Housing Minister dismisses landlord exodus amid concerns of shift to holiday lets

Housing Minister dismisses landlord exodus amid concerns of shift to holiday lets

0:02 AM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago 12

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The Renters’ Rights Bill will push landlords out of the sector and into short-term holiday lets, warn MPs.

During a Renters’ Rights Bill Committee meeting, some MPs expressed concerns about the bill’s potential impact on the private rented sector.

However, Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, claimed, “there is no evidence of a landlord exodus.”

The Renters’ Rights Bill will immediately ban Section 21 and apply Awaab’s law to the private rented sector.

Push landlords out of the sector

Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, highlighted evidence suggesting that landlords may switch towards short-term holiday lets in response to the Renters’ Rights Bill.

He said: “Landlord groups such as the National Residential Landlords Association and Dexters letting agency have argued that the Bill risks pushing landlords out of the sector and into short-term holiday lets.

“The NRLA estimates a 1% to 2% drop in rental stock. There is agreement on the topic across the sector, and there is a plausible worry that without any additional controls there will be a leeching of stock into more short-term holiday lets.

“For locations that particularly suffer from that phenomenon, the consequences could be the closure of businesses and services locally.”

No evidence of an exodus

However, Mr Pennycook dismissed the idea of landlords leaving the sector claiming “good landlords have nothing to fear”.

He said: “It is important to state that this government value the contribution made by responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, and believe they must enjoy robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back.

“As such, good landlords have nothing to fear from our reforms and should be in no rush to change legitimate business models, as I have said repeatedly.

“The private rented sector has doubled in size since the early 2000s. There is no evidence of an exodus since reform was put on the table by the previous government. Our proposals will ensure that landlords have the confidence and support they need to continue to invest and operate in the sector.”

Mr  Pennycook’s comments come despite mounting evidence that landlords are leaving the sector.

The Guild of Property Professionals argues that the Renters’ Rights Bill will spark “an exodus,” while the NRLA warns that landlords are now more likely to sell than buy.

Rent controls could have detrimental effect

Elsewhere during the Committee meeting, co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer, argued the Renters’ Rights Bill must introduce rent controls.

She told the meeting: “I encourage the government and the Committee to look to European countries where rent caps co-exist with large private rented sectors, such as in Germany, where more than half the population rents privately and where they also have in-tenancy rent caps.

“The argument against rent controls is that they will break the private rented sector, but it is already broken, with immediate and severe consequences right now, for all the reasons we heard about in the evidence sessions.

“However, we need to talk about the risks attached to any policy of in-tenancy and between-tenancy rent controls. Any system to introduce them needs to be carefully designed and built.”

Mr Pennycook told Ms Denyer the government that introducing rent controls “could have a detrimental impact on tenants and cause supply issues”.

He added that the Renters’ Rights Bill strikes the right balance, emphasising that “this legislation is just one of several steps we’re taking to address affordability pressures in the private rented sector.”


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Keith Wellburn

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10:46 AM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

Rather disingenuous to look at the position ‘since the early 2000s’ Mr Pennycook.

It’s what is happening now in a completely different market that matters, the reduction started after Osborne’s 2015 budget and nothing happening in Parliament is likely to change that trend.

And Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York (prime tourist location) has spoken at length in Parliament on the subject of the loss of properties to holiday letting which has already occurred and continues to do so. If you’re so sure of yourself Mr Pennycook - stand up in the chamber and call her out on it!

TheMaluka

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11:25 AM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

“There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”

Doe the cap fit Mr Pennycook?

Stella

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11:53 AM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

He has anti-landlord OCD

This renders him incapable of having a balanced view and his anti-landlord policies can only result in more tenants chasing an ever decreasing supply of housing.

Paul Essex

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13:32 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

And for those going on about holiday lets I can assure the MP that the vast majority of housing is not in areas suitable for holiday lets.
Ironically the demands for housing in the holiday hot spots comes from people working in tourism. I hear rumours that some costal towns in Wales are loosing a lot of amenities.

DPT

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14:20 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

The Ministers sentence was incomplete. It should have said " Good landlords have nothing to fear unless they make an administrative error, which will cost them £7000 in the first instance and £40000 in the second".

Godfrey Jones

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16:40 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

This guy is blind to how good Landlords are already struggling. We have no hope under wallys like this.

Paul Cunningham

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18:03 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

Just another example that the NRLA have no voice and are ignored by Government.
Professional landlords desperately need an Association to represent them. This industry has never been in such a parlous state. They have become a laughing stock. Completely ineffective CEO and Board.

Elena Sh

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19:22 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

The PRS industry does not have their own legal body to protect the landlords. ...unfortunately.
NRLA is not for landlords any more. The purpose it was supposed to be when founded... Landlords must create the genuine , fit for purpose organisation which will stand for landlords ' interests. Useless nrla should be dissolved as it does not serve its purpose any more.

Mr Blueberry

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20:06 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

The Housing Minister does not seem aware that the UK's private rented residential sector has lost approximately 400,000 rental homes since 2016. The majority of Landlords leaving today is due to overpriced taxation and not being able to get back their investment.
Successive governments have sold over 2M of their own social homes by way of right to buy. Tenants have become owners. This policy has netted successive governments over £50bn. Were even 10% of this figure utilised in the provision of building new homes for the homeless and poor it would result in a reducing dramatically the financial burden on local authorities. Ironically over £15Bn is spent on housing benefit annually, much of which would have been saved had the government housing stock not have been sold off in the first place.

TheMaluka

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21:47 PM, 8th November 2024, About 2 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Elena Sh at 08/11/2024 - 19:22
Try iHowz.

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