A few weeks ago I was asked a fascinating question by a
local Councillor who, after reading the Maidenhead Property Blog, emailed me
and asked me – “Are Maidenhead Landlords meeting the Challenges of tenanted families
bringing up their families in Maidenhead?”
What an interesting question to be asked...!
Irrespective of whether you are tenant or a homeowner, to
bring up a family, the most important factors are security and stability in the
home. A great bellwether of that security and stability in a rented property is
whether tenants are constantly being evicted. Many tenancies last just six
months with families at risk of being thrown out after that with just two
months’ notice for no reason.
Some “left leaning Politician’s” keep saying we need to deal
with the terrible insecurity of Britain’s private rental market by creating
longer tenancies of 3 or 5 years instead of the current six months. However,
the numbers seem to be telling a different story. The average length of
residence in private rental homes has risen in the last 5 years from 3.7 years
to 4 years (a growth of 8.1%), which in turn has directly affected the number
of renters who have children. In fact, the proportion of private rented
property that have dependent children in them, has gone from 29.1% in 2003 to
37.4% today.
Looking specifically at Maidenhead compared to the National
figures, of the 4,042 private rental homes in Maidenhead, 1,369 of these have
dependent children in them (or 33.9%), which is interestingly (although
expected) below the National average of already stated 37.4%.
Even more fascinating are the other tenure types in Maidenhead…
- 34.4% of Social (Council) Housing in Maidenhead have dependent children
- 47.2% of Maidenhead Owner Occupiers (with a Mortgage) have dependent children
- 10.6% of Owner Occupiers (without a Mortgage) have dependent children
Although, when we look at the length of time these other
tenure types have, whilst the average length of a tenancy for the private
rented sector is 4 years, it is 11.4 years in social (council) housing, 24.1
years for home owners without a mortgage and 10.4 years of homeowners with
mortgages.
Anecdotally I have always known this, but this just proves landlords
do not spend their time seeking opportunities to evict a tenant as the average
length of tenancy has steadily increased. This noteworthy 8.1% increase in the
average length of time tenants stay in a private rented property over the last
5 years, shows tenants are happy to stay longer and start families.
So, as landlords are already meeting tenants’ wants and
needs when it comes to the length of tenancy, I find it strange some politicians
are calling for fixed term 3 and 5 year tenancies. Such heavy handed regulation
could stop landlords renting their property out in the first place, cutting off
the supply of much needed rental property, meaning tenants would suffer as
rents went up. Also, if such legislation was brought in, tenants would lose
their ‘Get Out of Jail card’, as under current rules, they can leave at anytime
with one months notice not the three or six month tenant notice suggested by
some commenters.
Finally, there is an extra piece of good news for Maidenhead
tenants. The English Housing Survey notes that those living in private rented
housing for a long periods of time generally paid less rent than those who
chopped and changed.
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