Tenancy support and sustainment work is often highlighted by housing students as a defining feature of the social rented sector. However, as the PRS continues to strengthen its role in addressing the housing emergency, there is an opportunity to explore how this important aspect can further evolve and contribute to shared housing goals.
The vast majority of landlords in the PRS actively maintain their properties and support their tenants, creating a solid foundation for tenancy sustainment. However, embracing additional proactive measures could further enhance outcomes, benefiting both landlords and tenants alike.
In order to participate fully in the commitment to ending the housing crisis, the PRS needs to be able to assist with the homelessness crisis, and a measure of tenancy sustainment investment would significantly increase the chances of success for both tenant and landlord in these circumstances.
The Business and Social Imperative of Tenancy Sustainment
There is a strong business case for investing in tenancy sustainment – tenancy turnover is an expensive business for landlords; advertising, marketing, safety checks and preparing a property for re-rental all comes at significant cost and stress to landlords of every size and scale.
Alongside this, there is the real-life costs of avoidable tenancy failure in the disruption to tenants’ lives, sense of home and wellbeing that are associated with a lack of security in their living arrangements.
Tenancy sustainment seeks to avoid tenancy failure and breakdown at any stage, but particularly within the first 12 months of the tenancy.
There are many reasons why tenancies end that do not come under this definition, for example, where tenants move for a new job, or move in with a partner. Tenancy failure is more likely characterised where the tenant feels they have no choice or through, for example, eviction – have no choice but to leave their property.
The reasons a tenant may feel that they have no choice but to leave their property can be varied and specific to the individual. Whilst costs may often be a factor, and could merit a discussion of their own, there are some other underlying factors that can increase the risk of tenancy failure, many of which can be mitigated by landlords:
- Lack of tenancy preparation: There can be many factors to consider in terms of tenant preparedness, and it can apply to any prospective tenants, but presents a particular risk for first time renters. This can extend to familiarity with budgeting, managing bills and administrative tasks and household commodities. Providing information on approximate costs for associated household bills, eg typical council tax, energy and broadband bills can all also help new renters make better informed affordability decisions at the outset.
- Property standard: Poorly maintained properties. Although few and far between, or those of a lower standard of decoration may hamper tenancy sustainment. The social housing sector has seen damp and mould become the focus of tenant health and safety in the last two years, awareness of and action on this is likely to be introduced to the PRS in due course and is often cited on housing applications as a reason for moving.
- Personalisation of property: linked to decoration and currently subject of the Housing Bill are the circumstances under which landlords will allow tenants to redecorate. Allowing tenants to carry out reasonable redecoration to suit their tastes helps them to feel more invested in the property and can avoid the transitory or transactional feeling of living in someone else’s property, which may hasten a decision to move on.
- Pets: another topic of the current Housing Bill is the approach to keeping pets in private rented homes. The decision to allow pets can be a dealbreaker for some prospective tenants and can making renting and remaining in your rental property a much more attractive prospect. Animal welfare organisations have pointed to pet CVs, pet contracts and the ability to re-coup costs through deposit schemes to mitigate the risks some landlords perceive from allowing pets in their rental properties.
- Network building and area awareness: Lack of local connections and support networks can often lead to premature tenancy failure. Whilst it is not suggested that private landlords can provide the kind of community-based support that is often available in the social sector, investing some time in producing information on key services in the areas such as schools, GP surgeries and local community initiatives may help tenants to put down roots in a new area and increase their chance of tenancy sustainment.
- Health and wellbeing: There are many ways in which a home can affect a tenant’s health and wellbeing, for example stress arising from local anti-social behaviour. Supportive landlords can help tenants navigate what can be a very stressful situation by acting on reports or signposting to others where appropriate. Adapting and adjusting homes for disabled tenants can also make a huge difference in tenancy sustainment, as discrimination and availability of suitable homes can be particular challenge for this group of people.
Making changes to mitigate some of these risks does not have to incur massive costs but can make all the difference to a tenant’s decision to remain in a property, helping alleviate the housing crisis and contributing to a more stable housing environment for everyone.
