Benefit drop prices thousands out of rental market
Tuesday, 3 January 2012 3:07 PM
Housing benefit cuts that start this year will put 800,000 homes out of the reach of low-income families, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).
The research published in The Guardian examines the impact of capping payments of the local housing allowance by bedroom size (for example £250 a week for a two-bed home) and restricting payments to the cheapest 30 per cent of rents.
It warns that there will thousands more claimants than homes that are affordable on benefits alone and that the result could be migration to cheaper benefit ghettoes in seaside towns and the north of England.
The problem will be worst in Central London, where 35,000 homes in Kensington and Chelsea will be put out of reach of people on housing benefit, and will also hit outer London boroughs like Croydon and Newham.
But the impact will be felt around the country, with more claimants than homes that are affordable in cities like Birmingham and Manchester too.
Grainia Long, interim chief executive of the CIH, told The Guardian that the welfare changes would see "for the first time more people chasing homes than the market currently provides".
Another benefit cut that started on Monday will see the age for restrictions on housing benefit payments for single people on a shared accommodation rate raised to 35. The government estimates that 62,500 people will lose an average of £41 per week as a result.
Want to be the first to know when we break a story? Follow @AboutProperty and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.
