By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 10:36, Sunday, 17 March 2013

There has been a surge in the number of people looking to rent a home in Carlisle.

Around 1,000 have registered in the last year with Cumbria Choice, the letting system for housing associations. The number of new applicants used to be around 300 a year.

Riverside, the city’s largest social landlord, believes that many are young people setting up home who cannot raise the deposit required to buy a property and therefore have to rent.

Mortgages have been harder to come by since the credit crunch, especially for those with a small deposit.

A spokeswoman for Riverside said: “There are 4,989 people registered with Cumbria Choice looking for housing in Carlisle. Of these, 2,889 are people are looking for one-bed [accommodation] in Carlisle. But 2,100 are looking for two, three or four-bedroom family homes.”

Some of those on the waiting list are already housing-association tenants. They might need a bigger home, a smaller home or simply to move to a different area. Demand for smaller houses is rising because of the so-called “bedroom tax”.

The Government is cutting the housing benefit of people of working age who are deemed to be “under occupying” – living in a home with more bedrooms than Ministers say they need. Someone deemed to have two “spare” bedrooms will be £1,300 a year worse off.

The Riverside spokeswoman said: “We have identified that 1,047 of our residents will be under-occupying their homes and will be affected by the changes in housing benefit.

“We have contacted them and have identified that 21 per cent want to downsize. These include people who require one, two or three-bedroom homes.

“We are working to support our tenants during this time of change.”

Under the new rules, which apply from April, one bedroom is allowed for each adult couple or single person. Children under 16 of the same sex are expected to share a room, as are children regardless of sex under 10. While the changes have boosted demand for one-bedroom homes, three-bedroom properties – which used to be in high demand – are becoming hard to let.

Riverside advertised two three-bedroom properties last week and got just one applicant for each.

It manages 6,052 homes in Carlisle, Penrith and surrounding rural areas, most of them former Carlisle council houses that transferred from the city council in 2002. Of these, 1,684 have one bedroom while 4,368 have two or more bedrooms.

First published at 10:32, Sunday, 17 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk