Britain’s housing market, the PRS – and Shelter’s contribution?

The government's assault on landlords is causing a total breakdown of UK society., leading to mass homelessness and bankrupt Councils.

The media put it down to so called 'no fault ' evictions but these evictions are being caused by government policy changes started by David Cameron and George Osborne in 2015. When will they learn to stop meddling with businessess they don't fully understand?

The MAIN cause of "mass homelessness, bankrupt Councils and the breakdown of UK society" is ill thought out Government policy. They can't change policies to put leveraged Landlords out of business and expect no concequences. Those leveraged Landlords housed/house millions of people, millions of human beings, comprising of vulnerable families.

The population has systematically being brainwashed by the government, the media and so called charities to believe that leveraged Landlords are evil. These landlords used many years of there own savings to fill the gap created by many years of selling off council housing and under investment in affordable house building. The ordinary people who were encouraged by government pension changes to put their money into property investment, are not to blame.

THE GOVERNMENT (of both persuasions) made pension changes; encouraged banks to lend money on new buy-to-let mortgages; sold off Council housing; didn't invest in affordable housing, by changing policies. So why are the ordinary people who were literally cajoled into changing the way they saved for their futures and the futures of their families, now so vilified?

The media and charities, funded by the Government and encouraged by Government spin, seem to brain wash the public into demonising ordinary people who try to make a living, whilst firmly believing that it's OK for big business to make a profit.

Why is it now so acceptable for big business (Government donors) to make millions yet it's now seen as unacceptable for ordinary people to use their own money to solve Government failings?

Why can the public not see how manipulated they are?

Just think about it for a minute.

We (the public) now live in a society that is really struggling to feed and house our most vulnerable, yet we ADAMANTLY believe that it's acceptable for Lloyds Bank and John Lewis to make a fair profit, yet it's not acceptable for ordinary people (leveraged Landlords) to house the vulnerable. The world has gone mad!!!

Why can people not see how toxic and devious Governments have become? I don't know how, but they influence the media via charities to brain wash the public.

Like sheep we believe their narrative whilst our basic human rights are crumbling around our ears. Like sheep we turn-on our own and support the rich.

This is the country we live in.

Is there any organisation out there that could collate all the S21 applications over the past 5 year or more and create an anonymous poll of these landlords to quantify the real reason for the use of the S21 option against S8? I'm sure the majority of S21 activity is around removing non payers, antisocial behaviour etc rather than it is about no fault evictions

That was a bit of a rant.

But I firmly believe the public are manipulated to hate ordinary people (small landlords) and support big business to make a 'so called' fair profit.

What happened to the Robin hood principal?

Why is it considered acceptable for Lloyds Bank and John Lewis to charge more, for providing less (no gardens, garages, suburban community living) but not acceptable for ordinary people to provide for their families?

The cause behind this debacle is that at no point has there been a serious round table discussion that involved PRS, Social Housing, Charities, house builders and Government.

Each sector have been treated as separate independent housing factions not an integrated ecosystem. Dare I say glib statement- no joint up thinking.

A desperate need is required to bring all sectors together to have meaningful talks. We keep on hearing of housing expert panels but who are they? Sadly the self appointed spokesperson for PRS has been NLRA who have not set out issues or contest perceptions of the market.

We need a legitimate PRS body advocate to bring the entire housing sector together.

Reply to the comment left by Zen at 31/10/2023 - 10:23
This is an excellent summary, and echoes my own thoughts exactly. Thank you Zen.

The greatest lesson I have learned from 20 years in the PRS, is that since law-makers are not to be trusted, it's not wise to make a 20-year investment plan without taking the risk of such external forces very seriously, and be ready to pivot the business model as early as possible.

The problem is that with illiquid assets such as property and the utter unpredictability of successive capricious, self-serving government bodies and their influencers, pivoting becomes complete guesswork.

Reply to the comment left by Route Meister at 31/10/2023 - 10:31
Reply to Route Meister;

https://www.nrla.org.uk/research/deep-insight/s21-and-landlord-experience#:~:text=The%20decision%20to%20issue%20a,of%20a%20Section%2021%20notice.

The reasons for landlords issuing Section 21 notices are overwhelmingly due to the actions of tenants: our survey showed over 70% of landlords issuing Section 21 notices did so because of rent arrears. The decision to issue a Section 21 notice is often because of several factors rather than a single cause.

Thus one-third of Section 21 notices were issued because of property damage. Anti-social behaviour (28%) or other, illegal, activity (17%) are also key reasons prompting the issuing of a Section 21 notice.

One of the main reasons for the housing problems we face is population growth. When you consider that since 2010, the government has allowed more than 3 million people to come into the country (net of those leaving), it is hardly surprising that there is a shortage of affordable houses to rent or buy.

Reply to the comment left by Monty Bodkin at 31/10/2023 - 11:24
Interesting reading.

Why is this not being shouted from the rooftops of S21 homes?

Pro PRS can generally mean Pro Tenant. As easier they make it for us, easier they make it for the tenant.

Well, Zen, the only reason I can think of is that these corporate entities in the main build new properties to rent out whereas not many small unincorporated landlords do that. That has two effects: (i) it increases the overall supply of housing that the government has repeatedly promised but failed to get built and (ii) it gives politicians and others, especially left-leaning thinkers, a ready-made accusation to hurl at private landlords who have bought on the open market that we have scooped up all the starter homes because buy-to-let interest-only mortgages give us an advantage over first-time buyers. Whether there is any truth in this does not matter because it is a narrative which suits both politicians of whatever stripe and the tenants' organisations for each of whom we are the convenient scapegoat.