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The social housing sector in England houses 4 million tenants (16% of the country’s households). The sector is home to some of the UK’s most vulnerable and poorest households, and paying rent is one of the biggest challenges they face. If they do not pay, they risk being evicted from their homes.
Recent research we carried out for the Nuffield Foundation highlights the difficulties many tenants face paying their rent, and the sacrifices they have to make to do so.
We surveyed more than 1,200 tenants across 15 neighbourhoods in England, and found that 9% were in rent arrears. However, this figure dramatically underestimates the number of tenants who were finding it difficult to pay their rent: 61% had gone without essentials, such as food and heating, in order to pay it in the last year.
The financial situation of tenants has become more difficult in recent years due to a combination of cost-of-living increases, including rapidly rising food and energy prices, and real-term reductions in salary due to increasingly precarious employment. Some 43% of tenants we surveyed regularly ran out of money before their next wage or benefit payment.
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In-depth interviews revealed that many tenants ran out of money before their basic needs (rent, household bills, food, clothing and travel to work or school) had been met. In these cases, they had to make difficult decisions, sometimes choosing between paying their rent – the highest priority payment for most – or meeting other basic needs.
Nearly half (46%) of tenants had made the difficult decision to cut back on their heating expenditure so they could pay their rent. Tenants reported turning off appliances and using hot water sparingly:
“I had to turn the heating off today. As the last bit of money I had was used to buy packed lunch things for my daughter for school.”
They reported a range of strategies for keeping warm without using their gas or electricity, including sitting in sleeping bags, wearing thermal clothing and thick jumpers indoors, covering themselves with blankets and fleeces and using hot water bottles.
Those who did use their heating reported putting it on for just one hour. One woman with a seven-month-old baby reported using the “heating minimal, mainly at night when the temperatures really drop, so I just keep him wrapped up usually.”
Tenants also reported using their electricity minimally, not watching television, boiling the kettle if I need to do the washing up and sitting with the lights off:
“[We] switch everything of … We would switch the TVs off … We’d just switch everything off as much as we could. We wouldn’t use the lights. We’d just use the torches on our phones.”
‘One meal a day’
Some 43% of tenants reported that they had cut back on their food spending in order to pay their rent. Some reported that they skipped meals – “I eat I’d say one meal a day at teatime,” – or not eating adequately, for example, eating insufficient portions or toast in place of an evening meal.
One woman reported going without meals at one point in order to pay rent: “I’d sooner do without food myself to do the council [rent] cos they’re on your back.”
Tenants reported running out of money for food or replacing substantial cooked dinners with snacks:
“Well, I used to do myself a proper meal every evening, but now I just do it two times a week … and I have beans on toast or something like that.”
There were also many examples of participants doing without nutritious food because it was more expensive than processed food. These tenants were very aware of the lower nutritional value of the food they were buying and lamented not being able to afford the fresh food they preferred.
This included pregnant women and people with children, for whom nutritious food is particularly important. Recognising this, some talked about buying healthier food for their children than for themselves when they could.
National income and tenancy standards
Our research shows that most tenants are committed to paying their rent, prioritising it at a cost to their and their family’s health and wellbeing. Only by improving tenants’ financial circumstances will the situation change.
One step towards this would be for the government to endorse the minimum income standard, a level of income that allows people to “thrive” and not merely “survive”. The government should use this standard to determine benefit rates and the national minimum wage, alongside measures to provide people with greater job security.
Our research has shown that many tenants have only been able to sustain their tenancies by going without. But can we really say someone is sustaining their tenancy, if their home is cold and damp because they cannot afford to heat their homes? They are using mobile phones torches for lighting? They are skipping meals?
Social housing landlords must rethink how they understand tenancy sustainment. It shouldn’t just be about how long tenants stay in a property, but about the quality of their life while in it.
The research discussed in this article was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Paul Hickman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The research discussed in this article was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Kesia Reeve does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
