Housing minister Eddie Hughes MP has met with activists to discuss the government’s reform proposals for the private rental sector.
They were part of the Renters Reform Coalition .
This group describes itself as a coalition of organisations committed to working together to ensure the forthcoming Renters’ Reform Bill “delivers the safety, security and improvements needed for the 11 million private renters in England. We are united in our mission to reform the private rented sector so that everyone who relies on it for their home can prosper.”
The government reform proposals are expected to take the form of a White Paper to be released later this year.
“The discussion was productive - thanks for meeting with us Minister, and we look forward to speaking to you more as the #RentersReformBill progresses” tweeted the activists after the Zoom discussion ended.
The coalition has been lobbying the government for almost a year and wants a range of radical changes including indefinite tenancies with no fixed terms or break clauses, rent controls, the abolition of Section 21 eviction powers for landlords, and forms of financial assistance for tenants moving from one rental property to another.
Members of the coalition include the National Union of Students, ACORN - formally called the Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now - along with the Greater Manchester Tenants Union, London Renters Union, and Renters’ Rights London.
The Generation Rent activist group and campaigning charity Shelter are also members.
The coalition is funded by the Nationwide Foundation.
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Now he needs to try listening to at least a few thousand landlords.
That won't happen Jo, the government aren't interested in what we have to say, let them all carry on and shoot themselves in the foot.
And the chances of that? :-(
If the proposals mentioned come to fruition there won't be any landlords left to listen to, or any private lets to reform. Maybe then the penny will drop.
I don't mind the Govt' shooting themselves in the foot - it seems to be one thing they are good at, but I'd rather we didn't get shot in the foot (and stabbed in the back) first.
They have one deaf ear, and that is the side we are speaking too. They only want to listen to the tenants right side of things, as i have said in a previous post, at the moment the Gen Rent, Shelter and the others think they are the tail wagging the dog......... it's an illusion, with a simple change of opinion by the landlord their tenants are homeless, what ever they put in place they cannot ' steal ' the property from us, so we will just sell up and move our investment somewhere else, it really is that simple, as landlords we are still in a great position......we have assets worth a fortune, which we can sell !
The problem is giving 28% of the proceeds to the Government and those proceeds being drastically reduced if too many of us sell up at the same time.
Even with the crazy PRS legislation which the SNP brought into force in December 2017, already strengthened by stealth even after the "temporary" Covid justified eviction ban was supposed to end and about to be made even worse following a scam "consultation" I won't be selling up, but will take advantage of the soaring rents once many others have pulled out.
I have also stopped renting to families because it's virtually impossible to evict them now in Scotland.
Turkeys seem destined to continue voting for Christmas!
Simon Logan,
Don't bank on the government not being able to steal your property. They can already steal nearly one third of the profit equity in the property, once you sell, so they win there.
Secondly, they could always use compulsory purchase powers to steal our properties at extremely low prices, often known as nationalisation, if they declare housing to be a national emergency. They would devolve the administration of these compulsorily purchased properties to either housing associations or the local councils. Its cheaper for them to do this rather than build news estates of council dwellings which quickly descend to dens of criminality!
Is this Nationwide Foundation funded by the mutually owned Nationwide Building Society, set up to support savers and mortgage payers.
I've been a member since before it was called Nationwide and don't recall giving my approval for it to support any other groups like these freeloaders.
Nationwide support Shelter ! - nuff said.
NO landlord should continue to give their business ( and thereby indirectly funding Tenant campaign groups )
They also gives financial support to anti-private housing Charity Shelter. While landlords are one the biggest Clients of their subsidiary The Mortgage Works, such hypocrisy.
Unfortunately Robert Brown's hopes of taking advantage of soaring rents will likely be scuppered by draconian rent controls come the outlawing of section 21.
My rents in Scotland went up 30% twice over the last 20 years
The first time was when Glasgow City Council forced all properties let to more than two unrelated adults in 2004. The second was in 2017 when the SNP forced through the things now being threatened in England.
Controls
on energy prices and overdraft rates have not held them down as market forces will always prevail.
Any attempt to make landlords operate at a loss will backfire like all other controls have.
I'm in this for the long term but will not run my properties at a loss and I doubt many landlords will be willing to do so. This has been the case every time that rent controls have been brought in here and elsewhere.
If fixed Ta are abolished along with break clauses, then LLds will have to include clauses in their TAs that say rents must rise annually in line with inflation. Otherwise you could have a tenant in situ on the same rent for five or ten years.
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