To: the Hyde Group Board and Executive Management Team
From: Hyde residents represented by Hyde Southbank Resident Forum, Kennington Park Estate TRA, Stockwell Gardens East TRA, Stockwell Gardens West TRA and Edrich House Residents’ Association
4 January 2016 Please reply to: kpetamail@gmail.com
Dear
The Housing & Planning Bill
We are writing to you on behalf of Hyde’s tenants in Stockwell and Kennington to express our deep concern about the Housing & Planning Bill, and in particular about its ‘Pay to Stay’ provisions.
‘Pay to Stay’ will neither add to Hyde’s income nor meet Hyde’s objectives of building sustainable, diverse communities.
We understand that the Government has determined that ‘Pay to Stay’ should be ‘voluntary’ for Housing Associations and we would like to explain why we think it would be inappropriate and indeed counterproductive for you to implement such a policy in respect of your tenants in inner London.
We say inner London because that is where we live and where we represent our communities and neighbours. We are not arguing that we are a special case. Nor that ‘Pay to Stay’ is the only part of the Housing & Planning Bill that we oppose. However, we believe that this particular aspect of the Bill will have its most deleterious effect here because of the inflated and artificial level of market rents in the surrounding area.
Our estates and streets have a long history of providing secure, affordable, decent quality homes for families. They are communities where a mixture of people live together in relative harmony and respect. On the whole, they are stable, well-integrated, inclusive communities where we value our homes and contribute to our communities in many different ways. They are not ghettos of the poor and dispossessed.
The Government’s ‘Pay to Stay’ proposals will have the effect of damaging and dividing our communities and it could ultimately destroy them.
We understand the intense financial pressure under which the Government is placing Housing Associations. And we understand that, at first glance, ‘Pay to Stay’ may look as though it could go a little way towards helping your bottom line. This is not the case.
As far as we know no official impact study has been carried out. However, we can tell you its likely impact first hand.
Hyde’s rents are about £500 per month. The average monthly rent in London is now at least £1,500 per month, three times more. The market rent in our area is in the region of £2,000 to £3,500 per month – four to seven times more. But these market rents are not like for like. Homes built for families are being let per room to childless single people and couples. Charging by room means private landlords squeeze in as many people as they can to maximise profits. This is leading to overcrowding and disrepair. And fewer homes for families with children or elderly or disabled dependents.
What it also means, however, is that the tenants in these properties are not each paying that £2,000 to £3,500 monthly ‘market’ rent that the Government’s plans would have us pay for our family homes. As we say, it is not like for like. Any comparison is a fallacy.
There are no such people as ‘rich tenants’. The people ‘Pay to Stay’ will hit will be nurses, teachers, tube and train drivers, social workers, electricians, carpenters, administrators, lorry drivers, cab drivers, paramedics, probation officers, opticians, police and prison officers – even your own housing officers. It could hit a couple earning the London Living Wage, and claiming child benefit and child tax credits – even housing benefit. It could hit pensioners on fixed occupational pensions. In other words, ordinary working families, the people who pay their rent and are the backbone of our communities, will be forced out of their homes.
None of the people we represent will be able to afford such rents. They will fall into arrears very, very quickly and will face eviction. Being one pay cheque – or one pay rise – away from homelessness will become more than a truism for a family faced with a fourfold rent increase, which, we repeat, would be in the region of an increase from £6,000 to £24,000 per annum.
Where will they live? The private sector will be charging at least that self-same market rent as the Hyde rent they can’t afford, probably more if there are children involved. Saving for a deposit to buy will be unthinkable. The choice will become a home or a job. Is that what Hyde wants for its tenants? Essential workers will be driven out of London. Adult children will be evicted to reduce the household income. Hard-working families, as politicians like to call them, will be punished for aspiring to get decent jobs for themselves and their children.
Who will replace those evicted? Working families won’t be able to afford the new rents, so Hyde’s new tenants will only come from amongst those working below the Living Wage or on benefits. Not that housing benefit will continue to be any kind of safety net, either for tenants or for Hyde’s income stream. It is already being reported that 90% of social housing tenants on Universal Credit are in rent arrears – and that’s before the cuts to housing benefit and the housing element of Universal Credit that are in the pipeline. And once someone is in arrears, it is well-nigh impossible to get back into credit.
Introducing means testing into the relationship between landlord and tenant will inevitably result in unnecessary conflict. The costs of implementing and administering a scheme where the most minute change in a tenant’s circumstances could result in a dramatic rent hike could easily outweigh any return.
We repeat, ‘Pay to Stay’ will neither add to Hyde’s income nor meet Hyde’s objectives of building sustainable, vibrant communities – places that people are proud to call ‘home’.
We therefore call on you to stick to Hyde’s founding principles, to lead the way and agree not to implement ‘Pay to Stay’.
Yours sincerely
Elaine Kramer, Chair, Hyde Southbank Resident Forum
Joan Twelves and Marilyn Evers, Chair and Secretary, Kennington Park Estate TRA
Shawn Collick, Stockwell Gardens East TRA
Vincent Manning, Chair, Stockwell Gardens West TRA (in a personal capacity)
Linda Hussein and Olive Miller, Chair and Deputy Chair, Edrich House Residents’ Association
*****************************************************
This is the Hyde Group’s reply
