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9:28 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago 18
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The Conservative Party used to be the party of property ownership and free enterprise, but its recent policies on housing have betrayed its core values and its loyal supporters.
The Tories have broken their promises to reform the private rented sector (PRS), and have instead punished landlords with unjust taxes, soaring costs and stalled legislation.
The Renters (Reform) Bill, which will end Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions and erode our rights, is supposed to be debated by Christmas, but I doubt it will happen.
And if the final version does scrap Section 21, the exodus of landlords from the sector will, inevitably, be triggered.
This Bill is disastrous for landlords who face the danger of losing their properties without a fair and effective process to regain possession.
It seems like the government has dismissed our worries over the ability to evict problematic tenants or those who accumulate rent arrears.
The housing minister, Rachel Maclean, tried to placate our fears at the Party conference by saying that we would still be able to evict such tenants, but I don’t trust her.
The minister also said that being pro-tenant was Conservative, but this is a false claim when the government has done nothing to improve the affordability and quality of housing for renters.
Soothing words are not enough to solve the structural problems in the PRS, which is suffering from a shortage of supply, high demand and sky-high rents.
The government has also failed to help landlords who are coping with rising costs, shrinking profits and unfair taxes.
The stamp duty surcharge on additional properties has also discouraged landlords from investing in new properties.
Perhaps the only good news in recent times for the PRS – but not for every landlord – was when Rishi scrapped the EPC targets.
Otherwise, the Conservatives have shown a lack of respect and gratitude for the role and contribution of landlords in providing housing for millions of people, especially those who cannot afford or access social or owner-occupied housing.
They have succumbed apparently to the vilification of landlords from tenant activist groups as being greedy and exploitative, while ignoring the variety and professionalism of the sector, as well as the difficulties and risks that we face.
They have also failed to tackle the root causes of the housing crisis, such as the lack of affordable and quality housing supply, the insufficient funding and regulation of social housing, and the obstacles to home ownership.
I would say that the Conservative Party has lost the trust of many landlords. And many landlords have lost confidence in the Conservative Party, which has shown that it is not interested in supporting the millions of us who rent out properties.
It’s hard to believe that the sound bite PR from tenant activist groups has delivered the situation we find ourselves in.
These groups are effectively pushing the government to break up the PRS, push up rents for millions – and not demand that we have enough homes available for people to rent.
However, it would appear that Michael Gove’s promise that the Renters (Reform) Bill will get a second reading by Christmas leaves me jaded – this is a law that will help protect tenants defaulting on rent, damaging a landlord’s property and causing chaos with anti-social behaviour.
It’s also unnerving to see that rents are ‘rocketing’ when they are going up at less than the rate of inflation. That means many of us are losing money – and BTL rates are increasing.
We don’t need more regulation for the PRS, we just need the laws we already have enforced to deal with criminal landlords.
All of the extra rules will simply punish good landlords who don’t want to rent out property with a draconian Bill and unsympathetic courts failing to support us.
And it’s always the tenants who are left with higher rents and less choice.
No doubt we will get the blame for that too.
The Conservative Party has abandoned us and betrayed its core values by failing to provide a clear vision and a coherent strategy for the private rented sector.
We barely got a mention at this week’s conference – even though there is a ‘housing emergency’.
The private rented sector deserves better than this.
Landlords deserve a political party that will deliver real reforms, protect both landlords’ and tenants’ rights, and ensure a fair and sustainable housing market for all.
According to government data, 94% of private landlords rent property out as an individual, with 44% becoming a landlord to contribute to their pension.
I appreciate that there are more tenants with a vote than landlords, but will no one listen to us?
As I say, the Conservative Party obviously doesn’t like us and you might think things couldn’t get worse, but we still have the Labour Party conference to look forward to. God help us.
Until next time,
The Landlord Crusader
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Robin Guy
11:01 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Well said.!!
It’s incredible to think many Landlords are core loyal conservative voters.I know so many landlords who have supported the conservatives for decades who are now abandoning ship, anyone would think they don’t need our votes. 🤷♂️
TheBiggerPicture
11:13 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Reform is the only party that now believe in small government.
The conservatives will not win the next election, so if you have voted CONservative previously voting for another party will not be a wasted vote.
Snart Roy
11:14 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
The problem is that we have a binary choice. The Conservatives who are really authoritarian socialsts - and the Labour party who are authoritarian borderline communists. It's hard to say who will be worse! Neither will be good.
Justin Barrington
11:14 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
If every landlord sent a Tweet (or X) to all conservative MPs about reversing S24 they may start listening.
This is the single biggest problem in my opinion.
I am having to increase my rents. I don't want to. But there is no other option.
Who would buy oranges for £1 and sell them for 80p.
Mick Roberts
11:20 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
That's exactly it,
government has done nothing to improve the affordability and quality of housing for renters.
Oh we'll attack the landlord, that should make it cheaper-Will it?
I was on radio this morning talking similar:
BBC Radio Nottingham wanted to hear from a Landlord on why Nottingham tenants are struggling to get houses, I wanted to say a lot more, but unfortunately got cut short. All the stuff I wanted to say is below.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gd8gzs
1 hour 57 & 20 secs.
Direct link to voice recording:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/y3Li3PDv9NkV3uTU9
northern landlord
11:28 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Robin Guy at 06/10/2023 - 11:01
They don’t want our votes. Tenant numbers vastly exceed landlord numbers so it’s their votes they want. Tenant organisations who house nobody applaud landlord bashing even though it will ultimately damage the very tenants they claim to protect. As somebody once said “you can’t fool people all the time, you just need to fool enough people at election time”
Ray Guselli
12:42 PM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 06/10/2023 - 11:28
Yet they seem to ignore the fact that it is perhaps more likely those renting, may not vote Conservative.
The eggs are being placed in the wrong basket.
Fed Up Landlord
12:51 PM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Well said. This is bang on. I will vote for neither Liebour or Con- servative. The comment on borderline communists and socialists is very true making them unelectable to landlords.
What they fail to realise is that a landlord vote in the two bed BTL semi is worth two none- existent tenant votes in the local authority or housing association damp riddled property.
Tenants will never vote Tory. They ignored their core support and chased votes that were never there by beating landlords up with their bully boy mates Gen Rant, Shelter, and their foot soldiers Acorn. Landlords voted with their feet. Rents have gone up.
I'm selling up and they can all get stuffed.
The Forever Tenant
14:38 PM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
I have no qualms about voting Tory, It's just that the current lot have not given me any reason to want to.
The same goes for Labour, and the Lib Dems and the Greens, etc.
I will say that it does always amuse me to hear about Labour being Socialist Communists. They really are not. Not even close. They are so amazingly centrist currently that I don't even know what they stand for.
But besides that, no party "hates" landlords. Most MPs are landlords themselves. What they are is chasing whatever the topic is at that particular time and only acting on it when its in view.
Policies will be put into place when it will give them the right soundbites come election time. There is no forward thinking. They are not looking past the next election. Heaven forbid that they enact a policy that might improve lives when the other party is in power. That wouldn't look good.
If landlords want to have an easier time of it, the hope would have to be that at no point they become the main ongoing story.
PAUL BARTLETT
17:34 PM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago
Neither party has solved Social Housing Duty to Build whilst in power for more than a decade. So supply is f**ked.
Neither party has solved Economic Migration whilst in power for more than a decade. So demand is f**ked.
Basic Economics is market balance of supply and demand. So removing supply with a hostile environment is always going to increase cost to Tenants.
Giving attention to Activists who house nobody shows this is a virtue signaling sham not about Housing improvement.