Ending sex for rent — Has welfare reform made the challenge even more difficult? — Dawn Dowden AM
On our doorstep
It is a sad thing to say but I suspect there has long been a crossover between some people in housing need, their vulnerability and sex. Housing providers suggest to me that this toxic mix has faced young people for a long time. In truth perhaps there never was a ‘golden age’ of moral certainty around such matters. Yet before the age of the internet and the growth of digital services it was largely hidden from our view. It was something that happened in those far away cities, but not on our own doorstep. Sadly the reality is different.
End Sex for Rent
So this week I am pleased to support the many groups in Wales led by “Housing Women Cymru” who are working together to raise the profile of the #Endsexforent campaign.
This campaign highlights that anyone exploiting others in this way is involved with an illegal act. As the second hashtag of the campaign explains they are #NotaLandlord, they are in fact a criminal.
Sadly we know that these criminals live in our midst, and this crime is happening on our doorstep. Indeed as the undercover reporting on the S4C programme “Ein Byd” showed it includes people saying they are a “family man” who did not want their “families ruined” if they were exposed as criminals in offering rent-free accommodation in return for sex.
There is no grey area
The legal position is clear, and as stated in the House of Commons only last week by Nick Hurd MP — Minister for Policing and the Fire Service:
“Let me place on record the Government’s specific position on the offence, rather than relying on ministerial correspondence. Offering accommodation in return for sex is illegal and those who do it can face up to seven years in prison. As the hon. Member for Hove said, in 2017, the previous Secretary of State for Justice confirmed that the practice is illegal by virtue of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Under sections 52 to 54 of the Act, an offence is committed when a person offers accommodation in return for sex, as they are inciting another person to have sex with them in return for payment. Section 52 prohibits causing or inciting prostitution for gain, and section 53 prohibits controlling prostitution for gain. I should make it clear that we expect every report of this offence to be taken seriously”.(Hansard 28.11.18)
Victims — supporting not judging
Those people who may have been caught in this way are the victims of a crime. Shelter Cymru suggest the problem also extends to sex for repairs, or in order to write off rent arrears. The victims need our support, and not to be judged. Shelter estimate that over a five year period thousands of men and women in Wales have been offered a sex for rent arrangement.
But I want to explore some of the circumstances that cause this problem.
Welfare reforms
I believe that the programme of UK welfare reform policies has exacerbated housing problems over the last decade. This is particularly true for younger people who have faced the intense challenge of capped benefits and a restricted supply of suitable homes. For some facing the vulnerability of street life, they take the opportunity to ‘sofa surf’, or may be attracted by the offer of a bed. The Welsh Government has steadily increased the delivery of affordable homes, but the amount of money it has available for building new homes is limited. Indeed the funding must cover all types of housing, meaning the amount available for specialist young people housing is not currently providing the homes needed to meet the demand.
In fact, it is easy to conclude that the system now seems geared more towards meeting the situation of those who already own and let property, and not to help those people, especially our young people, who are most in need. I was interested to note that while debating the draft Welsh Budget the Welsh Tory AM David Melding this week said: “we just need the homes”. So my response to David is that we must therefore also provide the means. We must be more willing to intervene where the market fails us, support council house building and the work of mutual housing bodies.
The difficult circumstances facing many of the young people in our communities, are circumstances that we have allowed to happen. So perhaps in truth we have all been a part of creating the circumstances in which the offer of a room, with a bed, in return for a ‘favour’ has proved too tempting, or it has arisen because people are desperate given the lack of other choices they can make? That should disturb us all.
Local Housing Allowance
A significant problem has been the operation of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA). A measure introduced by the last Labour Government to help control the costs of housing benefit in the private sector, the amount available was significantly reduced in the name of ‘austerity’ by the UK Coalition. The LHA calculations now use the lowest thirtile of rents in a local market, and any young people under 35 are only eligible for a shared accommodation rate. In my constituency this LHA shared accommodation rate that young people receive is just £48 per week is now rolled into the discredited Universal Credit system.
I could not find any flats on the market with rents this low and the lowest rent I was told about was £88 per week, and it is impossible for a young person to make up the difference between Universal Credit and the actual rent charged and the housing benefit. The housing benefit system also fails young people who are apprentices, training or in low income zero hour contracts. This impossibility of finding safe and secure accommodation at reasonable rents pushes young people who do not have the option to live at home towards the homelessness, the twilight world of lodging and sadly for some, sex for rent.
Rising Need
This reduction in benefits coincided with the ever-increasing need for homes.
For example, a quick search on the websites of three letting agents offering properties in Merthyr Tydfil today, listed circa six one bedroom properties to let (with additional letting fees) generally at around £110 per week. I am told there are over 400 young people looking for such sized properties in the area.
Add to this mix the uncertainty of an economy dominated by zero-hours contracts, with the associated fluctuations of incomes, and punitive welfare sanctions, and we have a toxic brew of vulnerability for young people.
The cause not the symptom
This leads me back to an argument I have made before. The strategic focus of the Welsh Government has to remain on tackling the causes of this problem, and not just supporting campaigns around the symptoms. Increasing the supply of affordable homes for rent — indeed all homes — must be a higher priority. It is arguably more important than subsidising those who are looking to buy a property, and providing homes will always be a useful outcome for any new powers and innovative finance.
End Sex for Rent
But this week let each of us at least play our part in this campaign — #EndsexforRent. There is no grey area in the law. This campaign to end sex for rent deserves our attention.
Well done to all those who are pushing us, elected representatives and local partners, to remember these people, often the young people in our communities, who need our support.
Dawn Bowden is the Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.