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10:24 AM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago 13
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The appointment of Angela Rayner by the Labour Party as Shadow Housing Secretary means that landlords might have a Jeremy Corbyn supporter keen to bring in draconian laws for landlords in the private rented sector (PRS), one landlords’ organisation warns.
Ms Rayner’s appointment this week by Kier Starmer follows the surprise demotion of Lisa Nandy from the post.
But Chris Norris, policy director at the National Residential Landlords Association, said that Ms Rayner’s association with the left of the party, and Jeremy Corbyn’s policies, may give some landlords cause for concern.
However, he says that Labour will probably not want to rock the PRS boat too much before the next General Election.
Chris told Property118: “I know how badly shaken the sector is at the moment by what the current government are doing.
“And with Angela Rayner coming to the department, I question quite how interested she’s going to be in housing.
“To me, this looks a lot like the previous Labour government putting John Prescott in charge of an awful lot of very important things and then hopefully having some focused junior shadow ministers beneath them.”
He added: “But we just really want to see some detail because we have had a reasonable dialogue with the Labour team about what they’re thinking.”
Chris says that Labour hasn’t published any plans for the PRS since its ‘New Deal for Housing’ in 2018 – and it didn’t have a huge amount of detail.
No one knows what Labour’s plans for landlords and the PRS are.
Chris said: “Obviously, they’ve made statements here and there, and we’ve seen the recent stuff about rent control, plus the commentary about what the government is doing with renters’ reform.
“But there has not been a manifesto, just an open statement about what they’re planning to do with housing.”
“Lots of landlords, lots of letting agents and people in the industry are pretty fed up with what the government are doing and there’s not a lot of optimism about what’s coming out of the government at the moment and the direction of travel.
“But there’s not a viable alternative being shown from our point of view by the Labour Party, and that leaves a vacuum.”
He added: “And from the conversations I have with our members, I think there’s quite often a sense that it takes a long time to overcome the baggage of previous elections.
“There are still a lot of people that I think are quite concerned by the previous leadership with Jeremy Corbyn and some of the more traditionally Labour or the more radical proposals that were that were made then.”
The worries over what Labour wants to do doesn’t extend to a move towards rent controls or even a shift to ‘the hard left’.
Chris said: “I think the more conversations I have with their team, the more I think the Renters (Reform) Bill that’s in front of Parliament at the moment is quite critical.
“I think if that Bill gets through, they will be quite content maybe to put some of their broader agenda around private landlords onto a back burner.
“I think the Bill ticks a lot of boxes for them at the moment.”
He says that landlords may not see action from Labour immediately if they do win the next election, but speculation is mounting about what might happen post-election.
Chris explains: “What would concern me is actually what kind of agency or what kind of leeway the regional mayors are given.
“And I think English devolution is probably a bigger risk to our market than possibly proposals or policies that are likely to come out of Angela Rayner’s department.
“I think if you consider the kind of things that certainly Sadiq Khan has been saying over the last couple of years, and some of the areas that Andy Burnham has looked at in Manchester, should those mayors be given the powers that they would like, I think we could start to see rent freezes.”
he adds: “We could start to see greater intervention in different parts of the country.
“And that could be particularly damaging to landlords looking to invest, and it would be another blow, frankly, to those landlords that do want to provide homes in those areas that they’re most needed.”
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Martin Hicks
11:52 AM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
There's nothing like uncertainty to inhibit investment. Coupled with rising savings and mortgage rates, the outlook for property investment has become far less attractive than previously. Fewer will see much attraction for the risks involved.
TheMaluka
11:57 AM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Martin Hicks at 07/09/2023 - 11:52
Particularly when those risks are deliberately imposed by government.
Beaver
12:49 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Martin Hicks at 07/09/2023 - 11:52
There is something like uncertainty to inhibit investment: It's called the Scottish National Party.
The labour party would do well to learn from the damage that the SNP has done and is doing in Scotland.
C-cider
13:50 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Politicians of all parties will say anything to get elected. Manifestos contain policies that they believe will garner the most votes.
Once they have the keys to No 10, they revert to type.
I’ll struggle to vote Conservative having witnessed the damage on Teesside but I’m not sure I could vote Labour either. It may be a wasted vote but it may be going to the Green Party.
robert fisher
14:33 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Whitby Host at 07/09/2023 - 13:50
A little snippet of the Green party policy on housing! Rent freeze, eviction ban, council powers to control rent ! not sure they would get my vote
“Up and down the country, people are experiencing the same problems as people here in Stowmarket - homes that are unaffordable to buy, unaffordable to rent and unaffordable to heat. There is a generation of people who are trapped in the private rental market by spiralling rents that bear no relationship to incomes.
“To address this, 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.
TheMaluka
14:47 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by robert fisher at 07/09/2023 - 14:33
As long as we place similar controls over Council Tax, interest rates, food prices etc. Get real and let market forces determine everything for government interference has proved to be disastrous.
northern landlord
16:22 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Labour have not really set out any sort of stall for the voters to look at. Maybe they will put out a bit more policy as the election comes closer. At the moment their key policy statement seems to be “vote for us, at least we’re not the Conservatives”. The Conservatives are already planning to give the PRS a good kicking in a populist move to dupe people who can’t afford houses and have to rent that the fault lies with greedy landlords and not with themselves. If Labour is not planning rent controls or eviction bans it is difficult to see what clear water there could be between them and the Conservatives as regards the PRS.
Crouchender
16:58 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 07/09/2023 - 16:22
Remember Nandy got the Chair of Hammersmith and Fulham Council to lead on a review of PRS so those findings will help shape Labour policy. It wont be pretty.
https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2023/1/labour-to-launch-major-review-of-private-rental-sector?source=mostcommented
C-cider
20:05 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by robert fisher at 07/09/2023 - 14:33
I fear some form of rent controls are needed. Rents in London are just plain stupid and some landlords are profiteering by returning the city to slum status (HMOs that were previously 2 and 3 bedroom family homes).
The Housing Benefit bill is ridiculous and not sustainable. The LHA in some parts of London is more than I earned when I worked full time.
Crouchender
20:28 PM, 7th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Whitby Host at 07/09/2023 - 20:05
Prices only go up if supply goes down! Market dynamics. However the fear of rent controls and loss asset control is driving amateur LLs away especially in London so the market a very volatile for tenants thanks to Government, Labour and councils selective licencing tax.