The government has promised to take action on rogue landlords who exploit vulnerable residents and rip off taxpayers by charging excessive rents met by housing benefit.

Housing Minister Rushanara Ali said it would finish the job of the last government following the introduction of the Support Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act last year. Supported – or exempt - accommodation is non-commissioned and unregulated supported housing where tenants include ex-prisoners and domestic abuse survivors. Landlords can apply for provider status, exempting them from local licensing regulations and housing benefit caps, meaning that councils have few powers to act over the quality and safety of homes or how tenants are treated.

Safety hazards

During a House of Commons debate, Birmingham Edgbaston Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill said the city council had discovered more than 10,000 category 1 and 2 health and safety hazards in exempt properties since 2020, 97% of which had now been removed. Overpaid housing benefit of more than £7.23 million had been reclaimed and more than 2,600 claims were cancelled due to poor standards.

She said: “Over the past decade, too many bad landlords have been getting into the sector for precisely the wrong reasons. They have exploited under-regulation, a Conservative housing crisis and an epidemic of unmet need after years of council cuts.”

Locally led

The Housing Minister (right) told MPs it would soon consult on a locally led national licensing regime that would enforce a set of national support standards in England and add further conditions to ensure rogue providers could not continue to operate.

“Conditions will include a fit and proper test for licensees, conditions relating to the condition and use of the accommodation, and a condition requiring all residents to have had their needs assessed,” she explained. “Those conditions will ensure that only good-quality supported housing is licensed and allowed to continue to operate.”

Ali added: “We are determined to take action to put a stop to this appalling problem that has blighted communities and put vulnerable people at risk of harm.”

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