Everywhere you turn now there seems to be new flats being built but most of these are part buy part rent.

According to the charity Shelter the housing crisis is becoming worse every year and the amount of social housing is the lowest in 70 years. Vulnerable people are in fear of becoming homeless because they cannot afford the high extortionate rents that private landlords charge.

Social housing provides stability of a permanent home without the worry of being evicted without little notice, 1.2 million people have their name on the social housing register.

The other issue which is really worrying and has also been investigated by Shelter is the discrimination that is faced if you are on housing benefit. The charity Shelter has a petition asking landlords to stop discriminating against people on housing benefit, and also a petition to ask for more social housing. According to their investigations most private landlords will not accept housing benefit.

An undercover investigation was carried out by some mystery shoppers, 149 regional letting agencies were called by people posing as prospective tenants. A shocking 1 in 10 had a branch policy of not allowing anyone to rent a home on housing benefit. The worst was Haart with an outright ban.

The failure of successive governments to build enough social housing means that an estimated 1.64 million adults now rely on social housing and housing benefit. Two housing associations have joined forces to urge landlords to remove their bans.

The majority of women affected are single mothers and also people with disabilities who need a housing benefit top up.

Consequently, under the Equality Act 2010 letting agents who reject housing benefit tenants, may be at risk of breaking the law and indirectly discriminating against women and disabled people.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said “This ugly undercurrent of discrimination, is wreaking havoc on hundreds of thousands of lives No DSS is outdated, and an outrageous example of blatant discrimination”. David Orr, CEO of the National Housing Federation which represents social landlords of around 6 million people said “Many housing associations were set up in the 1950’s or 1960’s to house people due to blatant racism, from private landlords, charities like Shelter find it impossible to help their clients.

Obviously, this needs to change if you would like to make a difference then please sign the petitions below:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/build_more_social_housing

https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/dss