Nursery World - Opinion: To The Point - Children in the rent trap

We need to help families break the cycle of poverty, says Pat Wills.

'They're scum, just scum'. These words, uttered by an absentee landlord during a recent Radio 4 broadcast about housing, sum up the current crisis for many of the families living in poverty in the UK.

In many of the more deprived wards over 40 per cent of the population live in homes rented from private landlords. Some of those owners work alongside council housing departments to access improvement grants and work towards reducing multi-occupancy accommodation. They link with social services and other agencies such as Home Start to ensure that rent bonds can be agreed and that tenants can be supported and protected. The most vulnerable families - those with learning difficulties, poor credit histories, drug and alcohol dependency, or escapees from domestic violence - are more likely to become entrapped with landlords who are less tolerant of their needs.

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