An immediate private sector rent freeze and eviction ban for the duration of the cost of living crisis is the key policy of the Green Party for next month’s local elections.
It says: “In the short term, we would introduce an immediate rent freeze and eviction ban to prevent people being made homeless in the middle of this cost of living crisis, as the Scottish Greens have already done as part of the Scottish Government.
“In the longer term, we would give councils the power to bring in rent controls in areas where the housing market is overheated. We would also place much stricter controls on the type of new homes being built to include more affordable and social housing for buying and renting.
“Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. That is why our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities.”
The Greens have around 540 councillors in England and Wales now and have control of Brighton council.
If they got wider traction their Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would involve:
- Creating 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard;
- Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use;
- Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction;
- Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates;
- Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services.
- Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life;
- Introduce rent controls and end what it calls ’no-fault’ evictions.
Carla Denyer, a party co-leader, says: “This year’s local elections are a crucial step for the Greens as we look to not only defend hundreds of seats across the country but continue our unprecedented growth, breaking through on to new councils and gaining control of councils where we already have representation.
“With the cost of living crisis, the climate crisis and more and more people looking for a fresh political voice, it has never been more important to get Greens elected.”
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Lots of talk about rent freeze and no talk about interest rate freeze for landlords. Landlord seems to be an easy target and dirty word. If no body wants landlords make it illegal to buy and rent property and goverment buy all houses owned by landlords at market rates. Problem solved
Couldn't read it all, vexed after only a few sentences, silly greens will wreck this planet 🤣
So, they expect Landlords to take even further hits because of how sh!te they actually are with their cr@ppy policies that have been going on for decades in helping create this very crises!
But do not worry, as it'll answer all your d@mn worries - yes we'll just hit them yet again, how utterly gormless.
Constant blows against the sector that has consistently helped and carried all recent governments with their decades of bumbling inept and incompetent policies.
Getting out is the best answer.
I would like to start a Really Green Party which focuses on really green issues like encouraging building fuel efficient diesel cars, motorways and dual carriageways.
Building zero emissions nuclear power stations and doing a full life cycle study of how green electric cars and peripheral new build estates actually are.
I would also pledge to focus on ONLY green issues and abstain from voting on left/ right wing issues in recognition that many current green voters might not support the loony lefty and ultra woke issues which the current "green" loonies are pushing.
Like other lefty parties the current greens are very good at spending other people's money!
It amazes me that there is so much talk about rent freezes when landlord costs have also risen exponentially. Those of us with mortgaged properties have to bear the increase in borrowing costs as well as if renting out HMOs the hikes in utility bills, maintenance costs etc.
We want responsible happy tenants and as landlords have a duty of care to our clients but don't kill "the goose that lays the golden eggs" !
One yet AGAIN reading on how to clobber the P Landlord. Unless tenant unruly causing problem not payin rent u not going to evict em.
And what has happened to Scottish rents ? Larger rises than England with increases on new tenancies.
My Glasgow student flats will have their first rent increases since December 2017 when they went up by 30% when the SNP anti PRS legislation came into force. They're set to go up by around 20% to get back to current market rates but if there wasn't a rent cap for existing tenants then I might not have put them up so much as I have consistently kept them stable for existing tenants - but I will decide whether to choose that option, not the loony SNP and their little Green helpers.
We've already got all this going on in Scotland.... I've started selling... It's only gong to get worse....
I believe that market forces will eventually win, even in Scotland so I am staying put but increasing rents as much as possible as often as possible to avoid being forced into any unprofitable tenancies before sanity is eventually restored.
Who knows, we might even have a Unionist Labour Tory coalition in Scotland unless they plan to move Holyrood a couple of miles west to Saughton Prison!
NRLA, SAL (Scottish Association Landlords), Property Mark, TC Young solicitors are raising fund to challenge the rent cap and eviction in Scotland as this is unlawful. They need to raise £60,000 and everybody is making pledges. And we shouldn't let go the ferry disaster £1.5b, the trams project £1.2b, £600K missing in SNP, with this money, can easily build 27,000 homes or 337,000 homes from Elon Musk's. This all happened under the coalition of SNP and Green Party.
It's a good job not many people vote for these green nutters.
Unfortunately these nutters are being given too much say in Scotland by the SNP nutters that gave them too much power to get a coalition. We will essentially have had a rent freeze/cap and restricted evictions for 18 months come September .. and it may continue. There is currently a legal challenge by various organisations
I think the Greens only got about 4% of votes in the last Holyrood election but ended up with 10% of the MSP's and 100% of the power!
I can see how this might look appealing to those who think all landlords are rich and greedy. And in the very short term it will help tenants, for about as long as it takes for their home to be sold. Then they will have a bigger problem than thinking their rent is too high, ie nowhere to live.
Sad to see rent cap in Scotland. Many more LL's selling up. If a rent cap comes to England I'll be selling up too. I increase rents each year a small amount as tenants have told me they don't like big jumps in rent every 3 years. I have not increased rent in line with inflation 10.6 last year. I only increased by 5 percent. I aim to increase by another 5 percent this year regardless of inflation rate. If rents had been frozen Ifor 18 months I'd have made very little profit and would be selling up.
It will be interesting to see how they do in Brighton this time around, they've had Refuse Strikes and have told residents to weed their own pavements and verges, neither of which have been that popular locally. They do have some good ideas which are in theory already law, but largely side-stepped such as local infrastructure improvements when new developments are built and energy improvements. I see lots of new homes going up, but no new GP surgeries, local shops, or bus routes, and these same properties have no Solar panels, Rain Harvesting, or Heat Pumps built into them. Their ideas around rent controls and other financial policies are sadly ill-thought-out, but I do think they are on the right track regarding house building and community facilities.
Heard PRS landlords couldn't increase rent but social housing landlords can increase rent in Scotland?
People pay taxes for the government to find solutions for homeless and social housing, government should be creative and resolving these issues and avoid hurting business that do work. To ban eviction and rent caps, is to transfer the responsibilities for the society from the government to the PRS landlords. Government should control energy price increase and the interests rate increase. The only difference is the PRS is weaker body than the energy companies and BOE. Therefore, this is discrimination to the weaker body and unlawful. It is amazing that our country allows Scotland to run different system. Green party should focus on their manifesto and get their nose out of the PRS. After all the Green Party has 5% of the Scottish Parliament, their noise should be 5%. It seems they have excessive voice which will destroy the PRS and this is undemocratic.
4% of the vote gave them 10% of the MSP'S and the SNP gave them 100% of the power!
Yet more blithering from the halfwits I see. It's talk like this that has led my employers to divesting themselves of their resi portfolio faster than at any time in the last 70 years or so that they've been around. On the bright side there seem to be lots of commercial opportunities about these days.
What about freezing council tax , business rates etc etc ??
Excellent idea.
I own five properties. Last month after paying out all the bills such as mortgages, repairs, insurances, agents fees, council registration fees and income tax etc., Well you all know what I mean, but all I was left with around £240.00p. That's less £50 gain on each property. Then I have to save this to make sure there will be enough to continue to pay next months bills etc. So on and so on!
Does this mean I am a so called 'rich landlord' that can continue to be pushed and pushed into going bankrupted?
The real money goes into councils and the government who then piddle it away so they can ensure they’ll be given the same next year
And they dare pontificate to the vastly more efficient private sector !
Oh the hypocrisy
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