Local councils pay tens of hundreds of thousands a yr on one-off incentive funds to non-public landlords to house the homeless, analysis from marketing campaign group Generation Rent says.
The physique despatched Freedom of Information requests to all 32 London councils that present statutory homelessness providers and the ten councils outdoors the capital with the most important homeless obligations.
“These are one-off funds, separate to housing profit,” the physique provides.
Councils collectively paid non-public landlords incentives on 10,792 events in 2024/25, spending over £31m, averaged between the 37 authorities that responded.
This is a median of 292 incentive funds a yr for every council with a median annual spend of almost £850,000.
The high 5 councils with the very best annual spends have been:
The high 5 highest single incentives paid to non-public landlords have been:
In London, the 27 councils that responded spent over £24m on landlord incentives in the identical interval, a median spend of over £900k per council.
The final time information on landlord incentives was collected in the capital was seven years in the past.
Compared to 2018, the general cash spent by councils in London has jumped 54% to £8.5m.
Also, in 2018, just one London council reported paying an incentive of £10,000 or extra.
But now six London councils reported paying £10,000 or extra for a single incentive cost.
Generation Rent chief government Ben Twomey says: “The rental market is just like the wild west. Landlords are sometimes a legislation unto themselves, rigging the system to line their very own pockets on the expense of individuals experiencing homelessness and the native councils which are attempting to house them.
“The hovering value of renting and the federal government’s choice to freeze the Local Housing Allowance has put councils throughout the nation in a close to unimaginable place.
“In a determined bid to keep away from putting folks in momentary lodging, they’re compelled to pay particular person landlords generally tens of hundreds of kilos only for them to agree to lease out their house. It’s a mindless waste of our public cash.”
The National Residential Landlords Association has additionally referred to as for an uprating of the Local Housing Allowance and the top to the five-week await Universal Credit in the beginning of a declare.
The affiliation provides: “Private renting offers badly wanted properties for weak and low-income tenants.
“The non-public rented sector has been more and more relied on by tenants who’re unable to entry social housing due to an absence of provide.”
