‘It’s a steel-toothed poverty trap’ – three tenants on the misery of pay to stay
The housing and planning bill, which reached the Commons on 5 January, will force households in council housing (and some tenants in social housing) earning more than £30,000 (£40,000 in London) to pay market rent, or move out, if they cannot exercise their right to buy their home.
Among those affected, older working women have expressed particular concern. Three female tenants tell us why they are so worried.
‘It’s a steel-toothed poverty trap’ – Elizabeth Spring
“In 2013 I founded a social enterprise which is now ready to be run by its participants. I had a small part-time income while doing it but really enjoyed the process. I am now returning to full-time work, and excited at the prospect. But that will take our household income into pay to stay territory.
“Pay to stay has taken me so near the edge of despair I find it hard to write about. I don’t want to acknowledge it’s real. It’s a steel-toothed poverty trap that seems designed to force us all into buying, but ignores the fact we can’t. We took our tenancies for life, have paid rent for decades and are now suddenly to be penalised for keeping to our half of the contract.
“The legislation shows punishing ignorance about who tenants are and how our normal, useful, mainstream lives have been led. We are not ‘the poor and vulnerable’, as the current demeaning description goes. Neither were we expected to be, when signing a secure tenancy agreement half a lifetime ago.
“My young adult son shares this little housing association flat. He’s just got his first permanent job since graduating, with a charity he respects and enjoys working for. He earns £19,000 a year and pays towards the rent and bills. Pay to stay will put an end to his attempts to save to move out.
“We will be at the mercy of our landlord’s decision on how much they hike our rent, reliant on a goodwill that I have never yet seen. Nowhere have I read of a housing provider saying what is so painfully obvious to tenants. We have steadily paid rent for decades, paying out far more for our housing than the home-owning neighbours who also moved here 40 years ago. We have not benefited from the massive mad rises in house prices in the erstwhile slum area where we live. Our rents have risen steeply for years, while our wages have not.
“I first moved to north Kensington in 1975. It’s my home. But I can’t realistically stay if charged a rent that mirrors the insane inflated rates of the private tenancies now rented to visiting millionaires. I am nearly 62, resilient, a fighting feminist ready for most challenges. I try to stay angry that my years of paying escalating rents to housing associations are not acknowledged or taken into account. But truthfully, beneath that anger I am sickened and fearful at the idea of going into retirement somewhere I know no one, of spending my old age without security of tenure and with my savings all gone. Where are we all expected to go?”
I’m a tenant, a loser by today's standards. But I won't shut up
Read more
‘We are to be penalised for being council tenants who work’ – Janice Sweeney
“I’m a 53-year-old woman and have lived in council accommodation in north Kensington since I married, 35 years ago. My husband was born in the borough. In the early days when we were bringing up our children there were times when paying the rent was a struggle but we always managed. My husband took an additional evening job when money was tight. I have been a teacher’s assistant for 25 years and my husband is a school keeper; we love our jobs. We earn just over £40,000 a year between us.
“We don’t go on expensive holidays or own a car. Just when we’re at a stage of life where the kids have grown up and we can go out for the odd meal or treat my grandchildren, we are to be penalised for being council tenants who work.
“Why didn’t we buy? We couldn’t afford to back then and we definitely can’t now.
“When I left school I went straight into work. University was not an option, I had to bring money into the house. I’m not apologising for being a council tenant or being working class, I’ve always worked, never claimed benefits. It is not us who have made the rents round here go up to unbelievable levels.
“Now, kids who were born here are forced out of London away from their families, costing every council a lot of money. Families provide each other with childcare, emotional support and practical help which would otherwise fall on social services or the NHS.
The Tory policy that encourages people to work less hard or lose their home
Dawn Foster
Read more
“London will soon be rid of working class people, the shop workers, the people that help children read and write, the doctors’ receptionists, park keepers, domestic cleaners, school support staff, posties, refuse collectors and so on. Working class London will soon be no more.”
‘It is hard enough to make ends meet as it is’ – Anonymous
“This government has got things the wrong way around. It’s not public housing residents who should be paying market rents, but private rents that should revert to decent prices. Most people on a mortgage do not pay as much as the market rent here.
“I have worked solidly in London since arriving here in 1988. My university degree was paid for by my parents, abroad. I came to London to do a postgraduate science course, also financed by my parents. After qualifying I worked in the teaching profession for London boroughs, mostly with children with special educational needs, in very deprived areas. Britain has not paid for my training but I have given my qualifications and skills to Britain.
“I moved into our council flat in 2000. My husband had lived there since 1984. As a freelance builder and decorator his work fluctuates and he has never had the means to buy a property. Our part of north-west London has gone from being a poor area to somewhere richer. Right to buy is meaningless when the asking price is £700,000. We are both in our 50s and it is now even harder for us to get a mortgage.
“With all that in mind it’s preposterous that a tenant living and paying rent in any property for more than 30 years should have their rent more than doubled to the ‘market rate’. We are not well off now on our current rent. I cannot see how we could pay market rates of £400 a week. It is hard enough to make ends meet as it is, with the price of food and transport in London.
“In the long run, London needs us service workers more than we need London. Most of us will not be able to survive with the current rental prices. We are no longer children, to be able to share a flat with 10 other people. This is a shift of the goalposts and will leave people in desperate conditions.
“If change has to occur it should apply only to new tenancies agreed from the start and on a sliding scale so as not to breach the previous agreements made with tenants. Basic rents should relate to what everyday people earn, not so high they are killing our neighbourhoods.”
Sign up for your free Guardian Housing network newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you every Friday. Follow us: @GuardianHousing