"I can afford to pay the rent - most people can't"

[James]

Owen Jones: I can afford to pay the rent – most people can't






To get a two-bed place in Tower Hamlets you need 
more than double the median household income

I already knew that Britain was in the throes of 
an escalating housing crisis, but, on the move 
for the first time in two-and-a-half years and, 
having been protected from soaring rents by a 
benevolent landlord, I was in for an unwelcome 
meeting with reality. Looking for a modest 
two-bedroom place in London's Zone 2 – with a 
housemate who, appropriately enough, works for a 
housing charity – I found that a standard monthly 
individual rent was £800, even £900. One estate 
agent asked what our maximum budget was: when I 
suggested £700 each a month, he spluttered down 
the phone. How many can actually afford – and I 
mean "have sufficient money left over to have a 
decent existence after paying the landlord" – these sorts of rents?

Inevitably, I took to Twitter to vent. I was 
stunned by the response. Hundreds of furious 
Londoners bombarded me with their renting horror 
stories. One had a 35 per cent rent hike imposed 
on them at Christmas; another was forced to 
desert their Stockwell flat after a 40 per cent 
increase. "My tiny flat in the East End went up 
by £200 a month for the next occupants when I 
left," freelancer Scott Bryan tweeted me. "It was 
£600 already. Eyewatering." Another abandoned 
their own "tiny flat" in Zone 3 after their 
monthly rent went from £720 to £950.

Private landlords can do as they please, of 
course. Having a roof over your head is a basic 
human requirement and, when there is a lack of 
houses to go around, it is a need that can be 
exploited. A landlord knows that, if their 
tenants don't like an outrageous rent hike, their 
only option is to put themselves back at the 
mercy of the ever more pricey private renting market.

According to Shelter, annual rents in inner 
London went up by 7 per cent last year – or just 
under £1,000 for a two-bedroom house. When 
people's wages are flat-lining, that's a big hit. 
Of course, some landlords – like mine – can be 
benevolent; others ruthlessly profiteering. It is a complete lottery.

I'm no victim. I can afford a high rent, even if 
it rankles. That is not the case for most. The 
number of us privately renting has soared: One in 
six households now have private landlords. And it 
is no longer largely the preserve of students and 
young people. Indeed, the number of families with 
children forced to privately rent has nearly 
doubled in just five years to more than a 
million. They face the prospect of having to 
repeatedly move, disrupting the education and overall wellbeing of their kids.

Greedy landlords are fully aware that most cannot 
afford to pay their extortionate rents. But they 
also know that the taxpayer will step in and 
subsidise them with housing benefits. According 
to the Homes for London campaign, to get a 
two-bed place in Camden, you need an average 
monthly household income of £5,324; in Tower 
Hamlets – one of the poorest boroughs in Britain 
– it's £4,333, way over double Britain's median 
household income. It's the state that tops up the 
difference. Back in 2002, 100,000 private renters 
in London were claiming housing benefit; it 
soared to 250,000 by the time New Labour was booted out.

But Cameron's Government has decided to punish 
the tenant, imposing a housing benefit cap that 
will force many out of their homes. London is on 
course to be more like Paris: with a centre that 
is a playground for the affluent, while the poorest are confined to the edges.

Here are the consequences of Thatcher's 
ideological war on council housing. Her mentor, 
Keith Joseph, argued right-to-buy would spur on 
"embourgeoisement". Instead, it has left five 
million people languishing on social housing 
waiting lists, and millions at the mercy of 
private landlords. Council housing has been 
intentionally demonised as something to escape 
from, and the lack of stock to go around has left 
it prioritised for those most in need. We've come 
far from Nye Bevan's vision of council housing 
supporting mixed communities, replicating "the 
lovely feature of the English and Welsh village, 
where the doctor, the grocer, and the farm 
labourer all lived on the same street".

But rather than leave millions at the mercy of 
the mini autocrats of the rented sector, a new 
wave of council housing would offer accountable 
landlords, without the absurdity of market rates. 
Instead of wasting billions on housing benefit, 
we could spend it on building housing, creating 
jobs and stimulating the economy.

We could learn a lot about private renting from 
Germany. Local government sets the maximum rent 
for flats. The landlord cannot arbitrarily impose 
dramatic hikes; increases can only come in 
regulated steps. Such a solution would be good 
for the British taxpayer, bringing down the 
housing benefit bill without kicking the tenant. 
This ever-worsening housing crisis is just a 
striking example of a society based around the 
needs of profit, rather than people.

We were told the free market would liberate the 
individual: instead, it leaves them trapped by 
the whims of landlords, financially less free, 
and banished from entire communities. It is a con 
– and an expensive con at that.

<http://twitter.com/@OwenJones84>twitter.com/@OwenJones84
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