Urgent action is needed to tackle rogue landlords who are targeting vulnerable Londoners and placing them in unsuitable, dangerous housing, the capital’s housing committee has warned.
The London Assembly housing committee says Mayor Sadiq Khan must tackle serious problems with exempt accommodation, a type of supported housing with no consistent regulation or oversight.
The committee’s report Unsafe and unregulated: London's rogue supported housing providers, makes 19 recommendations to the Mayor and Greater London Authority.
These include broadening the use of the GLA’s ‘report a rogue landlord’ and ‘rogue landlord checker’ schemes by allowing reporting and checking of exempt accommodation landlords.
A previous investigation into this type of supported housing in the capital found evidence of at least two people who had died because of dangerous conditions.
Rogue providers charge astronomical rents to the local council, according to the committee, with London boroughs spending at least £107m on exempt accommodation in the last year alone.
Committee chair Sem Moema said the investigation’s findings were ‘deeply troubling’.
‘Some rogue agents are treating exempt accommodation as a licence to print money, resulting in poor quality housing, a disregard for the appropriate support and safeguarding, and a dangerous environment for the vulnerable Londoners living there.’
