have sisters or brothers sharing rooms - each child in a family had to have his or her room. Bathrooms are another point - in our childhood you were fortunate if you lived in a house that did have a bathroom, and it was even better if there was both a bathroom and and extra toilet, now a lot family homes have more than one bathroom and other non-essential rooms such as a utitily room, a hobby room etc. etc.

I am not saying that we should go back to living four adutls an three children in two rooms and a kitchen with the toilet on the staircase and shared with three or four other families. but we could perhaps make do with just a little less space per family, thus perhaps decreasing housing costs.

Another change in lifestyle is that there are many single people living either in four or five roomed flats or in houses, alone, or with children or a partner coming at weekends.

If none of us are prepared to consider sharing our accomodation with others, obviously this will only increase the shortage of available housing.

Points worth considering, but I admit, I do not have a solution.

It seems developers are fixated on building more four and five bedroom houses and fewer two and three bedroom houses. Nowadays people think carefully about heating costs - even with double glazing, insulation and air- or ground- source heating pumps, such costs are a significant consideration.

GSM we had our flat re roofed and new insulation, internal wall insulation and efficient energy saving electric heaters installed. The windows and door are all double glazed.

There's no gas supply to the property and despite the heaters being top of the range, because they're not storage heaters using Economy 7, we were unable to reach a 'C' rating. Why? because the only box provided that could be ticked was for storage heaters.

It’s quite a nightmare. If you are reliant on a gas or, heaven forfend, oil (typical in rural areas) supply for heating, then as regards an energy rating you are stuffed. An open fire or log burner are no-go areas too.

My social housing landlord is heading towards either all electric heating/water, or gas pumps.

Neither will be a good fit for me. Electricity is very expensive and the noise from gas pumps wouldn’t play well in the small block I live in.

In this leafy London suburb, open fires and log burners are a bit of a no-no.

I don’t know.🙄

I don’t understand what gas pumps are.