John, Author at Capital Letters

Capital Letters is committed to addressing the housing crisis in London by supporting innovative solutions that increase the supply of affordable rental homes.

The “Get SMEs Building Again” report provides a robust framework to address some of the current issues with building and providing affordable rental homes for those that need them most. The future of affordable housing in London could be improved by the SME housebuilding sector.

Supporting SMEs: A Key to Solving the Housing Crisis

The report highlights that SMEs now build just 10% of the UK’s housing stock, a significant drop from the 40% they contributed in the 1980s. This decline has been exacerbated by a complex planning system, high upfront capital requirements, and limited access to land.

We recognise that revitalizing the SME sector could be one of the keys to meeting the government’s target of building 300,000 homes annually. Like Capital Letters, SMEs have the agility and local expertise to develop smaller, often overlooked plots of land, which are ideal for affordable housing. By supporting the initiatives outlined in the report, we believe we can create more vibrant, sustainable, and mixed economy housing that benefits all Londoners.

Key Sections of the Report: Paving the Way for Affordable Housing

Several sections of the report stand out for their potential to help drive the building of more affordable rental homes in London.

Empowering Homes England to Support SMEs
The report calls for new ways to help Homes England to provide tailored support to SMEs, including innovative funding solutions. SMEs need to overcome the financial barriers that currently hinder their participation in the housing market. By creating a more supportive financial environment, SMEs can take on more projects, particularly those focused on affordable housing.
Small Sites Planning Policy
This policy would introduce a presumption in favour of development for small brownfield sites, streamlining the planning process for SMEs. The report estimates that this change could unlock up to 110,000 new homes within walking distance of public transport in London’s largest urban areas. We strongly support this initiative. As we become a large scale landlord, good quality urban development will drive our housing stock, giving real affordable rental homes.
Implementing Quotas for SME Housebuilders in the Local Plan Process
By ensuring that a percentage of sites in local plans are allocated specifically to SMEs, this policy would help level the playing field and encourage more small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the market. This would not only boost competition but also diversify the types of housing available, catering to a broader range of needs.

Capital Letters’ Commitment to Action

We believe that by fostering a supportive environment for SMEs, we can directly contribute to increasing the supply of affordable homes in London. We are ready to collaborate with government, local authorities, and SMEs to implement these recommendations and drive meaningful change.

By supporting SMEs and adopting the proposed policies, we can make significant strides towards creating a housing market that is inclusive, affordable, and sustainable.

Since Capital Letters was created, we have been calling for a fairer and more economically connected benefits policy.

We campaigned for an increase in Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to help the thousands of Londoners stuck in Temporary Accommodation (TA) into a safe, secure and affordable home. However, we also campaigned for a commensurate rise in the Benefit Cap – including the two-child cap – so that the LHA increase didn’t inadvertently cause homelessness, as families hit the top of their benefits and couldn’t afford the rent shortfall.

LHA rates were increased.

The benefit cap was not.

We are extremely hopeful that the Governments Child Poverty Strategy, due to be published in the spring, will address the two-child benefit cap. ‘The Times’ reported that the taskforce working on the strategy “would consider ending the two-child limit”.

The two-child limit and the benefit cap combined, are both preventing families who are experiencing homelessness finding a safe, secure, and affordable place to live, and more worryingly, the two benefit caps risk of making more families homeless.

We need a joined-up holistic economic policy that includes benefits and housing connecting the Treasury, DWP, MHCLG, all departments involved in the lives of people who need us the most.

London boroughs collectively spend £90m a month on TA, the effect of dissonate policies. The benefit cap traps some families in TA. It’s like squeezing a balloon moving the air around to achieve savings in one area, increasing spending in another… There is only one pot of money but competing departmental targets have resulted in policy that keeps squeezing the balloon in apparently random ways.

There are long term unintended economic consequences – If a child spends time living in insecure TA, their education outcomes are worse than a similar child who lives in secure housing, health outcomes are worse, employment outcomes are worse, their life-long economic outcome could be worse, and that costs the economy. This isn’t just about increased benefit reliance but about what that person can’t add to society – lost income tax, increasing reliance on the NHS, lost tax on savings, with a reduced disposable income there’s lost VAT… However, people aren’t economic entities, they are people and a child who spends time living in insecure TA may not achieve their full potential, their dreams, their whole life could be affected by their childhood of not knowing when they would have to move… again.

That’s the biggest loss.

As a socially responsible, not-for-profit housing organisation we are calling on the Government to have a joined-up, cross departmental approach to not just benefits, but the whole of the economy and, as a start, we would welcome the removal of the two-child cap.

Sue Edmonds, CEO Capital Letters

Property investment website Property Showplace features Capital Letters CEO Sue Edmonds in a frank Q&A about the work of Capital Letters and how we are making London better for Londoners, landlords, and investors.

Read the interview here

Because of Capital Letters’ unique pan London scope and experience we have seen the issues facing both our member London boroughs, and the families that we help out of homelessness and Temporary Accommodation (TA), at first hand.

We have been campaigning on behalf of our members and the tenants that we support to try and change the system since 2019.

The National Audit Office (NAO) report into the last Governments Homelessness approach has simply told us what we already know.

We know that “periodically capping and freezing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA)” affects council budgets and the move on rate from TA.

We know that “a lack of housing for social rent (that is, at a cost well below typical market prices) is a driver of homelessness, since households are instead pushed into the private rented sector which is typically more expensive and provides a less secure tenancy. The ending of a private rented sector assured shorthold tenancy is one of the biggest drivers of homelessness, accounting for around 23% of households owed a prevention or relief duty in Quarter 3, 2023-24.”

We know that “[a] lack of housing for social rent limits the routes out of homelessness for households who find themselves in temporary accommodation, as local authorities often cannot find them private rented sector properties in the local area that are affordable.”

And our response is….

We have to make it better.

We could give a long response about seeing just 0.8% of homes in London being even advertised at LHA rates let alone being let at that rate – with 17 people bidding for each property there’s little to no chance of that… We could share the experiences of our member boroughs, who, because of the rising, unaffordable rents are seeing more and more new homeless families in addition to those who are already trapped in Temporary Accommodation (TA). They are now using, on average 61% of their total housing budgets on TA; collectively London boroughs are spending a whopping £90m a month on TA. It’s unsustainable.

First and foremost, there’s not enough homes of any tenure, but the most acute problem is the lack of social rent, affordable rent, or LHA rate rent. The poorest in society are feeling the effects of limited investment in too many aspects of their lives, from the reduction in SureStart centres to housing.

Capital Letters should not need to exist.

In a perfect world, where everyone has access to the housing they need, and can afford, we wouldn’t exist. But the issues facing housing in the UK and especially London are going to take generations to fix, and we will be here trying to change the model, trying to make housing in London affordable for those who need it with our unique partnerships and investments helping Londoners find safe, secure, and affordable homes.

Because a home changes everything.

We are part of the solution – and you can be too.

Find out about our Income Collection Officer role by clicking here.

Last year there were 11,880 no-fault evictions in London, an increase of 52% year-on-year.

Based on average occupancy, 27,000 people have been made homeless or put at risk of homelessness in the last year.

That’s enough people to fill half of the Emirates Stadium, or all of The Oval.

There are currently more than 83,000 children living in Temporary Accommodation (TA) in London, and every year, as no-fault evictions rise, that number rises.

All parties must commit to banning “Section 21” no-fault evictions.

No-fault evictions are the biggest cause of homelessness and cost untold amounts in expensive and often inappropriate TA, extra health and education support, extra benefits paid as people struggle to keep jobs, not to mention the reduction in taxes, possibly over a potential lifetime, as employment outcomes worsen for the children stuck in inappropriate and insecure housing.

This isn’t just a “now” problem, for some it becomes a “forever” problem.

Families need a secure foundation to build their best lives, and “Section 21” no-fault evictions take that away.

With the dissolution of Parliament before the General Election it looks like the Renters Reform Bill is now dead…

Months of campaigning work from across the housing sector has come to nothing… for now.

The message is clear, however, we have to remove the spectre of “Section 21” no-fault evictions.

“Section 21” evictions are the biggest cause of family homelessness – often resulting in a family finding themselves living in insecure, poor quality Temporary Accommodation, far from work, and schools, and support services.

Once a family is in Temporary Accommodation (TA) it can take years to find a new settled home. In the meantime education, work, health, and finances suffer… and society suffers.

TA is an expensive drain on the public purse, and whilst in TA many people stop being able to work and are forced to claim more benefits, so the associated benefits bill is increased and there is a reduction in tax paid. Because TA has an effect on health, people need the NHS more, and that adds more pressure to an already struggling system. Because children in TA miss more of their education, more interventions are needed, and there is a greater chance that they will have poorer education and therefore poorer employment outcomes – with less opportunity to contribute to society in the
long run…

A single “Section 21” eviction could cost society hundreds of thousands of pounds.

This is all without the moral question of “do we want a society where we let this happen?”

We urge parties of all sides to commit to scrapping “Section 21” no-fault evictions and as soon as possible.

London rents rose by over 10% in the last 12 months according to the Office of National Statistics.

Whilst this is less than the previous month’s figure of 11%, it remains a significant indication of the pressure London housing is under.

Average rent is now just under £25,000 a year, and the average household income is just over £32,000 a year. There is an obvious difficulty in those numbers – an average family paying the average rent will have, on average, £7,000 a year left over for everything else…

The rental system in London is broken, and that’s where Capital Letters comes in. For the last 6 years we have been building the foundations of a new system that prioritises ethical practice, and societal good – helping Londoners who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness to build lives in secure, stable, affordable and good quality homes.

In the next 2 years, working with our partner Home Safe Housing, we will be providing up to 2,500 homes that our member London boroughs can use to move Londoners out of insecure and poor quality temporary accommodation or provide a home for those threatened with homeless.

And in this new system, everyone wins…

Boroughs save taxpayers money and the wider public purse on the costs of expensive Temporary Accommodation (c£15,000 per annum per family), our investors receive both a financial return and social return on their investment, local areas benefit from refurbished and good quality homes, residents get an affordable, long term, secure, good quality home in which to build a brilliant life, and London benefits – more children get better education, more people are in better health, more people are settled and able to find work and support, costs for the NHS reduce and the cycle goes on.

We can only do this by being proudly not-for-profit, ethical, dynamic and socially responsible – because we know that a home changes everything.

We are proud to be recognised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as an organisation that is building the foundations for better lives in London.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report “Bringing private homes into social ownership can rewire the housing system” has recognised that the Capital Letters model can be part of the future for London housing.

The report says that…

“central and local governments working together to establish local housing companies in TA ‘hotspots’, which can purchase, retrofit and then let out homes for use as TA at more affordable rents, this would build on the model of Capital Letters…” can be part of reducing costs and raising standards.
“Bringing private homes into social ownership can rewire the housing system” by Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Our work, in a challenging and superheated London rental market, has resulted in over 6,500 homes being offered to our member boroughs meaning over 6,500 households have had the chance to leave temporary accommodation and build the foundation of a healthy and productive life by moving to a private rented home and putting down secure roots.

In the next 2 years Capital Letters in partnership with the housing charity Home Safe Housing will be investing £750m – the current size of the Local Authority Housing Fund – providing up to 2,500 refurbished, high quality rental homes for Londoners. Most of these homes will be offered at LHA rate to those who are experiencing homelessness and are in temporary accommodation.

Settled housing comes with a host of benefits, from improved educational results to improved health and wellbeing. This isn’t about saving money on TA, it’s about saving money in the NHS, in benefits, and increasing employment outcomes, so raising money on taxes, and empowering people to live their best lives.

The last few years have been extremely challenging supplying LHA rate homes. LHA up until April 2024 fell dramatically short of the 30% of local market rates that it was designed to cover, indeed on specific days in London it covered 0.2% of local market. Our inclusion in this report is a testament to the forward-thinking boroughs who created Capital Letters, and of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Capital Letters is a proud disruptor in the housing sector. Since we were founded Capital letters has pushed for systemic change to the way in which the housing and homelessness crisis is addressed, identifying solutions which will result in more homes for Londoners desperately need them.

We are already starting to rewire the housing system by partnering with private ESG investors to provide social and affordable homes as an ethical private landlord.

Capital Letters is a purpose driven, not for profit, private landlord working to end homelessness in London. We source and manage affordable, secure and safe homes for families experiencing homelessness – because a home can change everything.

We are part of the solution – and you can be too.

Our growing team needs a passionate, talented, and committed Health and Safety Compliance Manager to help may 2,500 properties into 2,500 homes!

Apply here