A quarter of a million families bringing up babies and infants in England are living in privately rented accommodation that fails to meet the decent homes standard, it has emerged.
The number of households bringing up children aged under four in squalid conditions, which can include damp walls, broken heating and infestations of rats, has increased by an estimated 75,000 since 2007, according to analysis of official figures.
“It is scary for me to think we have a lot of families in these circumstances,” said Julie Rugg, a senior research fellow at the University of York’s Centre for Housing Policy who co-authored the report. “There is a disproportionately high percentage of households with babies and infants living in the private rented sector and there is a particular concern for the longer-term health consequences of living in damp, mouldy property with poor thermal comfort.”
The Centre for Housing Policy also warned of a new kind of “slum tenure” at the bottom of the rental market spreading as a result of welfare cuts and the introduction of universal credit causing landlords to cut back on maintenance and allowing properties to fall into squalor.
The number of rented homes has more than doubled since 2000, to 4.8m, as the construction of private and social housing has slowed dramatically since the financial crisis and hundreds of thousands of new landlords have entered the market seeking better investment returns amid low interest rates. In total, 1.2m rental homes in England fail to meet the decent homes standard, with converted houses and properties more than 100 years old most likely to be in poor shape, official figures show. In a finding that suggests landlords are responsible for many of the poor conditions, 42% of private rented homes that have been occupied by a tenant for more than 10 years fail the test, compared with a quarter of those occupied for less than a year. A decent home has to be free from hazards to health and safety, in reasonable repair, reasonably insulated and heated and have reasonable modern facilities.
The problem conditions are not confined to young families. One in three homes at the lowest rents and one in five of the most expensive homes are classed as non-decent. In 2016/17, half of new households were private renters, twice the number who became owner–occupiers.
Campaign groups including Shelter, which has described private rent as like the “wild west”.
“Declining home ownership and a shortage of social rented homes have led to a surge in the number of people privately renting, particularly families with young children,” said Rugg. “Unfortunately, in its current form the private rental market isn’t providing a suitable alternative. We need to see a fundamental rethink of the role that private renting plays in our housing market.”
The Centre for Housing Policy is calling for properties to be subject to an annual MOT-style inspection by an independent assessor, paid for by the landlord, without which the property cannot be rented out. There is currently no regulation that defines a minimum standard for a letting, with enforcement only if they are inspected by the council. Landlords say existing rules are not enforced by councils so there is no point in passing new regulations.
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