London politicians are warning of a crackdown on landlords taking advantage of the city’s most vulnerable

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

Sem Moema, London Assembly member for Waltham Forest (credit: LDRS)

Rogue landlords operating in the “wild west” of supported housing have been warned that their time is up.

On Monday, 20th March, Parliament heard new work is underway to hold exploitative landlords, who take advantage of loopholes for those housing some of London’s most vulnerable residents, to account.

Supported housing – intended for residents in need of extra support, such as disabled people or those fleeing domestic abuse – is exempt from the usual caps on how much housing benefit its residents can receive in order to fund that additional care.

However, a new report from the London Assembly reveals some housing providers are taking advantage of this exemption to charge exorbitant rents, knowing they will be covered by benefits, while severely neglecting their tenants.

The report, titled ‘Unsafe and unregulated: London’s rogue supported housing providers’, describes a particularly shocking case in Havering, which resulted in two people being killed.

Sem Moema, the London Assembly member for Waltham Forest, said: “There were two homicides that took place in a very inappropriately mixed accommodation unit, part of that [problem] is because boroughs just don’t know people are there until the police show up.”

Bob Blackman, Tory MP for Harrow East, put forward a Private Member’s Bill, currently making its way through the House of Lords, which seeks to better regulate the sector.

Mr Blackman said his bill would “tame” the “wild west” of exempt accommodation, adding: “Our aim is very simple. We’re going after the rogue landlords. We want to minimise the impact on the good landlords who do a good job [but] if you’re a rogue landlord, your time is coming to an end, simple as that.”

Jasmine Basran, head of policy and campaigns at the charity Crisis, said: “What we’re really concerned about is we’ve seen a really astronomical growth of landlords who are saying they will support people into safe homes with the additional help they might need, because they might have fled domestic abuse, or left prison, or have mental health support needs.

“Instead of doing that, these landlords are taking the additional money, when they’re meant to support people, and spending it for themselves.

“People are living in really appalling accommodation. We’ve seen people living with mould, in dirty accommodation, but the worst is that they’re also experiencing intimidation and abuse and harassment.

“So these are people who are already vulnerable and then they’re being effectively bullied by their landlords. They’re being exploited. We cannot let this continue.”

A spokeswoman for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor has long called for more investment [from the government] in the specialist and supported housing sector and he is grateful that the Assembly’s report shines a light on poor quality accommodation….

“City Hall officers are looking at these recommendations in detail and the Mayor will be writing to [the] government urging them for more investment and support.”

A spokesman at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities responded: “It is unacceptable that unscrupulous landlords are trying to profit at the expense of vulnerable people and exploiting the housing benefit system…

“We are backing legislation that will give councils more powers to enforce higher standards and, where needed, ban poorly performing landlords. This is alongside £20 million investment to drive up quality in the supported housing sector and protect the most vulnerable in society.”

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