Think tank blasts “ineffectual landlords” letting out “poor quality housing”

What is unfathomable is why so many PRS landlords have chosen not to install basic insulation in the walls and lofts of their units and fit a lower running cost central heating system. Doing these simple things, over a period of time, is common sense. Always has been.
We've had the now very reliable and accurate EPC national measurement system in place for 16 years. We've had the Conservative's excellent Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) in place for 9 years but still thousands of landlords think it makes long-term investment sense to own a poor quality asset and have their customers in crippling fuel poverty.
The domestic EPC has always told landlords and tenants precisely what they need to know. The headline EPC Grade is the running cost measurement. That's the correct thing to measure for most - my rental occupiers care about winter heating bills and NOT carbon emissions. But if you do care about carbon emissions the certificate has (since 2008) presented a secondary EPC Grade with the CO2 pollution measurement. Sensible landlords look at BOTH EPC Grades and aim to get them BOTH to Grade C or better. I can't believe that there are still some landlords that don't understand the EPC national measurement system.
These short-sighted landlords' business models are well and truly broken and their rental units are not fit-for-purpose. They are moaning loudly because they've been found out.

I have an idea why they keep paying us to house THEIR tenants 🤔🤔 because they have built sod all social homes for decades 🆘

"former chief executive Miatta Fahnbulleh after she was selected as the Labour candidate for a parliamentary seat in London."
"The New Economics Foundation - which describes itself as politically independent"
Politically independent - my a45e!!!!

The Nazi party was just as politically independent

Now they want to blame Private Landlords for people milking the Benefit System.
It was totally irresponsible for Government to design a system to be milked what did they think would happen.
Unmarried mothers taking advantage of the system given priority, kept, housed schooled and reared that’s where hundreds of thousands of your housing stock has gone creating a shortage, huge numbers have split up and even get divorced to get on it fact, that’s why marriages has declined
Why are Government departments so inept spending 6 times the amount, how did people manage before Housing Support, that’s the fault of the Government and the Claimants, the people that puts a roof over their heads have a Property to pay for. A Brand New Think Tank just where did they crawl out of, they should know.

How can this be seen as independent.
It’s a shameful attack on private landlords which is in unjustified even within its content.
Not a single fact or piece of supporting evidence included within its paragraphs!

1. EPC’s are not fit for purpose hence the reason they are being overhauled. They are a static snapshot for a single point in time often riddled with assumptions and calculations which are now outdated.
2. Private landlords provide a much needed source of housing to plug a gap caused by poor government policy and lack of investment into social housing.
3. Tenants still don’t understand process and my guess is this ‘survey’ has been positioned without a clear explanation of processes such as legal rent increases and what headline figures are. This lack of understanding is just as bad today despite the how to rent guide and various other meddling tools brought in following ‘think tank’ input, consultations and popular policy.
4. Existing social housing is graded much much lower in quality than the private and is the reason lots of social tenants want to move to private. There is a big rise in fraudulent or misleading applications from tenants and in part its desperation to be accepted despite affordability issues because they are seeking a better standard of home.
5. Damp and mould is not always a landlord issue. There is now lots of data around occupier lifestyle and living conditions, including overcrowding amongst families. When referencing it this should be contextualised in order to position the debate as ‘unbiased’ and drive change which improves the status quo.

You have to ask why this has been published and what the benefit is to private landlords - to whom it’s been published!
It’s just a self promotion press release for the foundation and key individuals, appealing to the wider, often misinformed tenant audience without a clear message on a proposed solution.
We’d invite the NEF to publish their full survey and dataset and engage with the private sector on these matters should it have a genuine desire to effect change in housing stock and quality.

Gibbons
Your comments sre untrue. Please stop these falsehoods.

Martin. Where is your evidence how do you know what we have got, you are making a lot of groundless assumption many of mine are ’C’ at a great deal of expense, unlike yours as you have advised us before sounds like dodgy EPC’s putting a full sheet of perspex plastic over entire windows making in operable dysfunctional and blocking fire escapes, this is totally irresponsible.

Ban Gibbo and his Lefty Commie Propaganda Shelter claptrap posing as
" good advice" . Off to Siberia with him.

The Govt has pushed social housing tenants into the PRS by failing to deliver adequate housing for decades. The fact that these people require LHA to afford private housing is not our fault - they shouldn't be here! If all the should-be social tenants were not in the PRS the level of rent for everyone else would be lower.

Govt has failed EVERYONE with its lack of housing policy & this group has the temerity to attack the LLs who are the only group taking up the slack!

I’ve just had an epc done on my ex rental property ready for sale. The top floor flat is sixteen years old from new, has cavity wall insulation, double glazing, improved attic insulation, low led light bulbs, since new it has always had two ratings of C, however the latest epc has been rated a D. As the flat is in Wales who’s Senedd still intend to bring in epc ratings of C or above into law I would have not have been permitted to carry on renting out what is practically a brand new flat.
How can an epc go from C to D overnight on a flat that was only built sixteen years old beats me. Perhaps the cheapest way of getting an epc rating upgrade is to change the person who is carrying out the epc survey? As a footnote the other five flats in a building consisting of six identical flats are all rated C.

Surely the answer then is to provide more "affordable social housing"? Hardly the fault of landlords who are just covering their costs. Also I'd suggest the "ineffectual landlords" letting out "poor quality housing" are more commonly found in the social housing sector.

Peter. I agree with you I had the same problem reduced on renewal from a ‘C’ to a ‘D’ because I don’t have the Cavity Wall Cert’ which was do by Government Scheme because I never had it and the Contractors didn’t issue them that was done by a separate body, CIGA is one but there were others cannot be traced.
They send Certs’ to the property not to the owner
and Tenants have changed several times since. There were 4 Major Companies doing the work who made millions then Bankrupted the Companies or changed their name’s.
Peter maybe I misunderstood or typo you can’t have 2 previous ’C’s as that would be 20 years and not due yet. However I suppose you could upgrading to a ‘B’ and request another one.

Poor quality homes and poor quality tenants go together like peas in a pod, they deserve each other

Genuine question to the NEF.
When you state that “Everybody should have an affordable, warm and secure home to live in”, as an ECONOMICS foundation, you surely understand that higher quality properties cost more, and the higher the standard demanded, the higher the cost of delivery. Who would you say should foot the bill for these improvements? And if the tenant stops paying for the asset they agreed to pay for - who should cover that cost to provide the security you say they should have?

Would be very interested to see the calculations you have undoubtedly made that support your answer to the above question. And if you haven’t done the maths on how to fund what you wish to be true, don’t worry Labour don’t do this either so you’ll probably get along just fine.

We need to abolish most THINK tanks and replace them with DO tanks.

PRS is only 19% of total housing, this NEF article posted in the wrong place, it belongs to social housing /council. As it happens that lots of councils have run out of money to manage the properties properly. The key point is the councils need to learn how to manage their budget properly, not to waste tax payers' money in fruitless projects. This article should be booted out of this portal. All charities should publish a list where the donation goes, in the shops and on the websites. This will avoid misappropriation. Charities' CEO remuneration should also be clearly marked. Don't we have too many charities, is this a warning sign of economy or something else? Heard government stopped funding a charity because they support terrorists.

What makes everyone entitled to a secure warm home if that’s the case why would anyone bother to do anything or is that why so many do nothing, not my duty to provide it.
I see more houses vacant because of all the constant attack HNO’s (houses with no occupancy).

Hmm so the money “will be paid to private landlords”…if only that was a certainty. With Universal Credit the money will be paid to the tenant and may not be passed on at all to the landlord. The idea is that the landlord can get direct payments when the tenant has got 2 months of arrears, however some scheming manipulative tenants make up false stories about their landlords or about the property to get the payments back to themselves to squander it instead. I know a landlord waiting for a possession hearing where there’s £25k of arrears so 20 months worth and no guarantee the DWP won’t switch back to the tenant again.