The accommodation availability gap

By Kathryn Rose

During the four years I have been a student, it has been easy to find accommodation; in fact the choice has been impressively vast and there were frequently many bed spaces left over. However, without a job the vast array of flats on offer dwindles into a few that landlords say they might consider you for. Labour endeavored to increase the amount of homes available to people receiving DSS and tried to help young people find work through investment in employment schemes. Now the coalition have reversed the investment in young people’s futures and appear to be trying to scare young people into work through threatening their benefits. There is no point in trying to scare young people into finding employment when there are not the jobs available for them to apply for; it is because so many of the available jobs lie in a few niche areas that many will find themselves on DSS, and as Lib-Con apathy towards our career prospects keeps young people on the dole, the problem increases.

Students can get their rent from the state (maintenance grants) and people on DSS can likewise get their rent from the state; some students break things, drink and show contempt for their neighbours as do some people on DSS. What is it that makes people on DSS so much less attractive to so many landlords than the students who frequently get their money from the same source?

DSS is considered to be a less reliable source of payment for landlords than maintenance loans are. I’m sure you can see it is ludicrous that when two areas are being run by two parts of the state one set of beneficiaries receives a service that is much more trusted than the other. If we can use the lessons of one system to improve the other then maybe some of those surplus bed spaces that students are not using can be given to people on DSS rather than remaining empty whilst people on DSS struggle to find homes.

I raised this issue at a leadership contest-related meeting with David Miliband this week. David did endeavour to answer my question, and I was later approached by a lady who had seen this situation from the landlord’s perspective. The lady informed me that there are a range of places which would insure landlords against damages by people who aren’t on DSS; but there are very few indeed who will insure landlords who do take on tenants on DSS.

This problem is of course exacerbated by the Conservatives’ public contempt for those who do need to accept benefits whilst searching for work: the poster published on ConservativeHome with a picture of the Gallaghers from ‘Shameless’ stating that “I’ve never voted Labour before but I can see the benefits” is characteristic of this contempt.

I hope that, in the future, a Labour government will make it easier for private landlords to get insurance, maybe through some underwriting of such insurance, and assist them to rent-out their properties to people on DSS whilst amending the benefit payment system. One thing that we can be certain of is that, despite Con-Lib prioritisation of cutting people’s jobs rather than raising taxes for high-earners, the only hope that this inequality in housing provision will be addressed lies with Labour as the only progressive party remaining.