4. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Supporting Local Housing Authorities to secure long term housing options in the Private Rented Sector

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:12 pm on 5 November 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:12, 5 November 2019

Yes, again, I largely agree with the premise of your questions. So, just to be really clear, what we're asking them to do is accept the local housing allowance as rent in return for a guarantee of that rent without voids or any other detriment across a five-year period. We know from conversations with the Residential Landlords Association and other landlords through Rent Smart Wales that that's an offer that many of them will want to take up. So, just to be clear, we are not subsidising a higher rent; what we are doing is guaranteeing it over a five-year period. As I said, we are hoping that it will also increase the standard in the private rented sector, because people will have to bring their property up to the required standard in order to be able to rent it in this way and, in return, again, they get the five-year guarantee.

The security of tenure is an issue. So, tenants will be given security of tenure. The local authority will have to rehouse them should, for whatever reason, they have to exit it. So they would be expected to put a plan in place to do that. But I would expect, if the exit was because of sale, that the local authority would seriously consider purchasing the property and bringing it into the social rented sector. There may be other reasons, like the landlord requiring it for themselves, for example, in which case the homelessness duties would kick in and all the notice provisions would kick in and that family would have to be rehoused within the secure tenure estate.

So, I think it's a win-win, really, to be honest. It brings empty properties back into beneficial use; it allows owners who wouldn't otherwise have the cash to bring those properties up to standard; it gives us a much-needed extra area in which local authorities can discharge their Part 3 duty to families; it gives the families security of tenure; it does, as I said to David Melding, encourage people to understand that, just because somebody's on benefits, it doesn't mean that they're a bad tenant. It ticks lots and lots of boxes, it seems to me, and I do hope that, in the way that Jobs Growth Wales showed employers that young people were worth employing, this will show landlords that people on benefits are worth having as tenants.