The Tenants must now have their say on Section 24

Well done for doing this, Pam. Have you thought about asking the RLA (Alan Ward is the guy) and the NLA (Richard Lambert) to promote the petition, by sending it out to their members? When we did the petition last year, the RLA was initially reluctant but eventually agreed to distribute the link; the NLA felt it was the wrong thing to do because they felt petitions weren't likely to work. My argument and the argument of many at the time was that we didn't expect the petition to magically get the Government to change its mind - we weren't that thick - it was just another weapon in our armoury and a way of getting publicity. The JR was also a way of getting publicity. You could still try the NLA though as maybe they have changed their position on this. There will be other organisations who might distribute it - David Cox is head of ARLA and he might be persuaded to get it out to letting agents. Again, the latter were slow to come on board to campaign against s24 but now realise that they're also on the chopping block.

Hi Dr Beck,

Since your post yesterday I have tried my best to find contact details for Alan Ward (RLA). It is clearly not the policy of the RLA to encourage anyone to contact them unless I am doing something wrong! Even their 'Tweet' option won't let me cut and paste the campaign link. Their site is impenetrable and clearly not meant to encourage a two way dialogue with anybody over there.

Similar story with the NLA of which I am a member. I have over the past week contacted them twice to ask them for guidance on how I can raise the profile on the campaign and also to feedback on what a 'graveyard' their site seems. The Section 24 Forum thread is buried somewhere at the bottom of the Forum page. It would seem that everybody has locked up and gone away for Christmas. No replies from them, which is disappointing and I have to say I am wondering what I'm getting for my money with them.

At least at ARLA I managed to get a generic, general enquiry email address for their Press Relations Department so have emailed them.

If anybody has their direct contact details and would be prepared to share that would be great.

Am also becoming increasingly frustrated with the Change.org site who seem to have done a cracking job of setting up their campaign strategies so that every time you want to raise the profile, 'promote it further' or even just Tweet some comments, you are inevitably led to a payment page and I am beginning to wonder if there is actually any philanthropic intent with any online organisations anymore. I'll keep going but am very disappointed.

It's a learning curve and, as I say, it's better than doing nothing.

After Christmas I'm going to switch to 38 Degrees and begin a new campaign over there. You never know! Two campaigns may be better than one and there's no point in doing anything else before Christmas other than keep pushing the Change.org option.

Getting some heart wrenching stories on there. Unfortunately, if I now want to Tweet them to Theresa and the gang, it's going to cost me (agian!).

Pam

Reply to the comment left by "Pamela Potter" at "18/12/2016 - 06:44":

Hi Pamela.
What might be best is if you telephone Neil Patterson on the number which should be below this page, tomorrow, and verify your email address with him over the 'phone. He will then be able to give you the direct email addresses of the bosses at the RLA and NLA. Someone else here can probably give you the ARLA one.

When I first started on this campaign I had a very similar experience to yours. In fact, when I rang the RLA early on I was told I would have to pay their membership fee in order to speak to anyone. I said something like 'but I have information which will help you. I'm not going to pay to talk to someone about something which will benefit them.' It was ludicrous. They then let me speak to someone in their campaigns office, I think it was.

I only got to have direct contact with the top guys after I told them stuff like it was me who suggested to Richard Dyson that he start the Telegraph campaign against s24, and that this was following the suggestion made to me by Professor Philip Booth of the Institute of Economic Affairs (blah blah) and by things like adding my 'doctor' title to emails that eventually I got through the 'fire wall'. I don't like all those silly games, dropping names and all that. But in some quarters that's what works.

BTW I think the subject of 'why people don't answer your emails' would make a great little study. In this context I would think it is things like: they're very busy and trying to filter what's worth them spending their time on; they don't want to encourage a lengthy and time-consuming correspondence with someone who won't add any benefit to their role; they think they're too important to bother with you if they think you have no status and so on. What has surprised me though is that many senior and/or well-known people answer quite quickly and politely and don't go in for that status thing - and it can be those lower down who think they're too important to bother with you.

Anyway, thanks for all this huge effort you are making.

All the best. Ros

Signed and added some comments too.
I will send this link to our local contact at NLA - I am a member. Will post here what the reaction was, when I heard from him.

Reply to the comment left by "Whiteskifreak Surrey" at "18/12/2016 - 10:36":

At long last I have received a reply from NLA:
QUOTE:
Dear xxx,
[Local NLA Rep] forwarded your email about Section 24 to me. We all share your concerns about this legislation and we are very pleased to see activity such as your petition which expresses the anger landlords feel and highlights the government’s apparent lack of understanding of our market. Consequences such as those you mention are indeed probable and not (apparently) perceived by the Treasury.

The NLA is deeply involved in a wide range of lobbying activity, some of which is visible on our web site, and at landlord meetings we encourage members to make their views known to local and central government (as you are doing). However, we make a point of not endorsing petitions when we were not involved in the drafting of them, because (if no other reason) the statements in them could be quoted back to us in policy workshops and working parties, undermining our position.

With respect to this particular piece of legislation, I am sure you are aware that we were the largest single financial contributor (£10,000) to the “Stop the Tenant Tax” campaign, and now that that legal challenge has failed we are working on political means, jointly with other campaigners.

Good luck with your petition. It all helps to swing things the landlords’ way.

Regards,

Ken Staunton
Head of Regions
National Landlords Association
UNQUOTE

I just wonder how it is progressing?