Landlords Alliance Election Manifesto

Landlords Alliance Election Manifesto

16:00 PM, 5th November 2019, About 4 years ago 25

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Recent years have seen a sustained attack on private landlords by the Government and other groups. The relationship between landlords and tenants has also been painted as adversarial by organisations which purport to represent tenants, but who in fact work against their interests.

This must be seen in the context of the huge success of the private rented sector (PRS). Indeed, the Government’s own English Housing Survey found that 84% of private tenants are happy with their homes, compared to 80% of social tenants. In addition, rents have remained stable for many years, broadly tracking inflation.

This success has been predicated on individuals being willing to use their own money to purchase and renovate properties and then take the inherent risk of renting them out. Without this enterprise there would be a much bigger housing shortage in this country than there already is; there would also be many more empty and derelict buildings, causing a blot on the landscape.

Conclusive proof that the sector is working extremely well has been ignored and instead, private landlords have been denigrated and the PRS has been misrepresented as ‘broken.’ The policies which then follow from this are leading to many landlords now exiting the sector, at a time when more housing is desperately needed. The situation is crazy.

That is why we at the Landlords Alliance propose an alternative, positive agenda; one which works for tenants and landlords.

We therefore call upon the next Government to:

1. Scrap Section 24, which is a tax on turnover and will only drive rents up and landlords out of the market. This outrageous piece of legislation is contrary to all rules of natural justice and because it can lead to some landlords paying a tax rate of more than 100% is bound to cause rents to rise, pricing out the lowest-income groups.

2. Reverse plans to scrap Section 21, as this will also make landlords flee the market, in fear that they may never regain possession of their own private property.

3. Scrap Right to Buy, which has decimated the social housing sector and meant so many cannot find an affordable home (private landlords are then scapegoated for this, with some groups now trying to force private citizens to house people on benefits).

4. Enforce laws already passed to target the small percentage of bad landlords and stop increasing the regulatory burden on the majority of decent landlords. Constant passing of regulations which cost landlords huge amounts of money but do nothing to improve housing must end.

5. Bring a halt to extortionate local licensing schemes and replace them with a national register along the lines of Rent Smart Wales, with a nominal charge. Then make it a requirement for landlords to be a member in order to receive housing payments from the state.

6. Commission an independent inquiry into the ‘housing and homelessness charity’ Shelter to examine how it uses its approximate £60 million annual budget to target private landlords incessantly whilst not providing any housing itself. Remove any state aid and charitable status for this organisation until it stops misusing funds and begins to provide housing and shelter for the homeless.

7. As a general rule, reject policies which would damage private property rights in the UK. This would include the theft of homes advocated by the Labour Party (which they call ‘Right to Buy in the PRS, at a value dictated by the state); punitive tax policies which because they are at a level which is confiscatory can lead to bankruptcy and the loss of people’s private property; rent controls which damage the viability of rental homes and are thus also confiscatory and not least any tenancy legislation which takes control of the asset away from the owner and gives it to someone else.

In sum:

Policies for any business or sector need to protect the interests of all interested parties – in this case, tenants and landlords. If the current parties persist in scapegoating private landlords, they will cause more damage to tenants.

The 2 million landlords plus in the UK, their families, the tradespeople who work for them, the owners of the stores where they buy their building and decorating materials and others dependent on private landlords’ businesses will be looking very carefully at each party’s proposals for us and we will have our say at the ballot box.

Click Here to join the Landlords Alliance


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Comments

Whiteskifreak Surrey

19:39 PM, 21st November 2019, About 4 years ago

A couple of things, but I will post them separately in order not to muddle the issues:
Have you been aware of the greatest irony of our lifetime? London Evening Standard started the Beat the Homelessness Campaign. The Standard's Chief Editor is a 'long-term LLs friend', George Osborne!
https://www.standard.co.uk/homeless-fund/the-homeless-fund-we-need-your-help-to-fight-the-crisis-of-londons-homelessness-a4291551.html
For my fee (a separate post later) I would expect you to pick-up on that matter and make a lot of noise about Osborne and his audacity to start that type of campaign. It is a wonderful material to make a lot and lot of fuss, publicly.

Whiteskifreak Surrey

19:41 PM, 21st November 2019, About 4 years ago

I have just visited the Shelter's FB page (will do that and comment regularly) and have seen the following post (it is a reply):
==quote==Hello Julia - Please be assured we do our best to help anyone who comes to us with a housing or homelessness issue and try to encourage people to seek help as soon as possible, rather than at crisis point. To help with this we provide lots of ways to get help from Shelter: our helpline, web chat, face-to-face services, and pages and pages of easy-to-search online advice: https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help
You might be encouraged to know that we've been working closely with landlords. After asking landlords to contribute to a survey on how we can all work together for a better Private Rental Sector, landlord Alison kindly offered to create some videos with us.
Here are Alison's views on good relationships between landlords and tenants: http://shltr.org.uk/huf
And her tips for ensuring those relationships work: http://shltr.org.uk/hug
There'll be more to come with other landlords who have offered to work closely with us.
Thank you for mentioning the need for more social housing! We couldn't agree more, and have been campaigning on this for a long time. Would you be willing to add your signature to this petition, demanding the government #BuildSocialHousing? http://shltr.org.uk/gww
Alex @ Shelter
==unquote==
Seriously, one could not make it up!
Another matter for Landlords' Alliance to pick up on and try to show public the truth.

Whiteskifreak Surrey

19:53 PM, 21st November 2019, About 4 years ago

And the last comment from me: I have noted that the annual subscription was taken from my account without:
1. notifying me about the upcoming collection - as far as I remember you originally asked to give you a chance for ONE year, which I did
2. I did not receive any receipt from you for that payment.
I was contemplating whether I shall renew or not, and decided to give you another year to prove yourselves. In any case you had decided for me.
I will be watching closely your effectiveness this year and will not renew next year if there are no concrete results.
I just gave you two opportunities to act.
Thank you.

Appalled Landlord

20:34 PM, 21st November 2019, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Whiteskifreak Surrey at 21/11/2019 - 19:41
Alison’s first video s called advice for landlords and tenants, but there is no advice in it for tenants. The advice for landlords is - indulge tenants.

She claims to be a landlord, but this is most of what she says:
“No-one wants to make someone homeless and end a tenancy.”
“We all want to help people who are struggling”
“From a tenant’s point of view I think it’s important that [a landlord’s] income is fair, and not disproportionate.”
“It’s important for the landlord to appreciate that this is a home not just a financial transaction.” The second half of this comes up in big red letters
“I’d like to think that as prices go up the impact of that can be shared between the tenant and the landlord (note the order of priority) so it’s not only the landlord who is benefiting from rising prices.” The bit after my brackets comes up in big red letters.
“Tenants should have a stable and secure home, be able to redecorate, keep pets.”
“Landlords should take this seriously and bring as much integrity as they possibly can.”

This is not advice it is ludicrous pro-tenant propaganda.

Whiteskifreak Surrey

20:51 PM, 21st November 2019, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Appalled Landlord at 21/11/2019 - 20:34
Sickening

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