Labour’s shadow housing spokesperson is promoting a video claiming that ‘everyone’ in the private rental sector suffers from ‘rogue landlords and letting agents.’
Lisa Nandy – Labour’s spokesperson on Levelling Up, Housing and the Communities, shadowing Michael Gove – has tweeted a video of her meeting with what appears to be a group of private tenants.
One tenant says: “My experience of renting hasn’t been good. Like everyone else, I’ve experienced the same things of rogue landlords and rogue agents … most private renters in London are now paying rent that would cover a mortgage.”
Another apparent renter complains: “I can’t get in touch with my landlord, they never want to do anything that might involve a little bit of money on their side.”
Much of the video is promoting Labour’s latest housing idea, for a low cost mortgage scheme designed to allow first time buyers to have priority purchasing rights in some circumstances.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has already, separately, pledged to introduce a scheme fo that “no more buy-to-let landlords or second homeowners getting in first”.
In her video Nandy says: “That’s why a Labour government will tilt the balance of power towards tenants with new rights and protections for renters.”
Since an announcement in January that Labour was to hold a major review of the private rental sector with the aim of carving out policies for a future government, nothing has been heard of the exercise.
You can see the video in Nandy’s Twitter stream here.
