www.landlords.org.uk

National Landlords Association

PRS – it’s the future

Helping landlords meeting housing need

Richard Price

Director of Operations

National Landlords Association

www.landlords.org.uk

LHA and the small landlord

• LHA now supports over 1,212,590 people (Feb 2011)• A growth of 22 per cent (218,970) in just 12 months• The claimant figure has not plateaued, it continues to grow• Lack of jobs, redundancies, inflation in living costs continue to push people into

housing support

• 77 per cent of landlords have LHA tenants (NLA survey – June)• 37 per cent treat LHA tenancies on a ‘case-by-case’ basis• 8.6 per cent no longer let to LHA tenants at all (January 2011 – 5.7 per cent)

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The impact of welfare reform

• April LHA reforms and transition package:• No ‘big bang’ effect nationally but...• 1 in 5 landlords are not taking on new LHA tenants• 81 per cent of landlords concerned about LHA rates reduced to the 30th percentile

of market rents rather than the median • 1 in 4 landlords have reduced the number of LHA properties they let since January• 58 per cent said that they were planning to reduce the number of LHA properties

they let over the next two years• 90 per cent said that they could not afford to cut their rents in line with the

Government’s proposals

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A race to the bottom?

• The impact of April’s reforms will be ‘lumpy’• Tenants motivations will skewed to finding the cheapest accommodation • Moving to different unfamiliar areas will mean making decisions with less

local housing knowledge• No measure of ‘value for money’ in housing support• A move back to B&B?

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Working with landlords

• Engagement• Forums aren’t enough• Engagement needs to be two-way• 360-degree partnership

• Build long-term relationships • Deliver accreditation • Change perceptions.