When I lived in a council flat researching a book, I had many offers from sharp estate agents to buy my flat and give me a small share of the proceeds: people in debt often abandon secure tenancies to these sharks.
That means: good pre-tenancy information and support; good money and debt advice; a progressive and human response to rent arrears – trying to avoid eviction where possible; protocols to help with housing issues for those leaving prison.
But even taking that into account, he told the BBC: "If you roll that out to 31,000 tenancies we will be increasing our bad debt provision by a further £2-3m a year".
The research argues that official figures are masking the true scale of the problem, as councils are increasingly using informal approaches to tackle homelessness - such as assisting people with debt advice, help to stay in a tenancy or family mediation.
Examples of these approaches include offering financial assistance, debt advice, help to stay in a tenancy or family mediation, the report said.
But by investing in financial support during the early stages of someone's tenancy we can all help towards preventing individuals falling into debt, which ultimately becomes more costly for tenants and landlords later on.
The incapacity of the settlers to wrest the indigenous inhabitants from their land resulted in the development of several types of labour coercion and control: slavery, clientship, indenture, debt bondage, and various forms of rent and labour tenancy.
A proposal to sell the historic building was shelved after campaigners rallied round in support, with the charity deciding earlier this year to address the £2m of outstanding debt by increasing opportunities to make money from the premises through hire and tenancy, as well as a sale of items from the institution's library collection.
"Its policy objectives have been undermined by the realpolitik of public debt, so local authorities will be compelled to bring in fixed term tenancies and increased rents, without keeping the income, while housing associations will face no such strictures".
We were left using it for the rest of our tenancy and initially we were even charged every time we topped up, because energy companies sometimes recoup their debt by charging it to the pre-pay meter.
2. Duped into Debt: Extortionate amounts of money are taken for hidden costs without the tenant knowing, such as fees for a tenancy inspection which the landlords "forget" to tell tenants about, immediately putting people into arrears.
