We need to wake up and smell the coffee!

We need to wake up and smell the coffee!

9:04 AM, 20th November 2018, About 5 years ago 88

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It is easy in life to think that you as one person can make little difference – wrong.

Shopping in B&Q for example!

You spend a few or a few hundred pounds on materials for your rented house – possibly one which has been wrecked by rogue tenants. You get to the counter and see B&Q have their little collection boxes just past the till for Shelter, an organisation which constantly hammers landlords and seems to think we are the rogues. This is something we might have unthinkingly ignored.

Well the Landlords Alliance has now begun a campaign to shake us out of this apathy.

We should not  give our money to organisations which support those whose mission seems to be to destroy our businesses and livelihoods; whose latest campaign is to get us to house tenants on benefits whether we like it or not, whether they can afford it or not, whether they make riskier tenants or not – whilst housing no-one themselves.

No. We need to wake up and smell the coffee.

So I for one, have withdrawn my custom from B&Q as of today.

I ask them to instead donate to a positive charity which they can be proud of supporting.

There are an estimated 2 million landlords in the UK who with their families and also the people who work for them and shop at B&Q have tremendous consumer power.

I urge other landlords to make the pledge today: ‘I will not shop at B&Q until they confirm they have stopped giving money to Shelter’.

 

The New Landlords Alliance is launched: Click Here


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Comments

Al Whalley

16:59 PM, 26th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by David Lester at 20/11/2018 - 09:43
bought out by B and q some time ago sadly

Roger P

10:52 AM, 28th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Just tried to get insurance quote from MONEY SUPERMARKET only to find they give £5 to Shelter - So that's them of the list then...

Laurie

11:11 AM, 28th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Shelter might not be very good at providing any shelter but they are really good at raising cash. Great business really, a lot easier and way more lucrative than being a landlord. Hold on, i meant great charity since it gives away 90% of its money to the homeless right?

Clint

11:34 AM, 28th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Roger P at 28/11/2018 - 10:52
Seems like most establishments are contributing to shelter

Roger P

12:16 PM, 28th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Clint at 28/11/2018 - 11:34
If so we need a list published so we can avoid them

CrocadileBoy

14:45 PM, 30th November 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by David Lester at 20/11/2018 - 09:43
I though Screwfix were part of the Kingfisher group which owns B & Q. Instead use Wickes rather than B & Q and Toolstation instead of Screwfix. The prices are also cheaper!!!

Appalled Landlord

13:44 PM, 1st December 2018, About 5 years ago

Yesterday morning the Portsmouth & District Private Landlords Association published a supportive article about the B&Q boycott.
http://pdpla.com/pdpla-news/news-articles/item/485-no-shelter-for-b-q-from-angry-landlords

So all of its members will now have been informed that:

“Shelter is a charity, but that does not mean they do anything specific, just that they qualify for some useful tax breaks at our expense like every other charity.

• It provides no housing and no financial assistance to the homeless, at best they provide advice and at worst they are seen as a politically motivated campaign group

• As a business, their income last year was £67.4M of which they spent £66.4M plus they have £15.7M reserves

• They spent just over £12M of their income ‘fund raising’

• They also spent £5.5M campaigning which is what upsets so many in the industry

• In their defence, they also claim to have answered 118,000 enquiries through their various services (that’s £571 per enquiry by our reckoning)

• After Grenfell, Shelter Chair Sir Derek Myers and trustee Tony Rice had to resign amid internal disquiet over the charity’s response to the disaster (Myers was a former executive of Kensington & Chelsea council and Tony Rice is chairman of Xerxes Equity which owns Omnis Exteriors who sold the cladding used in the tower

• Notable campaign successes include the end of letting agent fees and an end to revenge evictions, though we could argue that their role in both of these was minor and better outcomes could have been achieved with more rational data and less political dogma.”

Well done, PDPLA! Other associations please copy.

To see why everyone should boycott Shelter itself: https://www.property118.com/boycott-shelter/

To see other damning articles about Shelter: https://www.property118.com/category/shelter/

Mr Barua

18:43 PM, 1st December 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Appalled Landlord at 01/12/2018 - 13:44
Interesting!

Dear all,

Besides the facts in the article, including that "B&Q’s Tradepoint scheme (new terms)... were unfavourable for most landlords", for any landlord association to partner or promote B&Q now would potentially be 'conflict of interest' - please correct me if I am wrong? B&Q supports an organisation that proactively disseminates anti-landlord rhetoric, so it will be a conflict-of-interest for a landlord's organisation to partner with B&Q. If there is merit in this argument, then we should pro-actively seek the attention of various landlord groups and association on this point (I've done that with the association I am registered with).

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