Ms Marcella Stakem:

On standards in the private rented sector, we recommend a strategy to introduce minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector and to have incentives in place to entice landlords to upgrade their property.

We are starting to see more rent arrears in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Two things need to happen. If a person falls into arrears with their local authority or landlord as regards a top-up, the main mechanism must be about homeless prevention. The rent should continue to be paid to the landlord. The HAP payment should continue and a repayment plan set up between the tenant and the local authority so that the tenancy can continue. That is really important and something we really need to see happen. We have seen an increase, not only in HAP arrears but also in rent supplement arrears in the past couple of years in particular. I think we will see that when we do our analysis after Covid, and it will also rise in January because of Covid. There need to be more protections around rent arrears and support for tenants. We have recommended the interim tenancies support sustainment protocol, similar to what is already in place for rent supplement, to be put in place for HAP.

We need to understand and investigate why landlords are not accepting HAP, considering that over 20% now rent in the private rented sector and that will continue to grow. We must have a private rental sector that is fit for purpose and landlords who want to accept HAP and work with local authorities.

On the 20% uplift, there needs to be consistency among all local authorities about accepting and using the HAP and giving the 20% uplift. Our research found that some tenants were able to receive it in previous tenancies and then were not accepted for the 20% uplift when they moved to a new tenancy, which caused great difficulties for them. We could see no reason that was the case because, on paper, their circumstances had not changed and the new tenancy had the same rent. We are not sure why it is happening and it needs to be examined and investigated. As Ms O'Reilly said earlier, there are issues around HAP in practice that could be sorted with liaison with local authorities and the shared service in Limerick that is working with tenants daily to make it fit for purpose and a viable option while people are waiting for local authority and approved housing body social housing.