Written evidence submitted by Councillor Robert Alden on behalf of the Birmingham City Council Conservative Group [EXA 063]
As Leader of the Conservative Group on Birmingham City Council, and Councillor for Erdington Ward, I have been campaigning with colleagues for years on behalf of residents concerned about the impact of Exempt Accommodation in their area. This has included lobbying at the LGA in my role as Deputy Chair where I have also heard of examples of issues in other local authorities. Whilst we have been calling for more action from the City Council to help control the spread and better manage the associated problems of this type of accommodation, it is clear that changes are needed at a national level too, and there has been cross party support within Birmingham for changes to legislation. Local media have joined this campaign and outlets such as Erdington Local and the Birmingham Mail have highlighted many of the problems created, some examples of which are contained at the end of this document.
Exempt accommodation, as currently operated, serves neither its users or local communities well. It also fails to deliver value for money for the taxpayer with all the associated problems driving up costs across different public sector organisations. Existing planning laws and problems with the Benefits system combine to create a toxic situation where local neighbourhoods are becoming unrecognisable, with rising crime and ASB and loss of family housing whilst trapping ex-offenders and drug users in a vicious cycle and increasing pressure on public services from the police to waste collections.
In Birmingham the average Local Housing allowance shared accommodation rate is £57.34, the social housing general needs average weekly rent for Birmingham is £95.05 yet the Birmingham average exempt housing rent is around £200 per a week and they are able to charge this by simply providing one hour of unregulated support a week. With 22,000 individuals in Birmingham currently placed in exempt accommodation, this is a cost to the treasury of £228.8m per year just in Birmingham.
When you also factor in additional costs to police and councils of dealing with crime and ASB, additional costs of local council benefit support, the additional street cleaning activity required and the extra pressure on the local health economy as a result of the inadequate support received, it is easy to see how poor this system is in terms of value for money.
In one typical examples of case work we receive as councillors, a male and female tenant caused numerous problems for neighbours in a residential family area over an extended period, including aggressive begging, abusive behaviour and loud noise. The police and ambulance service were called numerous times to the property but the provider was unresponsive to requests for action and eventually the male tenant died of a drug overdose. In this example, as in so many we see all the time, the system failed him, it failed his partner, and it failed the neighbours and it did so a disproportionate cost to the public purse.
These types of accommodation have an enormously negative impact on the tenants that use them with arbitrary rules designed to maximise profit and minimise the support required from landlords. One resident told Erdington Local “I’ve lived in several HMOs and it always feels like they are trying to isolate me. I can’t even have my friends round for a laugh; I can’t decorate my room. The only time I hear from the support worker is when they demand the service charge.
In Birmingham the number of Exempt Accommodation claimants has doubled in 3 years with formerly family friendly suburban neighbourhoods blighted and community cohesion eroded. As one resident told the Birmingham Mail "Our area is being destroyed, we are seeing it change before our eyes.” One typical example of case work we receive as city councillors, includes a family moving out of their home of more than 30 years because they no longer felt safe due to the behaviour of residents of a local exempt accommodation property. Another resident told the local paper “We feel helpless, powerless. People like me are just voting with their feet, putting their houses up for sale and moving out. That is the decimation of the whole community.”
Currently exempt accommodation is exempt from the planning restriction under an Article 4 Directive that can be used to limit HMO proliferation, so changes can often be made within permitted development. In areas such as Birmingham, the large supply of Victorian and Edwardian properties make attractive investments for landlords to convert them from family homes into HMOs whilst the benefits system and planning exemptions make it easy and financially attractive for them to use them as Exempt Accommodation which attracts a higher housing payment outside of Universal Credit, direct into their account from the DWP, with virtually no oversight of standards on the levels of support.
Selective Licensing is also a blunt tool as case law has limited the extent to which local authorities can use this in areas where there is not already a high level of exempt properties and evidencable problems associated with it. This means that imposing selective licensing in one part of the city simply displaces the problem to other parts. We believe the Birmingham City Council could certainly have made better use of this power but have failed to collect enough evidence, for example through keeping their housing conditions survey up-to-date. However without the ability to impose city wide selective licensing before severe problems appear, it means we would be forever chasing the issue around the city.
There is also the issue of a lack of cooperation between local authorities, with London authorities in particular using the supply of relatively cheap housing in Birmingham to place individuals in Exempt Accommodation in order to ‘off load’ the problem. Since 2016, the West London Out of London Project has placed 109 individuals in Birmingham into shorthold tenancy, licensed or exempt accommodation. This is just one example, of just one small group of councils, but it is a problem repeated across all. It is disappointing that at no point in that time has the City Council registered any concerns or objections with London Councils but the fact remains that they have no powers to prevent it in any case. Nor is there any duty of cooperation between councils, or mechanisms to ensure the cost liabilities are picked up by the appropriate authority.
In a survey of local residents, the Conservative Group found that
- 89% had witnessed an increase in Exempt Accommodation in their local area in recent years
- 79% believed this had had a negative impact on their neighbourhood.
- Of those who said it had a negative impact, all but one mentioned Anti-Social Behaviour as a concern, and three-quarters referenced problems with street cleanliness
- 84% of all respondents said they would support an amendment to the 2004 Housing Act to bring Exempt Accommodation into the planning regime.
The current situation is unsustainable. Entire communities are being changed beyond all recognition, families are living in fear and being driven out of their local area, whilst the tenants themselves are being failed by the system.In summary, the changes we believe are necessary are as follows
Media links
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/we-war-zone-how-family-19948208
http://www.erdingtonlocal.com/tag/exempt-accommodation/
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/driven-out-neighbours-sell-up-19419509
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/pledge-no-more-supported-housing-20906934
January 2022