Rogue landlords in England will face curbs on how much housing benefit they can receive if their properties are substandard, Angela Rayner has said as she announced an extra £350m for affordable housing.
A report from the charity Shelter last year suggested England needed at least 90,000 social rent homes built a year for 10 years to clear social housing waiting lists and house people who are homeless.
About 2,800 homes will be built with £300m of the pot through the affordable homes programme, with half for social rent; another £50m will go to the local authority housing fund to provide better quality accommodation.
“We have 1.3 million people waiting on housing waiting lists, there isn’t a person listening to this show that will not know somebody who is desperate to get on the housing ladder.
Alongside the extra money for affordable housing, Rayner will set out plans next week to crack down on exploitative landlords.
