Waste not, want not with a shared house

As the difficulties with unemployment continue and pay freezes affect thousands across the region, housing costs are becoming more and more of a strain on resources and some will be unable to weather the storm writes Lea Beven.

But, in an attempt to lessen the blow, local councils are beginning to take a bigger interest in the small HMO market (Houses of Multiple Occupation - when live-in landlords rent out rooms in their home to boost their income.)

Hot on the tail of this, the Residential Landlord Association (RLA) have found over 24 local councils which are trying to prohibit small HMOs.

The directions set out in Article 4 mean that landlords would need planning permission for a shared house with between three and six unrelated people.

In a newsletter that I received from the RLA, it seems that the West Midlands and Shropshire are not yet affected, but large councils like Manchester have invoked the directions.

Following the latest budget though, single people over 25 will only receive housing allowance for a room in a shared house and not enough for a self-contained flat as before.

And here in my office we have had a large increase in room rentals over the last 12 months, as more and more people need help with mortgage payments, and more people can not afford to rent smaller properties.

We have also found that even the larger families are renting smaller houses and having children share rooms - to keep the costs down.

So surely we need more properties to run as shared houses, not discourage landlords by making them more difficult to set up?

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Is it any wonder though that we are running out of money when people still adopt a throw-away attitude to living - opting to buy cheap and buy twice, rather than demanding quality first time?

I share a house with five other people and the food waste is often quite scary - bags of salad, loaves of bread and milk being the biggest waste products.

Yet it always seems to be the people claiming to have no money that are the ones that don't do a proper shopping trip and make their own home cooked food - instead opting for expensive takeaways.

If you do live in a house share, the more communal you can become, the more money you will save.

There are a few of us in my house that will buy the luxury foods we enjoy, such as avocados, vine tomatoes , specialist mushrooms, goats cheese, pesto etc... and then all eat a meal together, rather than each buying seperately.

Meal plans are a great way to do this and you can always buy the extra items you need on top.

Simple things like having communal tea bags can save a small fortune as they are so much cheaper to buy in bulk.

And every month I buy a large sack of potatoes for a couple of quid and let everyone help themselves. Then, if I need anything, I can just ask and they're likely to repay the favour.

These are tough times and little things like this can make all the difference.