The government’s Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud confirmed on 14th September that the new Universal Credit system would allow housing benefit to be paid direct to the tenant, but would revert to the housing provider should a tenant begin to fall into arrears.

Announcing that six Demonstration Projects are being set up to trial direct payments to Housing Benefit claimants living in social sector housing Lord Freud stated that he would “build safeguards into the system to minimise the impact on social landlords’ incomes and to reassure lenders”.

Responding to this statement the National Landlords Association (NLA) has called for the Government to give tenants choice in how housing benefits are paid to private landlords.

David Salusbury, NLA Chairman, said: “We call upon the Government to remember that private landlords are also vulnerable to the effects of rent arrears.

“Thirty-five per cent of landlords let their properties to recipients of Local Housing Allowance (LHA), representing an estimated 420,000 landlords, so it is important that they are considered within this proposal.

Referring to some recent research supported by the National Housing Federation and carried out by Policis which surveyed 1,000 social housing tenants nationally, Salusbury added that: “It is clear that tenants favour choice; nine out of ten social housing tenants would like the security of knowing their housing benefit is paid directly to their landlord. It is vital that tenants are given this freedom of choice in order to encourage the adequate supply of affordable accommodation.”