For the Dispatches programme, Landlords from Hell, Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, writes:
With a chronic shortage of social housing and millions priced out of the housing market, private renting is fast becoming the only option for a more and more people in this country. Yet standards are the worst of any type of housing. Our survey of environmental health officers who deal directly with tenants in the private rental sector showed 90% had encountered cases of severe damp, mould and electrical or fire safety hazards in properties they investigated last year.
Behind the stats are real human stories of people suffering in squalor. Take the case of Claire, who moved into a two-bed property with her partner and baby. When they arrived the house was in a terrible state with broken windows and gas fires literally falling off the walls, which all posed a serious risk to her family's health. The landlord promised to fix the problems, yet, after eight months of distress the repairs hadn't been done, and even more problems came up.
The family are currently squeezed into one bedroom because the other bedroom is so damp the wallpaper is peeling off and black mould stains soak the remaining sections of the wall.
Claire, unfortunately, is not alone. We have seen complaints about landlords increase 22% over the past twelve months, with issues including shocking levels of damp and disrepair and complaints from tenants being harassed by private landlords increasing by a quarter.
These figures raise serious questions about how rogue landlords are still able to operate freely, preying on the most vulnerable and leaving tenants to live in properties that could be a serious danger to their health and wellbeing. With the number of households privately renting now at 3.4 million - a massive 40% rise over the past five years - it is absolutely unacceptable that this vast population of private tenants is completely unprotected from a minority of rogue landlords who make their lives hell.
And unfortunately things look set to get worse. Cuts to housing benefit and changes in the localism bill that will put homeless families into the private rental sector will see an influx of the poorest and most vulnerable pushed to the bottom end of the market. This could create an imbalance between supply and demand for properties, and see some rogue landlords exploiting tenants who have little choice of who to rent from.
Our research and the Dispatches programme Landlords from Hell seriously throw into question the housing minister's claim that 'the vast majority of England's three million private tenants are happy with the service they receive.' Clearly, the evidence we have gathered, and that shown in the programme, demonstrates this is simply not the case.
With Government policy pushing more and more people towards the private rental sector, it seems entirely negligent of the housing minister not yet to have produced any clear and significant commitment to tackle rogue landlords. It is imperative that the minister acts now and works closely with all local authorities to ensure they use every weapon in their armoury to crack down on these unscrupulous operators. The growing population of private tenants need and deserve better protection than this.
