Mayor of West Yorkshire blasts landlords for raising rents

Mayor of West Yorkshire blasts landlords for raising rents

9:29 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago 101

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The mayor of West Yorkshire has launched a scathing attack on landlords, in a new interview.

Labour mayor Tracy Brabin has criticised landlords who raise rents in a cost-of-living crisis.

However, she does not advocate for the use of rent controls and instead wants to focus on building more affordable homes. 

Avaricious and greedy

Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, told Inside Housing magazine: “People are becoming homeless because landlords are putting rents up in order to be in line with market prices, when actually they don’t need it because they’re in a fixed mortgage themselves.

“It just avaricious, and it’s greedy. I would say to landlords that do that, you’re not really welcome in West Yorkshire because it’s not fair. Particularly when the cost of living is squeezing people’s incomes.”

Ms Brabin, whose combined authority covers Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds, added: “A third of all children in West Yorkshire are living in poverty. 200,000 families are using food banks. This is fuelled not just by the cost of living but also rising rents.”

Not thought about rent controls

This year many labour mayors including Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham have called for an immediate rent freeze to help renters deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy slapped down the calls for rent controls in June, saying: “Rent controls that cut rents for some will almost certainly leave others homeless.”

Ms Brabin stopped short of joining her fellow mayors in directly calling for rent control powers. She said: “I’ve not thought about rent controls currently, it’s not in the forefront of my mind.”

A spokesperson for Ms Brabin later told Inside Housing magazine that building affordable homes was more important to the mayor.

Retrofit social homes

In Leeds last year at the Holtdale estate, 190 social homes were retrofitted with heat pumps, solar panels and insulation by Leeds City Council and low carbon equipment provider, Equans, at a cost of £9.6m.

Ms Brabin praised the work at the housing estate and said more needs to be done.

She said: “There are 680,000 social homes across West Yorkshire and we have to retrofit them all. So while this programme is really fantastic, and the outcomes are really spectacular, we’ve got to turbocharge that delivery.”

The full interview can be read here (for some readers this may be behind a paywall).


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Comments

Juan Degales

9:01 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

The landlord bashing continues.

Paul Essex

9:16 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

I blame mayors for increasing my council tax. I blame eco nuts for increasing energy costs.

See blaming others is sooo easy....if it was easy to make obscene profits from renting why are the build to rent corporations getting cold feet. I see today that John Lewis may withdrawing as it is a ' distraction from their core business ' . Just stop this blame game and actually build some housing.

Martin Roberts

10:10 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Has Council Tax increased?

John Mac

10:18 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Just how many homes could have been purchased with that £9.6M instead of chasing the fallacy that is "Net Zero"?

I think this Mayor & her advisors need to get their own house in order & stop blaming others!

Teessider

10:18 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

It’s called inflation dear.

Don’t worry, your MASSIVE six-figure salary (plus expenses) is safely index linked.

Rent isn’t just about mortgages - although they play a huge part (mine has increased 6-fold - my rents haven’t). There are repairs, maintenance, insurance, ridiculous legislation, selective licensing scams and an unfair tax system to contend with. Then there’s Housing Benefit that’s been frozen since 2020 - just before inflation and mortgage costs skyrocketed. There’s also increased risk of tenants not paying and the high cost of legal fees to try to have them evicted.

A huge chunk of the rent paid by the poorest tenant is used to pay the taxes of their landlord.

More of the rent money goes to the Treasury (via income tax on turnover and VAT on all those repairs etc.,) than to the landlord.

So, please forgive us if rents rise by the rate of inflation.

John MacAlevey

10:19 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Wow! disincentivise all landlords, from single properties to large portfolios..& hey presto the supply side diminishes rapidly, making the housing situation much worse. The socialists are are kicking this political football around with the skill of a millpede as they know the evidence can`t be challenged..pathetic partisanship. Do something constructive!

Bernard Mealing

10:23 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Headline should be. The Mayor of ???? should be blasted for taking a pay rise each year for the the last 4 years.

Teessider

10:24 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

You praised the spending of over £50,000 per property to fit heat pumps, solar panels and insulation.
Did you go to school with Diane Abbott?
Where is the return on investment? Did rents rise by £300 to £500 per month to justify the expenditure? No, I thought not.

Paul La Plain

10:50 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

An I correct 190 retrofitted homes cost 9.6m so 680.000 home would cost 34358.4 m at today prices
Where is she going to get that sort of money and rent won’t rise
Really
Get real lady
And not a single person housed of the housing list

Jeff L

10:52 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 06/10/2023 - 09:16
" Just stop this blame game and actually build some housing."

That's the whole issue in one succinct, eloquent nutshell

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