‘Expensive and precarious’: Renters asked for their views on Bristol’s housing crisis
Bristol's renters pay on average 45% of their income to landlords
Renters are being asked for their views on Bristol’s housing crisis as part of an upcoming plan to improve living conditions. Bristol City Council wants to know whether renters find the housing market expensive, precarious or competitive, before drawing up plans to drive up standards.
More than one in four people in Bristol rent their home privately from a landlord, rather than from a housing association or living in a council home. Many more people rent privately here than the national average of 20 per cent. And rents have skyrocketed in recent decades, outpacing the growth of wages, as renters here now pay on average 45 per cent of their income to landlords.
A public consultation on Bristol’s private rented sector is running until midnight on Sunday, April 26. Respondents are asked if they think the sector is expensive, competitive, precarious, responsive and well-maintained, among a range of other issues such as gentrification.
Another question is what the biggest issues facing tenants are, such as affordability of rents, poor lack of management from a landlord, security of tenancy, property conditions and evictions. Some of these problems are interlinked, such as tenants avoiding requests to fix issues, in fear of reprisal from landlords with potential rent hikes or evictions.
The survey states: “Over a quarter of people in Bristol rent their home from a private landlord. This means over 120,000 people live in the private rented sector. The new Renters’ Rights Act will bring big changes across the country. These changes will affect the city, renters and landlords.
“We have decided to create a Private Rented Sector Strategy which will make it clear how we will deal with these challenges and opportunities. We want to hear from as many people affected by private renting as possible. We want you to tell us your experience of the private rented sector, and what you think should happen in the future.”
The council is also talking to volunteer and community groups, landlord associations and letting agents. The new renting strategy will include plans to make renting fairer, supporting renters and landlords, and new things the council must do by law, like licensing and regulation.
The survey asks what priorities the council should have in the upcoming strategy. This could be actions like improving property standards, supporting tenants to know their rights, working with landlords to make properties more accessible, working with owners of homes that have been empty for a long time to bring them back into use, and asking the government for more powers.
A major problem facing renters in Bristol is the sheer cost, which the council has little power to control at the moment. Council bosses have previously lobbied the government to allow them to introduce rent controls, but without success so far. This leaves many people paying a huge chunk of their salary to a landlord every month, with less money to spend in the local economy.
But the situation for renters is improving. The new Renters Rights Act means the government is rolling out new rules for landlords and protections for renters. Earlier this year the council consulted the public on how large new fines should be for dodgy landlords who break the rules. Landlords now cannot deny properties to a wider range of tenants than before, like pet owners.