Cities across the UK are at greater risk of homelessness problems, unless local authorities take steps to work with the private rented sector, says Perrons Davis, the specialist housing benefit letting agency, who have criticised local authorities for leaving vulnerable people to fend for themselves in the search for private accommodation, with many facing rejection from private landlords and letting agents who refuse to let property to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.

Charities have warned of an increased risk of homelessness as cuts to social housing budgets and housing benefit take effect. Councils will have less money to invest in housing, while landlords have been dissuaded from letting to benefit tenants following the cuts by the lower returns, leaving a widening gap between social and private housing.

But this could be avoided if councils and letting agents establish ways of working together.

In a recent report on social housing reform proposals, the Chartered Institute of Housing stated that: ‘We have serious reservations about the availability, affordability and suitability of private sector housing in many areas to provide accommodation for people owed the main homelessness duty... CIH points out that access to private rented sector housing could be significantly limited by new restrictions on local housing allowance payable, which could limit the workability of the proposed measure.

’CIH notes that the private sector already plays a very significant role in meeting the temporary accommodation needs for authorities in connection with their homelessness duties, and that housing professionals are accustomed to working with private landlords. Without some form of tenancy support in the private rented sector, there could be higher rates of tenancy failure amongst the formerly homeless’.

Perrons Davis is currently piloting a scheme with Hull Council to accommodate tenants with poor credit records and arrears histories who are not eligible for a council house but who would struggle to find accommodation in the private sector by themselves.

Steve Perrons, managing director of Perrons Davis, said: "One of the main reasons that vulnerable people find themselves either homeless or in unsuitable accommodation is that local authorities and landlords do not communicate with each other enough. In many cases, landlords assume that the council will not supply tenants, while some councils seem to assume that private landlords will not offer a workable solution. But with the cuts to social housing budgets and threats to the wider economy, there is an urgent need for the public and private sector to create workable, local options for individual tenants."