Councils across England are spending substantial sums on one-off payments to private landlords to secure properties for homeless families, a trend that campaigners warn reflects deeper problems in the housing and welfare system.
Freedom of information requests compiled by advocacy groups show dozens of local authorities paid out millions in incentive payments in the 2024–25 financial year — in some cases offering tens of thousands of pounds to individual landlords to persuade them to let properties to families reliant on local housing allowance or universal credit.
For cash-strapped councils, these incentives are often framed as pragmatic responses to a lack of available affordable housing and a desire to avoid placing families in temporary and costly hotel accommodation.
But critics argue the practice is inefficient and symptomatic of larger policy failures: frozen local housing allowance rates, unaffordable rents, and chronic shortages in the social housing sector force councils into ad hoc, stopgap measures that drain public funds without addressing structural issues.
Campaigners describe the practice as a transfer of public money to private landlords that can be abused; landlords have leverage to demand more, and some payments simply subsidise higher market rents rather than creating long-term tenure solutions.
Local authorities counter that incentives can be a necessary short-term tool to house families quickly and that, in some cases, landlord payments are the only means to get homes for vulnerable households who would otherwise face prolonged stays in unsuitable emergency accommodation.
The debate raises thorny policy questions: should the government increase housing allowance rates and invest more heavily in social housing to remove the market pressure that drives councils to rely on incentives? Or is there scope to better regulate how incentive funds are allocated and ensure they deliver durable tenancies rather than one-off relocations? Observers point out that while incentives may alleviate immediate homelessness for some households, they do little to stabilise the private rented sector or reduce the underlying drivers of homelessness.
Until broader welfare and housing reforms are enacted, councils are likely to continue paying large sums to secure accommodation, placing difficult fiscal decisions at the heart of local authorities' budgets.
Freedom of information requests compiled by advocacy groups show dozens of local authorities paid out millions in incentive payments in the 2024–25 financial year — in some cases offering tens of thousands of pounds to individual landlords to persuade them to let properties to families reliant on local housing allowance or universal credit.
For cash-strapped councils, these incentives are often framed as pragmatic responses to a lack of available affordable housing and a desire to avoid placing families in temporary and costly hotel accommodation.
But critics argue the practice is inefficient and symptomatic of larger policy failures: frozen local housing allowance rates, unaffordable rents, and chronic shortages in the social housing sector force councils into ad hoc, stopgap measures that drain public funds without addressing structural issues.
Campaigners describe the practice as a transfer of public money to private landlords that can be abused; landlords have leverage to demand more, and some payments simply subsidise higher market rents rather than creating long-term tenure solutions.
Local authorities counter that incentives can be a necessary short-term tool to house families quickly and that, in some cases, landlord payments are the only means to get homes for vulnerable households who would otherwise face prolonged stays in unsuitable emergency accommodation.
The debate raises thorny policy questions: should the government increase housing allowance rates and invest more heavily in social housing to remove the market pressure that drives councils to rely on incentives? Or is there scope to better regulate how incentive funds are allocated and ensure they deliver durable tenancies rather than one-off relocations? Observers point out that while incentives may alleviate immediate homelessness for some households, they do little to stabilise the private rented sector or reduce the underlying drivers of homelessness.
Until broader welfare and housing reforms are enacted, councils are likely to continue paying large sums to secure accommodation, placing difficult fiscal decisions at the heart of local authorities' budgets.
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