4 minute read
Key Worker voices on renting
Three Key Workers give LINDA AITCHISON a snapshot of their housing opinions.
Sally
Sally Dean, 22, healthcare assistant and student nurse, of Bangor, Gwynedd, pays £800 a month with her partner, a hospital porter on a two-bedroom maisonette:
“We are living pay cheque to pay cheque and paying rent is hard, it’s almost impossible to save any money for the future.
“Our landlord is really nice and friendly and always happy to help. It’s very expensive to be here and we can’t change the house and are restricted with decorating.”
“We are trying to save for our own home but the cost of everything is so high and wages are so low, we barely have enough for groceries.
“Finding housing within an area that has good transport links is important when finding housing especially with shift work – so cheaper houses tend to be on bad transport links, and we end up spending more money on taxis and lifts.”
“I’d like to see reduced rates on Council Tax maybe or a reduced rate on housing deposit scheme like Help to Buy but for Key Workers. The government should definitely help more, by introducing schemes to help with costs.”
Melissa
Melissa Hannah, 25, charity support worker, of Crosby, Merseyside, pays £850 a month with her partner, a sales manager, on a two-bedroom flat:
“We have been given a false sense of security because my rent hasn’t increased but bills are so different from when we moved in.
“The biggest difference is food and electric because we don’t have a smart meter as the landlord has never sorted that out for us.
“If there is a problem, it isn’t fixed, the landlord can leave it as long as he wants, so as a result there are loads of issues in the flat that just aren’t fixed both small things and bigger things that we wish we could fix but don’t have the money or don’t feel we should because that would benefit the landlord when he doesn’t care.
“Our landlord doesn’t care. He overpromises and underdelivers because he can. There is no urgency and no consideration that we are struggling with certain things, such as boiler and toilet issues or problems in the kitchen with leaks.
“The power share isn’t equal; I pay so much money every month for little to no stake in the home.
“It’s not fair that the landlord earns so much from all the flats in the building yet doesn’t care to keep on top of the upkeep or fixing problems.
“The uncertainty of living month by month is hard and causes anxiety and could automatically put people into poverty.
“I’d like to see more affordable homes, which are genuinely attainable, and more social housing, take powers away from landlords making it harder for them to become one and give more rights to the tenants.
Becky
Becky Willoughby, 53, a teaching assistant of Kendal, Cumbria, lives with her 17-yearold son in a three-bedroom terraced house rented from a housing association and pays £117 a week rent:
“My rent has just gone up and I now have to pay tax on a bedroom since my eldest son moved out. It’s a fabulous location but the house isn’t perfect and could do with work!”
“No way can I save to own my own home and can’t move to another area for work as I’d lose my housing association home.
“I had to put in carpets throughout and decorate. So that’s a big investment in a home that’s not mine.
“I’d like to see national help for Key Workers to relocate as those of us in housing association accommodation are tied to a certain location as private rent is just too great.”
