Our Clewer & Dedworth East candidate, Alison Carpenter has had a letter published in the Maidenhead Advertiser 13th April 2023 – read here about the plight of the residents renting houses in RBWM.
Local housing is an issue which I feel strongly about. I have lived experience in the private rental market. It is not fit for purpose. What are we to offer people locally? Families and individuals are waiting on an ever-growing social housing list. They wait in expensive emergency accommodation. There are the hidden households too; houses in which parents and adult children with partners all live and a whole legion of sofa surfers who aren’t counted in the figures.
The cost of housing locally has exacerbated this situation. Currently we rely on the private market to pick up the slack. This sometimes works, though it often doesn’t, if you have a pet, receive social welfare or your income doesn’t suit the multiplier. Then a No is what awaits. This is not only people out of work. This is those on lower incomes, those who work in shops, hospitality and social care, those who are disabled or are carers and those experiencing divorce and separation. They all need housing.
The ever-growing housing list can’t be fixed by the private market alone. We need more ambition! Everybody needs a safe, clean, warm, good quality and affordable home. Renters are being forced into rent poverty even from income brackets not usually associated with rent poverty, with private rent requiring an income multiplier of 30 times monthly rent.
We need to be clever and build sustainably and cost effectively. We need infill sites so that we protect the green belt as much as possible. We need secure contracts; a six-month tenancy is too short. A 3-year contract is all very well but 2 months’ notice is all that’s required. Two months’ notice is cruel to the tenant and forces them to uproot their whole life on a landlord whim. The recent mortgage rate hikes have led to monthly rental increases at eye watering rates in double and triple digits. With everything else going up there are few people even on average incomes who can afford this.
The system is so broken that landlords, who have benefitted from low rates for years are now selling their properties or raising rents by extortionate amounts, thus further negatively impacting the private rental market. Without more homes where will our children live? Will they be forced to move away? Public transport within and outside the borough is expensive and at times unreliable. What homes are we to offer the next generation?
