Private landlords have responded angrily to accusations made by leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn, over comments he made over housing benefit.
In his Labour conference speech, Mr Corbyn commented that landlords in the UK are being subsidised by £9bn of this benefit.
Figures
Official budget figures for 2014/15 show that total housing benefit spending for social rented tenants totalled £15.2bn, significantly greater than the £9.1bn for those in the private rental sector.
This is despite the private rental sector actually being larger than the social.
The English Housing Survey for 2014/15 indicates that 19% of households are in the private rental sector, in comparison to 17% in the social sector.
Figures on benefit spending by tenure were also published alongside the Budget earlier in 2016. This data shows that the total housing benefit expenditure for the year 2014/15 was:
- £5,989,000,000 for local authority tenants
- £9,222,000,000 for housing association tenants [1]
Landlords react angrily to Corbyn’s comments on housing benefit
Spending
Commenting on Mr Corbyn’s speech, David Smith, Policy Director for the Residential Landlords Associaiton, said: ‘Millions of tenants rely on housing benefit in both the private and the social housing sectors, but proportionately far more is spent on social housing tenants than those in private accommodation.’[1]
‘With the private rental market having doubled in size since 2002, it is inevitable that more housing benefit claimants will be living in the sector,’ he added.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2016
[2] Residential Landlords Association Press Release, 28.09.16