What makes someone pay for a billboard?

What makes someone pay for a billboard?

14:00 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago 21

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What makes someone pay for a billboard advert to get their message across? Frustration!  That’s what. After having exhausted all other avenues to get my MP to listen and do something about the Government’s outrageous attack on the private rented sector (PRS), I decided to pay for a billboard.

Although my MP, Penny Mordaunt certainly appeared sympathetic when I met her to discuss the plight of landlords and tenants with regard to the so-called ‘restriction of finance relief,’ since then, she has gone eerily silent.

I emailed her on the 22nd of March 2018 as I wanted to see what she was doing after she had implied she would help.  I specifically wanted to know what action she had taken to help any of my evicted tenants all of which are victims of this government policy. She ignored my request for a meeting.

This stonewalling and inaction in the face of an outrageous attack meant I had to take things into my own hands.

Had she agreed to the meeting, I would have pointed out to her the fact that home ownership is at a historic high, thanks partly to the huge, heavily discounted sell off-of public housing stock. Of course the downside of this is that the supply of rental accommodation has been massively depleted by this policy. Had the private rented sector not then stepped in, where would all the people be living who choose to rent and/or who can’t afford to buy? Hotels? Bed and Breakfasts? Tents? The streets?

So I have had this billboard set up where she can see it.  My hope is that with the looming local elections this board will make my MP stand up and listen and at least help people affected by the policy! Also the billboard has been publicised widely in hope that other landlords and tenants may make their voices heard and overturn this policy before immeasurable damage is caused to the private rented sector.

Don’t sit back and leave it to somebody else. A letter, a visit to your MP to voice your concerns, petitions, and an input to the campaign groups who are fighting hard for change are all things you can do to help get this ludicrous and damaging policy overturned.

The Government is making a lot of money through Capital Gains Tax as landlords sell up, reaping the rewards of the misery they have inflicted on both landlords and tenants.

Everyone needs to take a stand. Doing nothing is not an option!

David Heard

EDITORS NOTE

A Just Giving page has now been set up to fund more billboards, please see the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/section-24-billboard


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Comments

14:58 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

well it worked for Mildred Hayes outside Ebbing in Missouri!!

Dr Rosalind Beck

15:55 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

This is an excellent initiative David. I hope it gets picked up by the national media. Maybe it will, as it is reminiscent of the Oscar-winning film.

Also, as you say, where would people live if private landlords hadn't invested their own money in purchasing, renovating and converting properties into homes for people who need to rent somewhere? And what would the housing supply look like if landlords had not funded new-builds?

I think it would be like when I was in my 20s and I had to spend 3 weeks in a hotel in Madrid because there was insufficient rented housing in the city. I then had to live an hour and a half from my workplace. If the rental supply had been even lower, I would have had to live in the hotel for the year I was there. As much as it's nice to spend a night or two in a hotel, it was getting really horrible after 3 weeks, as there was nowhere to cook and I was living on pizza. I would have probably given up and come home and this is what many workers would do as it makes living away from home intolerable.

This is also of course the kind of experience people stuck in B and Bs now go through.

One can only hope that the Government sees sense sooner rather than later when they have driven more and more landlords from the sector and there is nowhere for migrant and mobile workers, nowhere for families and/or the low-paid and those on benefits and no alternative for students other than the semi-monopoly enjoyed by the Government-feted, often twice the rent Build to Rent brigade

Big Blue

17:39 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

Brilliant David, absolutely brilliant! If only we could fund a nationwide campaign!!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

17:43 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by James Fraser at 01/05/2018 - 17:39
We could if more people were to donate 🙁

Jamie M

18:02 PM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

How about we get this excellent bill board into Osbornes paper as a paid for add?

Whiteskifreak Surrey

8:46 AM, 2nd May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Jamie M at 01/05/2018 - 18:02
Great idea, although I suspect they will never print it. I read LES during my daily commute and there is not much in it about the housing crisis, which is rather odd.
I will be prepared to chip in if we are going with this campaign via national newspaper.
For the time being it might be an idea if everyone here who is on Facebook make this photo as a main one on their FB page. That brings attention. What do the other think?

Whiteskifreak Surrey

8:50 AM, 2nd May 2018, About 6 years ago

BTW - another hate campaign article today: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/01/young-old-private-renters-homes-millennials-baby-boomers-landlords
I saw it on Shelter website.
Is such hatred against one profession actually legal?

David Atkins

9:02 AM, 2nd May 2018, About 6 years ago

Can I have your permission to paste the image onto my facebook wall?

Mrs A

9:06 AM, 2nd May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 01/05/2018 - 17:43
So how do we chip in Mark?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

9:38 AM, 2nd May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Whiteskifreak Surrey at 02/05/2018 - 08:50
Apparently so. We follow a long list including politicians, bankers, estate agents and double glazing salesmen

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