Sadiq Khan challenged by new candidate seeking rental reform

No, I think other people pay too much rent.
No freeloading here, this place has been in profit since the 70's, so the majority of my rent goes to provide local services

I like what you have done there 👍🏻

What if UK Londlords weren't the enemy? Would you feel any more optimistic if I said the first thing that would need to happen in London is returning to profit=tax not revenue (which is rubbish for everyone but the revenue).
The system is truly broken, and as you have pointed out, a cacophony of sticking plasters have been applied, in various moments of 'urgency'. A new, better system that's designed in the calm, cold light of day, might even be better. Rent.vote is the website ;-)

We'll have Mr Turner telling us bread is a human right and should be free

And the bread delivery operatives should forego the minimum wage as otherwise the bread would have to be £0.60 . The delivery operatives wage could then be revised once every ten years .

Oh I have right to buy - and for the amount of time I've been living here, I could buy the place for an absolute song (probably 30-40% of today market value), but I don't want to. I don't mind handing over my rent to the council, as it pays for things in my local area.

What if I told you - that Landlords are not the evil baddies?

Serge

Perhaps the Council makes a profit from renting to you - making you almost unique in the history of social housing. The much missed noble Baroness Thatcher wanted to sell off social housing as she rightly recognised that they and their occupants were largely a drain on society and the hard pressed taxpayers.

You have clearly recognised this and don't want to have to undertake the hard work, bear the cost or accept the responsibility of maintaining your own home.

In accordance with your own socialist beliefs, you are also content to depend on the taxpayers keeping you in an expensive care home in later life instead of building up a nest egg to fund your own later life care , leave as a legacy or leave to the taxpayers as a final thank you for a lifetime of cradle to grave care for you and your "dependents", probably actually also lifetime dependants of the taxpayers.

You're making quite a few assumptions there mr Brown,

The council doesn't just make a profit on my rent, they make a profit on the communal cleaning (£400 per week to have a man run a broom once a week if lucky), a communal 'digital TV dish' that doesn't work (£50pw)

They don't have the money to pay the CEO of the council north of £250,000 because the housing portfolio is running at a loss. They are able to make a profit because they run economies of scale.

You pay to hire a plumber when something goes wrong, they save money by having them on payroll.

My OAP and Legacy plans are coming along nicely, thanks for the concern. And don't get salty because your kids will likely pay inheritance tax, while I get to pass my tenancy to my children upon death for free :P

Serge

Firstly, full marks for engaging with us in a civilised manner and attempting to justify your position, although it's not one shared by many on this site.

Regarding your plans for your own old age, I fear, like many others, you may have significantly underestimated how much a care home will cost, which is now typically £5000 to £8000 per month, a huge burden on the taxpayers caring for those with insufficient preparations to have amassed the necessary level of funds during their healthy lifetime. For most home owners, it means the sale of their home and a huge dent in the legacy left to their loved ones. For those who have never invested in their own property, it means further dependence on the taxpayers, after a lifetime of free NHS care, free education and subsidised housing.

Regarding Councils saving money and profiting by employing their own maintenance staff, it's been proven countless times that outsourcing services to the private sector is significantly cheaper when the hidden costs of over generous sick pay, pensions, diversity training and layers of inefficient management are included in the calculations. I have yet to see any Council make a surplus which could be returned to the exchequer. Companies like Serco, Mitie, Capita etc. do very well providing services to the public sector, saving it vast sums whilst continuing to make respectable profits for their pension fund shareholders.

Regarding Inheritance tax, I actually approve of it and other taxes on unearned income, like CGT, although I think there should be sensible indexation relief to avoid paying tax on non existent gains, balanced by the removal of the many loopholes which the seriously wealthy are able to exploit.

"...your kids will likely pay inheritance tax, while I get to pass my tenancy to my children upon death for free :P"

A terrible way for someone looking for power to behave. It's not right to think what you described is a good thing. Even less to put an emoji like that. It's clear you're not cut out for politics.

yea, the only rents that need to get lower are the PRS rents.
Which means the costs to the landlords and liability of costs and headache to the landlord also has to go down.

Also this is London specific - wouldn't be needed or desirable on a national scale.

Hi Serge, problem you have here is there is a cost to providing, keeping, repair and management of a property. You are looking for a utopian scenario. Effectively you are wanting a product for less than its cost. Really you just want somebody else to stump up the balance to keep you in the manner you’ve become accustomed to. Low rent tenancies in a sought after area will then become a black market traded commodity. This is what used to happen before AST’s. You’ve responded on here with respect and you deserve the same back. Rents will not become lower until London has an unacceptable radio active level.

PRS rents are not and won’t come down. Governments have made a rod for their own back at the expense of Landlords. landlords will simply continue to sell up if any more, unfair (tenant loaded) regulations come in which cost the Landlords. We should never have to subsidise the tenants.

Exactly right Jahan, just look at all the sub letting of flats in Grenfell tower. People given a low cost flat didn't live there ,but just made profit from other desperate people. And more importantly were not prosecuted when this was discovered. I wonder just how many other properties in London are being rented out in the same manner.

Andrew - Grenfell Tower exactly. What was the problem in knowing who was in there when it happened. All you needed to do was get the tenant list off the main LL’s and the owners list, but no one wanted to say sub-let no one. That would have really exposed what is happening in London. If you know, you know!

Hey Jahan,

If you take a look at the policy idea found here:
betterrents4london[dot]com/2-better-rents-detailed-read/
You'll see that the policy has plenty of exemptions, including "Market adjusted rentals", so if there is a sudden cost that requires financing (new roof, underpinning etc etc) then you would be able to charge a higher rent.

you are not entirely incorrect - it's far from a shoe in.
Better Rents - Digital Direct Democracy
unfortunately events beyond my control had me start a lot later than I wanted, if it's any consolation - next time round will just be Direct Democracy on the ticket, as in another 4 years the 'fixing the PRS so Landlords can breathe easier and tenants have more spending money' boat will have already set sail for Shanghai

Ha Ha....

Got a tenner?

Serge, you have no skin in the game. You are neither a tenant in the PRS, nor a landlord so I wouldn't donate 10p, let alone a tenner.

I will say, having read your posts, you do not seem to be a raving leftie like James Turner and SBR.

#TeamTed

Yes, 100%. Daylight robbery from the treasury if you ask me.
They want to kill the buy to let market - but not say they want to kill the buy to let market - don't worry though, there's a cash buyer waiting in the wings to buy those heavy bricks off you

The biggest cost to the person that's the tenant is the rent, the biggest cost to the person that's the buy to let Landlord is the rent (to the bank).

It's about lowering that monthly mortgage payment while keeping overall profits of the banks high, a dip in the short term offset with higher uptake of more profitable products, and greater medium to long term profits and stability (but I'm getting ahead of myself).

For big ticket costs you would be able to apply for an exemption in order to finance them.

just build a boat load more houses - isn't going to fix things, especially for existing Landlords

CEO must need a pay rise

Hi Edwin,

Not to be contrary, but actually London generates a lot more money that it gets. in 2022 London raised £161.9BN for the inland revenue. Per Capita Tax contribution is double the UK average. It provides about 30% of total UK income tax and corporation tax.

I know landlords, and understand the pressures on them. I know that while some (agency landlords especially) are playing a greed game, many are being forced to up rents due to interest rate hikes and ever expanding compliance and costs. However the death of the chip shop (and everything else on the highstreet that isn't a Costa) is largely influenced by the rise in rents.

This needs to be tackled - and not in a "Landlords are evil" way. Not in a "banks are evil" way either. We created a rule set when we were the big dogs - but now, on the international stage were running with wolves, bears and tigers. Google property related jobs that require mandarin, to get an idea of how deep this river runs

A bit like the Crown Estates paying more to the Treasury/taxpayers than it pays to the Monarch via the Sovereign Grant, yet the perception is that the entire Royal Family is funded by the taxpayers.

London 'raised' the money by funnelling the actual wealth down there to company HQs. For example, a third of the country's oil comes through Immingham. Immingham is an industrial hell-hole because none of the money it generates (including at the refinery) is kept there...but you just keep counting that as 'London money'.

Agreed, Anthony, but wanting a rent freeze is not the way to go about it.

Or its delivery drivers are too busy on social media and the bread is being delivered late and stale?

I have just dusted off my crystal ball and forecast another lost deposit.