Why Angela Rayner’s return should worry landlords

The political carousel has spun once again to bring Angela Rayner back into government running England’s housing brief.

That’s just 10 months after resigning as Housing Secretary for underpaying £40,000 in stamp duty on her own flat, a breach of the ministerial code she was found to have committed ‘despite acting in good faith’, she has been reappointed by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Nothing restores confidence in a housing crisis like handing responsibility back to someone who could not do the sums on her own house.

Burnham himself arrived in Downing Street without a general election, elevated through a leadership contest rather than a national vote.

His first days in office have been dominated by cost-of-living pledges, and reports suggest a rent freeze is under consideration, a policy that was never in Labour’s manifesto and one Our Ange previously warned would undermine the supply of homes to rent.

It means the incoming Housing Secretary could be asked to implement a policy she has gone on record opposing.

Rent freeze question

In his briefing with journalists, Burnham when asked about a rent freeze and other cost-of-living issues, said: “We’re looking at all of those things.”

That should be enough to make every landlord sit up.

Rent controls are politically irresistible because they sound simple. Rent is high, so freeze it. Problem solved.

The difficulty comes six months later, when investment stalls, maintenance is postponed and more landlords decide that the private rented sector no longer rewards the risk.

You only have to look at the auction rooms and sales listings which already tell their own story.

Savills found that 254,000 previously let homes were listed for sale in the year to the end of March, equivalent to nearly 700 a day.

Only 14% of those sold returned to the sector through another landlord.

Yet ministers continue to behave as though landlord supply is an optional extra.

Panorama investigation revelations

It’s been a fun week for landlords and Monday’s Panorama investigation showed the other reality politicians prefer not to discuss.

Criminals can use false identities and references to take control of properties, turning homes into drug factories, brothels or unlawful sublets.

Once inside, removing them may mean months of civil proceedings and enormous expense.

The timing could scarcely be worse.

Section 21 has gone, possession is more dependent on specific grounds and evidence, and the government is now considering whether landlords should also lose control over the price charged for their property.

Apparently, this is how Burnham intends to end rough sleeping, his first policy announcement.

Do you feel safe?

So, here we are again having to explain that as more landlords sell, fewer rented homes remain available, competition rises and tenants face an even harder search.

Ministers then diagnose the shortage they helped create and prescribe another dose of regulation.

Burnham entered Parliament after winning the Makerfield by-election and became Prime Minister through Labour’s leadership process.

While that’s constitutionally valid, it does not give him a blank cheque to introduce policies that were never put before the country at the general election.

Nor does putting Rayner back in housing demonstrate renewal.

It looks like ministerial rehabilitation, with the same people handed the same red boxes and everyone expected to forget why they surrendered them.

Landlords are now being asked to trust a Prime Minister without a personal general election mandate, a housing secretary returning from a property tax resignation and a government openly entertaining rent controls.

So, I have a genuine question for the Labour-voting landlords reading Property118.

Do you feel safer now?

Until next time,

The Landlord Crusader