Generation Rent says ‘homes, not landlords’ is the key to rent affordability

This is a labour government but it is certainly a long way from being socialist government as regards policy. It is not that different to moderate wing of the Tory party – but does seem for the moment to be a little more economically and politically competent.
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Reply to the comment left by Mark Smith at 01/08/2024 – 22:04
Mark
The Tories were Socialist in all but name. Do not expect any favours from this Labour Government. If it takes landlords two or three years to evict non-paying tenants, not one single Labour MP will shed a tear or speak up for landlords.

Expect harsher taxes, increased CGT but without indexation and who knows what else? Labour will pile cost and risk on the PRS and then be shocked, shocked I say, that rents go up and there are fewer properties to rent.

I struggle to take seriously the words ‘analysis’ and ‘Generation Rent’ in the same sentence.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 02/08/2024 – 10:34
I do not expect Labour to play fair.

It could even be worse than the time pre1988 housing act because at least for most of that time there was no CGT to pay when you managed to sell a tenanted property.

Now the double whammy will be the reduction in the value of property due to the security of tenure that the tenants will be given and the increased CGT liability which this government are eager to inflict upon us.

Don’t you know there’s a £2bn+ hole in the country’s finances that Rachel Reeves has to cover somehow? I feel sure she and other ministers have mentioned this once or twice. Obviously rich, greedy landlords come into the definition of “those with the broadest shoulders” so must pay “their fair share”. Your personal circumstances may not match Labour’s narrative but I don’t think that’s going to matter as the “rentier economy” is one of the target evils of Marxist ideology.

What he fails to mention is
A landlord can buy a house and get it rented out in 3 to 4 months. 10,000 landlords do that, that’s 10,000 families off the homeless list.
To build a house, may take 4 years with planing and finding land etc.
Landlords can solve it now.
And these new builds ARE NOT affordable for the lower earners.
Nor are Build to Rent.
Nor are Landlords houses now come to think of it it.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 02/08/2024 – 17:18
Mick that is far too logical for your average politician!

Of course it is true that building more homes will also help keep rents down. Landlord purchase costs will be lower and more renter demand will be transferred to (more affordable) owner occupation.
But thar doesn’t negate the simple rule of economics that fewer suppliers of a product = higher price for it, all other things being equal. The 90’s and 2000’s saw rents pegged at or below inflation because landlord numbers grew rapidly. Now they are declining against rising demand and rents have been rising somewhat above inflation as expected.

labour! Doing us all a favour?? They always give us the same bla, bla, bla ! ALL governments can’t afford a rental housing build. This is where private landlords come in. It would be wiser for Labour to build more social housing in conjunction with Private landlords instead of crucifying them. Killing of the private rental market will only make it worse! To Labour & others it’s a political football. We shall see??

Reply to the comment left by Simon Williams at 03/08/2024 – 10:30
“Of course it is true that building more homes will also help keep rents down.”

This may or may not be true. Rents are driven up now by the cost of providing rented accomodation.

If the new build homes remain expensive for landlords to purchase maintain and , licence run and pay taxes on rents will stay high to meet the costs – or landlords won’t buy them (and rented accomodation will not be available for those who can’t afford to or don’t want to buy .

It is as simple as that .