In our Frequently Asked Questions article below we answer the following questions about private sector discharge.
- What is private sector discharge?
- Why is private sector discharge so bad?
- Has private sector discharge always existed?
- Who does it affect?
- Where are these private sector offers?
- Do all local councils use it?
- But maybe local councils use private sector discharge because they don’t have any other choice?
- How can we end private sector discharge for good?
- Our stories
What is private sector discharge?
Private sector discharge is when a local council uses their legal powers to end a homeless duty with a mandatory offer of private rented housing. Although it’s called an ‘offer’, applicants do not have a free choice of whether to accept. When a housing officer is using private sector discharge, they must give the homeless applicant a formal offer letter with details of the private rented housing and information about the consequences of accepting or refusing an offer.
Things can get a bit confusing because sometimes housing officers will make offers of private rented housing to a homeless applicant that are not official private sector discharge offers. If you are made an offer of private housing by your housing officer and you are unsure whether it is a private sector discharge offer, please seek professional legal advice immediately
A local council can use their discharge powers at both the Relief Duty stage, and when someone has a Main Housing Duty. This means mandatory private offers can be made while a homeless application is still being assessed, or even after someone has been living in temporary accommodation for 10 years.
When a housing officer makes an offer of private rented housing using private sector discharge powers, this is a mandatory offer that in most / almost all circumstances the homeless applicant must accept. The consequences for refusing are extremely serious (more on this below).
Why is private sector discharge so bad?
Private sector discharge takes away our homeless rights and forces vulnerable homeless people back into the private rented sector. As the private rented sector is the biggest cause of homelessness, private sector discharge creates a cycle of homelessness.
The forced nature of private sector discharge is very real and serious – if someone does not accept a private sector discharge offer, they can be left destitute as the council can end their homeless duty and evict them from their temporary accommodation. If the person then tries to make a new homeless application, they may be found ‘intentionally homeless’ and refused the Main Homeless Duty.
Private sector discharge has fuelled social cleansing with some local councils using their private sector discharge powers to force homeless families outside of London. Waltham Forest and Enfield councils have a particularly bad reputation for their treatment of homeless families and they have both forced families over 300 miles away to Hartlepool.
Usually when someone is forced into the private rented sector outside of their home borough, their housing register bidding account will be permanently closed meaning that they are no longer able to apply for social housing. Even if you are discharged into your home borough, your position on the housing waiting list may be affected as you are no longer homeless. This shows how some councils use private sector discharge as a tactic to make their waiting lists shorter, which means that they deny people the chance of ever getting permanent council housing.
Homeless families are faced with constant worry and insecurity due to the threat of private sector discharge. Homeless families in temporary accommodation can be so scared of being targeted for a private sector offer that they may not report serious disrepair and hazards in their temporary accommodation causing them to be trapped in dangerous housing.
Has private sector discharge always existed?
No. The Conservative government first introduced these powers in 2012 as a way to try to end the vital link between homeless duties and social housing. Before private sector discharge was introduced the only way that local councils could end a homeless duty was with an offer of permanent social housing. We know that the only way to end homelessness is with social housing and the previous right to social housing for homeless households must be restored.
Who does it affect?
All homeless households who made homeless applications since 9th November 2012 can be affected by private sector discharge – although there is a huge variation in whether local councils use it at all and how they use it (more on this below).
If your homeless duty was started by an application made before 9th November 2012 then private sector discharge does not apply to you and the council can only end your homeless duty with an offer of permanent social housing.
From our experience, we’ve seen how private sector discharge is racist because migrant families, families of colour, and those who do not speak English as a first language are disproportionately targeted for private sector discharge. Housing officers will look for homeless applications who they see as ‘easy targets’ for private sector discharge and are less likely to know their rights and be able to enforce their rights. We also see that other households are targeted because they are seen as ‘difficult’ for rightly complaining about bad conditions in their temporary accommodation.
We obtained Freedom of Information request data from Lewisham council in 2020-2021 showing that single mums were being targeted for private sector discharge
Private sector discharge would be unjust and harmful even if it was applied equally, but it is even more dangerous because councils use it in such a discriminatory way.
Where are these private sector offers?
Some private sector discharge offers are in a homeless applicants home borough, or neighbouring borough. But from the very start of private sector discharge, we’ve seen some local councils use it as a social cleansing tool to force homeless families outside of London to towns and cities hundreds of miles away. From our own direct experience and using Freedom of Information requests, we’ve found out that local councils have been forcing homeless families outside of London to other cities and towns across the UK including Stoke, Hartlepool, and Durham.
Some councils have earned a reputation for their particularly cruel use of private sector discharge to far away cities and towns – Waltham Forest and Enfield councils have recently been forcing their homeless residents over 300 miles away to Hartlepool.
Our FOI research has repeatedly found that (as you would expect) the further away an offer is, the more likely it will be rejected. Back in 2016, our Freedom of Information research showed that Brent council had offered the same 3 bed property in Telford to 11 different homeless families with each family refusing it.
These local councils are using their private sector discharge powers in particularly nasty ways against their homeless residents. It is clear that these local councils are not trying to provide suitable housing for some of their most vulnerable homeless families – they are making these offers knowing that they will be refused and families will end up destitute.
When finding a private sector offer to discharge a homeless duty, councils are required to provide the nearest possible housing to their community. The housing officer should also take into account the household’s personal circumstances such as work, education and other welfare needs. There are also other conditions and standards that the council/housing officer must make sure that the private sector offer meets. It’s clear from the locations that people are being offered that local councils are not doing proper assessments and it may be possible to successfully challenge these offers – but this often relies on the homeless applicant being able to find a legal aid lawyer to help them with their case, which is becoming increasingly difficult due to legal aid cuts.
Do all local councils use it?
No. Our latest research shows that at the moment 7 London councils do not use private sector discharge at all.
Some local councils use private sector discharge with particularly bad intentions such as Waltham Forest and Enfield, who have made hundreds of private sector offers which are outside of London in the last year.
Other local councils make very few private sector offers, which makes us wonder why they bother to use it at all and what process they have used to pick out these unlucky people.
But maybe local councils use private sector discharge because they don’t have any other choice?
The fact that not every council uses private sector discharge shows that they do have a choice. The councils that are using private sector discharge are making a political choice to do so. There is nothing compelling local councils to use private sector discharge against their homeless applicants. They could allow their residents to remain in temporary accommodation with a Main Housing Duty and the important protections that this gives to homeless applicants.
Furthermore, the use of private sector discharge can increase the cost to councils in the long run, as it often results in people being evicted from the private tenancy. This means that councils have to take a fresh homeless application and use expensive pay-per-night emergency accommodation, rather than letting people stay in longer term temporary accommodation.
Some councils try to say that their out of London offers are a result of the benefit cap meaning that nowhere in London is affordable for families affected by the benefit cap. But as was pointed out in a recent legal case, when a family is in temporary accommodation, they receive housing benefit and are not impacted by the benefit cap. By using private sector discharge against these families, councils are guaranteeing that they will be at risk of the benefit cap when they would be better off remaining in temporary accommodation.
Waltham Forest Council and Enfield councils’ extreme use of private sector discharge is thankfully not followed by other local councils. This shows that their cruel approach is certainly a political and ideological choice. There is no other justification for why they have both made hundreds of private sector offers outside of London when no other London councils have done this.
Local councils also have the choice to stand with their residents at the sharpest end of the housing crisis and to challenge and campaign alongside them for homeless rights and for the huge investment in council housing that we desperately need. We have seen very little, if any, evidence of this over the last 14 years of austerity.
How can we end private sector discharge for good?
Every day across London, local housing action groups such as Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, Haringey Housing Action Group, Focus E15 are supporting our members with homelessness and housing problems with mutual support and collective action. This includes fighting private sector discharge when our members are affected by this. If you’re not already involved in your local housing action group, we encourage you to join one to learn your rights, help us build collective support and solidarity, and campaign together for our homeless rights and for the high-quality council homes we all need and deserve!
As well as fighting private sector discharge on a case by case basis, we want to end this cruel and harmful policy for good so that no one ever lives with the fear or faces the reality of being forced from their community and pushed into a cycle of homelessness.
From the very start of private sector discharge, it has been fiercely resisted. Back in 2013, in response to private sector discharge offers by Newham council to places as far away as Manchester and Birmingham, the Focus E15 campaign emerged with their inspiring slogan ‘Social Housing Not Social Cleansing’. At the time, their campaign achieved immediate successes of stopping their members from being socially cleansed from London and has also continued to win wider victories with Newham residents including ending Newham council’s use of out-of-London private sector discharge offers.
Over 10 years later, the Focus E15 slogan is even more urgent as councils increasingly use private sector discharge and as the locations get even further away.
Using the decades of organising experience of our local housing action groups, we want to build on the campaign started by Focus E15 and the individual victories our groups have achieved, and help to coordinate a London-wide campaign to end private sector discharge for good. Stay in touch with us to get updates and ways to be involved in this campaign.
Our stories
Comments from Haringey Housing Action Group member ‘Destiny’
I asked Enfield for help months before my eviction date, but they didn’t do anything. I went back to them on the day the bailiffs came, but they left me and my kids homeless on the streets. After three weeks of homelessness, they finally agreed to put us in a hotel. They left us there for seven months. We don’t have a kitchen, and we have to travel one and a half hours each way for school.
Then they offered me a private sector discharge in Stoke on Trent. My daughter is in her A-level year but they didn’t care. They said I should be grateful they chose Stoke on Trent, because some families are being sent seven hours away. I got legal help and Enfield withdrew that offer, but I don’t know where they will try to send me next.
We’ve lived in Enfield for twelve years but they still want to put me outside London. I know people round here, my friends and family are all local, but they want to leave me isolated. The way they treat people is horrible. I’ve gone through a lot already, I’m so stressed. Every day I still have to spend three hours taking my kids to and from school. It’s bad now, but I’m scared that they will try to send us somewhere even worse.
‘Destiny’
*name has been changed for privacy
Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth 