GMB North West & Irish Region
27 April 2015
Paul McCarthy, GMB Regional Secretary, said “This research lifts the lid on the mainly secret payments to landlords who are the real winners from Britain's welfare system. 
 
We see taxpayers cash subsidising buy-to-let empires with £9.2 billion of hard earned taxpayer’s cash paid into private landlords’ bank accounts - much of it ending up in tax havens.  The abuse of housing benefit by private landlords has gone on for too long. Millionaires take sackloads of cash for exploiting those in housing need or stuck on low pay. It’s incredible that the Tories want to extend this billions pound rip off. It’s time to close the offshore tax dodgers charter, cap rents and use the billions being sucked up by property speculator landlords to build affordable homes for people again.”
 
The abuse of housing benefit by private landlords has gone on for too long as millionaires take sackloads of cash for exploiting those in housing need or stuck on low pay says GMB

Of the 462,899 households living in private rented accommodation in the North West the rent to landlords in 210,226 or 45.4% of them is paid in part or in full by taxpayers. In 2013/14 private landlords in the North West were paid a total of £1,024m in housing benefit. See table below for the full data by council in the region.

The top winners in the North West are: Private landlord Simon Hackett was paid £486,122 of taxpayer’s money direct as housing benefits by Blackpool Council in 2013/14. Chaudrey Mohammed Yaseen was paid £454,635 by Blackburn with Darwen council, Bryan Long, was paid £417,615 by Lancaster council and Mr J & Mrs L Heap was paid £296,823 by Blackpool council in 2013/14. The details for the top 20 private landlords in the North West in receipt housing benefit payments direct are set out below.

Top 20 private landlords in the North West ranked by amount of housing benefit they were paid direct by councils in 2013/14:

North West

Landlord

Amount

Blackpool

Hackett, Simon

£486,122

Blackburn with Darwen

Yaseen, Chaudrey Mohammed

£454,635

Lancaster

Long, Bryan

£417,615

Blackpool

Heap, Mr J & Mrs L

£296,823

Blackpool

Sodhi, Mr & Mrs

£250,374

Sefton

Tinsley, E

£247,649

Barrow-in-Furness

Mellor, Mrs Janice                                                                            

£230,416

Preston

Towey, A F

£179,515

Sefton

Day, J A

£164,238

Sefton

Purcell, J

£149,793

Sefton

Morrissey, J Jnr

£146,145

Sefton

Ball, D S

£138,332

Sefton

Kenlay, N D

£137,852

Tameside

Gleave, Mr S

£137,769

Tameside

Lee, Mrs

£134,710

Blackburn with Darwen

Giovannini, Joseph

£132,608

Blackburn with Darwen

Ali, Iqbal

£131,091

Sefton

Patrick Grimes

£125,207

Sefton

Hardaker, T

£121,919

Fylde

Hirsh, Oliver

£120,753

 

The top 20 private landlords in each of the councils in the North West in receipt housing benefit payments direct are set out as in pdf set out at the foot of the national press release on the GMB website www.gmb.org.uk. See notes to editors for how GMB conducted the FOI requests to councils to find out this information and for sources and definitions.

In Great Britain there are approx. 4.2 million households living in private rented accommodation. The rent to landlords in 1.59 million or 38% of them is paid in part or in full by taxpayers. Private landlords were paid an annual total of £9.2 billion in housing benefit in 2013/14. The top 20 private landlords in Britain in receipt housing benefit payments direct are set in the national press release on the GMB website www.gmb.org.uk.

The Tory Party has made an election pledge to open up housing association property to buy the let landlords. Since council housing was opened up to “right to buy” in the 1980s over 40% of council housing has ended up with buy to let landlords.

In Wandsworth for example of 15,874 dwellings in council blocks where tenants acquired the leasehold under “right to buy” legislation some 6,180 dwellings are now owned by private landlords who rent them to private tenants. That is nearly 40% of the total sold by the council. There are 977 private landlords who own more than one of these 6,180 dwellings. One private landlord owns 93, another owns 32, another 15 landlords each own 10 or more and a further 83 landlords each own between 5 and 9 of these dwellings.

Table: Private rented housing and number and % getting housing benefit and amount to private landlords by council in the region:

   

All Private Rented Households

Housing Benefit recipients in the Private Rented Sector

%

Estimated amount of Housing Benefit paid to Private Landlords - 2013/14 (£m)

 

Great Britain

4,195,070

1,587,669

37.8

9,296

 

England and Wales

3,900,178

1,492,853

38.3

8,840

 

North West

462,899

210,226

45.4

1,024

Rank

         

1

Liverpool

48,290

20,297

42.0

108.96

2

Manchester

58,170

17,584

30.2

87.38

3

Blackpool UA

16,770

14,554

86.8

68.80

4

Wirral

22,275

14,269

64.1

67.39

5

Sefton

15,804

10,255

64.9

52.16

6

Wigan

15,875

7,774

49.0

35.38

7

Salford

19,420

7,066

36.4

35.00

8

Bolton

15,930

7,263

45.6

33.38

9

Cheshire West and Chester

17,734

6,208

35.0

32.81

10

Stockport

13,852

5,689

41.1

32.40

11

Tameside

12,573

6,178

49.1

30.05

12

Rochdale

11,556

6,302

54.5

29.80

13

Cheshire East UA

19,938

6,110

30.6

29.77

14

Oldham

10,944

6,210

56.7

29.29

15

Halton UA

5,212

3,067

58.8

26.78

16

Lancaster

10,929

5,275

48.3

24.38

17

Knowsley

5,980

4,603

77.0

23.72

18

Blackburn with Darwen UA

8,993

4,709

52.4

22.60

19

Bury

10,774

4,803

44.6

22.09

20

Wyre

6,397

4,353

68.0

19.26

21

Warrington UA

9,549

3,607

37.8

18.83

22

St. Helens

7,736

4,146

53.6

18.76

23

Burnley

7,267

4,721

65.0

18.75

24

Trafford

12,001

3,506

29.2

18.69

25

Preston

10,365

3,713

35.8

16.77

26

Hyndburn

6,235

3,649

58.5

15.40

27

Pendle

6,760

3,631

53.7

14.89

28

Fylde

6,066

2,887

47.6

12.36

29

Barrow-in-Furness

4,442

2,660

59.9

10.88

30

West Lancashire

4,744

2,095

44.2

9.84

31

Carlisle

6,914

2,136

30.9

8.82

32

Chorley

4,587

1,898

41.4

8.74

33

Rossendale

4,106

1,785

43.5

8.57

34

South Ribble

4,308

1,691

39.3

7.69

35

South Lakeland

6,633

1,577

23.8

7.39

36

Allerdale

4,142

1,405

33.9

5.69

37

Copeland

2,665

1,065

40.0

4.12

38

Ribble Valley

3,278

751

22.9

3.17

39

Eden

3,685

744

20.2

2.91