Written evidence submitted by Cornwall Council [IOC 349]

Cornwall Context:

General: Cornwall has higher than average levels of lower income households, households experiencing fuel poverty, self-employed persons and an older age profile, putting Cornwall at a greater risk of housing and health concerns. In June 2020, 44% of residents had seen their working hours decrease; 39% of residents had seen their income reduce; 12% of residents reported that they struggled to pay bills and 11% of residents reported that they struggled to pay rent or their mortgage.

Landlords and Tenants: in terms of housing tenure, roughly 18% of homes in Cornwall are in the private rented sector and 11% in the social rented sector.

Homelessness: since the start of lockdown the number of households in temporary accommodation has increased significantly. In terms of weekly numbers there are currently 507 households in TA - significantly higher than the usual 250-280 households experienced prior to lockdown.

The type of households in temporary accommodation has changed too. Prior to lockdown the majority of those in temporary accommodation were families with children as single people and childless couples were generally not accommodated unless they had support needs. Currently almost three quarters of those accommodated are single people or childless couples and families make up just over a quarter of those in temporary accommodation. Around 90% of the single people temporarily accommodated are new applicants at imminent risk of rough sleeping. This reflects the fragility of many people’s housing situations locally. The main reasons for their becoming homeless and/or at risk of rough sleeping tends to be family and friends no longer being able to accommodate them. In addition, a number of single people have lost tied accommodation as the service industries closed down. 

Every effort is being made to ensure that the numbers of households in temporary accommodation are reduced as quickly as is practicable by enabling people to move-on to more settled accommodation. This is incredibly challenging in an area like Cornwall with high housing costs. In addition, Cornwall sees an increasing level of competition from other seekers of accommodation such as relocation and for leisure/holiday purposes which may not be experienced elsewhere.

Rough sleeping: The number of people sleeping rough has increased slightly during lockdown – 24 immediately prior to Lockdown and currently 31 (15/11/2020). Of the 31 currently rough sleeping, 19 have had accommodation and lost it and/or have been offered accommodation and refused it. Each individual continues to receive assertive outreach support to encourage them to consider the housing options being made available to them.

How effective has the support provided by the Government been in addressing the impact of COVID-19 on tenants, landlords, rough sleepers and the homeless? 

General: Much of the support provided by the Government has been considered useful locally - there are however challenges that have impacted on the effectiveness of the support, including the frequency of Government guidance creating uncertainty and making it difficult to keep up to date with what is current policy. In addition, there was guidance which was then removed and not replaced for quite a period, leaving a ‘gap’ in guidance for hostels and supported accommodation. The Night shelter guidance for cold weather was very late in publication and long overdue in LA planning cycles which needed to start well in advance of 13th October 2020 (publication date).

Landlord & Tenants (social rented sector): Government support via extra DHP funds has supported many tenants of who have been negatively impacted financially by the Covid-19 Pandemic. We work closely with colleagues in CC Revenues and Assessments. The financial support goes beyond support with managing rent payments and has supported mental health stability by reducing the stress and worry of the arrears and how they will pay them off when they have a reduced income. It has also supported tenants in that they do not have to make a choice between paying rent or feeding their families.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping: Cornwall has welcomed the funding that has been made available to support rough sleepers and has successfully bid for funds from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme. However, the effectiveness of the support has been impacted somewhat and we offer the following points for consideration:

• ‘Everyone In’ reinforced the approach we were already adopting in Cornwall but its timing could have been better thought through (issued late on a Thursday with instruction to get everyone in by the end of the week i.e. Saturday).
• Our position in Cornwall during this same week was not helped as two national chain hotels (Travelodge and Premier Inn) used as non-commissioned emergency accommodation decided at very short notice to close despite being advised that they should remain open to assist local authorities – and we had to find accommodation within two days for an additional 51 households. Perhaps the communication to these types of accommodation providers could have been more an ‘instruction’ rather than guidance.
• The Government has made available some funding to support Cornwall’s housing response – mainly in relation to rough sleepers - but there remains a significant shortfall which puts the delivery of future services at significant risk:
• The cost of accommodating people temporarily comes at a direct cost to the Council as only a small proportion can be reclaimed through housing benefit for a room i.e. c. £114 per week/£16.29 per night when we are typically paying c£560 per week/£80 per night. This has meant that the amount accounted for within the Council’s General Fund budget to pay temporary accommodation costs for 2020/21, i.e. £2.5m, is no longer sufficient. The number of households in temporary and emergency accommodation has more than doubled and it is estimated we need to find an additional £2.7m at a time when the Council’s finances are already under intense pressure.
• There have also been other costs incurred by the Council such as additional staffing and in furnishing vacant homes for occupation.
• There has been significant focus to date on rough sleepers and rightly so but local authorities are also struggling to support other households in temporary accommodation and additional support is required to cover these additional costs. Measures such as mortgage holidays, furlough schemes and bans on evictions have meant that pent up demand for homelessness support is building and will inevitably ‘explode’ at some point. It is essential that we plan and prepare for this and seek to prevent homelessness wherever possible.
• The Housing Service has been successful in terms of bids to the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme. These include extending Cornwall’s five Covid-accommodation emergency sites to the end of March 2021 and working on schemes that will be available from April 2021. Cornwall welcomes the programme of continuous market engagement and hopes that this will mean we can move away from the previous short-term bidding rounds which although enabled programmes to be started also created uncertainty about any long-term sustainability.
• We did experience difficulties in getting some utilities onto sites that we hoped to set up as temporary sites and had to abandon certain plans – which was a shame as they were in places where rough sleepers wanted to remain and a reason why some have consistently refused accommodation.
• Testing for Covid-19 was not made available for a considerable length of time and is still not an easy option to smooth the pathway between existing clients, new clients and movement between houses and resettlement services.

• The difficulties in providing rapidly set up single sex emergency accommodation for women and children with covid-19 symptoms/positive tests requiring self-isolation and who need to immediately flee domestic abuse.
• To support people not returning to rough sleeping and to end rough sleeping, a long-term financial commitment rather than short-term pockets of funding to enable proper strategic planning and employment assurance to staff that this is a sector they should work in.
• Coordination of funding streams rather than dispersed funding pots, for example, during the pandemic there has been funding through PHE for drugs and alcohol, NHSE for mental health and MHCLG for Next Steps, Protect and Cold Weather – all aimed at the same cohort but with different bid deadlines and announcement dates. This means it is hard to have a coordinated strategic approach as you are submitting bids without knowing whether another bid has been successful and there is overlap between the remits of the funding streams.

• Funding bids could also be restrictive. Local authorities are best placed to identify solutions to meet the needs of people sleeping rough in their local areas but funding streams were restrictive in terms of what could be funded. In some cases, we were told that a proposal would best fit with another funding stream but that funding stream was not open for bids at that time.
• Market capacity – additional accommodation provision, prevention work, move-on work and support to people with complex needs requires additional staffing but there market capacity is limited and the short-term nature of the funding offers no job security and presents risks in the later stages of projects as staff seek alternative employment.

Private Rented Sector: Much of the support provided has been effective such as introducing mortgage holidays, furlough schemes and the ban on evictions – but there are limits on what this support has achieved and there continues to be concern (based on local survey results) around:

• Continuing rental loss and the impact this has on the landlord. A survey amongst landlords in Cornwall found that 57% of landlords had lost rental income (compared to 29% in the national survey) with the most common reason for loss due to the property being vacated or the tenant being furloughed. 1 in 5 landlords had set up repayment plans with their tenants with half of them believing that they will not be able to recover the non-payment of between 2 and 4-months’ rent.
• 75% of landlords rely on rental income to support own living costs and about a third are considering leaving the sector within the next year which will inevitably increase demand on social housing and homelessness approaches. As one landlord commented - ‘it’s [covid-19] just one more nail in the coffin – add that to the endless changes and cost implications of new regulations – small landlords are finding it difficult (and increasingly stressful) to keep up with regulations and make a reasonable return in this sector’. Areas like Cornwall have other options for landlords, such as letting their property as a holiday let, for which they can charge significantly higher rents even if over a shorter portion of the year – and with the increasing swap to ‘staycations’ there is a danger that this valuable source of housing for local households will reduce.
• 8% of landlords have served notice seeking property possession and a further 9% intend to pursue serving notice when legally enabled to do so.
• Lockdown delayed inspections – and complaints are double that of last year – and this may have knock on consequences in terms of the capacity to ensure that properties are safe for people to live in. Landlords that live remotely to their property have not been able to travel to undertake repairs during lockdown and tenants may have been reluctant to allow access at other times.
• Loss of rent may have an impact on the ability of smaller landlords to afford needed improvements.
• HMO landlords are more concerned about being able to find new tenants with 20% severely concerned and HMO landlords are more likely to feel that government support for businesses has not been helpful.
• Landlords feeling that the stay in evictions hasn’t helped them where the tenants were in excessive rent arrears particularly where they were already going through the court process and have received no rent at all during this time.
• There is anecdotal evidence of some tenants misunderstanding the governments advice and completely stopping rent payments.

What might the impact be of a second wave of coronavirus on homelessness and the private rented sector?             

A number of impacts have been identified:

• More illegal evictions.

• More tenants in rent arrears leading to increased evictions in 2021.
• Increased financial frustrations for both landlords and tenants from job losses & furloughed pay leading to rent arrears. In terms of landlords, we have received an increased number of queries from them about the procedures for serving notice on their tenants since Covid began. In many cases they are reluctant but feel that they have little choice. In terms of tenants, a number may even not be aware of the change to the procedures around evictions and/or be aware that a possession order should be sought by the landlord so some tenants may be leaving their property on the date given by their landlord (although if they seek homelessness advice they will be made aware of the rules).
• Supply and demand for contractors, delays in getting non-urgent repairs done, etc. which can lead to increased complaints.
• Increasing numbers of tenants at risk of homelessness will lead to increased number of households seeking support with their homelessness, putting additional pressure on local housing registers or increased need for deposit bonds, etc.
• There is also the likelihood that a prolonged lockdown could lead to a number of landlords leaving the sector, to which we have heard a small number considering this, and a percentage of those properties not returning back into the rental market.
• The impact future lockdowns may have on a property in respect of landlord inspections, increased use of a property through home working/schooling and whether standards may fall. A number of landlords have mentioned their difficulties in visiting the properties for essential works.
• There is the potential for an increase in health issues, hospital admissions or more serious consequences where the property may have become more dangerous.

• There are growing concerns for tenants who work in the tourist and catering industry on how this will affect their employment in the long-term and the knock on effects this will have on their ability to afford their accommodation.

What estimates or data are available on the number of eviction notices served during the ban on evictions?

A recent Freedom of Information request enabled the gathering of some information on the number of households approaching for housing advice as the result of an illegal eviction. It can quite clearly be shown that the number of illegal evictions was higher in the first seven months of 2020-21 than the experienced during the last two full financial years. The expectation is that the number of illegal evictions by the end of 2020-21 will be more than double that previously experienced.

Cornwall Housing Ltd (November 2020)

As a stock holding authority, Cornwall did not serve any notices at the start of the pandemic, temporarily suspending our usual recovery process in favor of speaking to tenants in the first instance to gauge their personal situation. Recovery commenced, as per our policy in June 2020, however notices were only served on arrears cases that were not a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What are the best policy options for helping tenants with rent arrears caused by coronavirus?

A number of suggestions are listed below for consideration:

• As a result of the economic and social impacts of the pandemic it is expected that homelessness pressures – for both families and single people – will intensify over the next few months and beyond following the end of the period when evictions were suspended and as a result of accumulated and future pressures within the private rented sector, and for some owner-occupiers too, as a result of household’s changed economic and employment circumstances. It is essential that we plan and prepare for this and seek to prevent homelessness wherever possible.

• Every effort is being made to ensure that the numbers of households in temporary accommodation are reduced as quickly as is practicable by enabling people to move-on to more settled accommodation. There is a need for the Government to have a focus on providing housing that will meet the needs of those on the lowest or no incomes that are particularly vulnerable or are within precarious housing situations – i.e. socially rented housing. These households are extremely unlikely to ever be able to consider becoming owner occupiers and the current focus on home ownership will never support this cohort. The recent re-focus on providing some social housing from Government is welcomed but we need a policy shift to significantly increase the provision of socially rented homes – even if this is only as a short term (i.e. five years in housing delivery wise) response to the coronavirus.

• The Government should ensure that rough sleepers do not end up back on the streets due to a lack of suitable housing – links to point above.
• We need to use this crisis to end rough sleeping.
• Support and advice have proved the best way to help tenants in an arrears’ situation. Our team of Inclusion Advisors have supported many tenants to apply and received extra benefits and ensure their UC claims are correct. In UC claim cases, rent direct to the landlord has been requested. We have also relaxed our arrears arrangement guidance to allow arrears to be paid over a longer period of time.
• The Government should improve its support to councils for people, with no recourse to public funds during and immediately after this crisis.
• The Govt must amend existing housing legislation to introduce a pre-action protocol to the private rented sector.
• The Govt must accelerate the Renters’ Reform Bill to Parliament and abolish ‘no fault evictions’ under section 21.
• The Govt must guarantee that the Local Housing Allowance rate, used to calculate Housing Benefit for tenants renting from Private Landlords, will be maintained at the 30th percentile long term.
• Increased financial support to landlords.
• CallB4UServe/Mediation Service (incl. support for landlords to carry out rent repayment plans).
• Review of unlawful eviction and harassment procedures and responsibilities, especially the criminal investigation work and development of a ‘toolkit’ to support officers and consideration of a employing a Tenancy Relations Officer (Shelter have employed 22 extra staff to support to help with the demand since the onset of the pandemic).
• Selective Licensing.
• Better comms in general would be well received especially around financial concerns (i.e. DHP and CAC debt phone service) and the student sector (incl. a review on student housing and improving links with Uni).
• Discussion with Revenues regarding position on Council Tax for landlords of empty properties.
• Integrate Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards work into business as usual.
• Continue / Increase promotion of Residential Landlord Association (Cornwall RLA) and the advice and support available to landlords.
• Widen the scope of empty homes loan (more inclusive and enable people wanting to keep the property long term access to the loan).

November 2020