David Lawrenson

Yes, see also Neil "Playing Away From Home" Ferguson of Imperial College and his daft predictions for convid deaths.... Read More

Agree with you and Cider Drinker.

(And my wife is an immigrant too, obtained sanctuary here from the Communist Czechoslovak government in 1970, two years after the invasion - this is a handy thing to mention to the morons who immediately call people names for daring to raise questions about immigration levels, not that I should have to play the "my wife is an immigrant too card")... Read More

Apparently not, superb suite of skits of the Basic Instinct fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgZ-_0j5g8M... Read More

Admit it, Ange, you are T H I C K..... THICK... Read More

Probably because carbon dioxide (CO2) is also plant food. Without it, plants would die.
The slight increases that have happened in levels of CO2 since 1982 have led to a greening of the world, and obviously, part of that means more plants, more cultivation and more mouths that can be fed.
So, this is inconvenient and is better to refer to simply "carbon".... Read More

Ha. Most of them don't know.
I have sent her a link to the v good, "Climate the Movie film", a good starter for those who believe in this latest cult to impoverish themselves and enrich global corporations.... Read More

Some alternative hard science info and real scientists feature in this hour long movie which I commend to you as you will not have seen it in the media you probably read, where it will have been censored. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24fWmNA6lM... Read More

... yes, and hand it over to global corporations to run instead.... Read More

... Read More

Agree strongly there with the N London man, rents will continue to rise at a lick.

On the PPE course section on economics at Oxford, that lots of these politicos seem to study, I do wonder if they skip the rather important stuff about demand and supply interaction and how rising costs on businesses tends to result in more of them selling up and hence constrained supply and then rising prices.

DER!!!!... Read More

"Stamp duty impact: The government’s decision to increase stamp duty for second homes and buy to let properties is anticipated to dampen investor demand. However, this policy change may create a more favourable environment for first-time buyers entering the market"

No necessarily.
Because lots of landlords buy wrecks or otherwise unmortgagable properties with cash or bridging loans or other finance, first time buyers (who generally need mortgages) are not going to suddenly pick up the baton and buy these sorts of places, so they will sit empty instead.
Madhouse economics. .... Read More

If you thought our lot in England were economically illiterate morons, you only have to look to Scotland to see worse.
Same as with convid restrictions.
My fear is that we, in England, as with convid, will continue to follow these Hollyrood clowns... Read More

For the word "subsidy" insert the word "taxpayer hard earned cash".
For "net zero" or "climate change" insert the word "latest cult".... Read More

China with it's stock markets and huge private corporations, albeit closely monitored and controlled by the party, is more a corporatist state than communist. Either way, with its close surveillance of its people I would not wish to live there.... Read More

Good comments, thanks... Read More

Has the penny dropped yet, people?

Same as in farming.

The clear agenda (Great Reset) is to have the main parts of the economy ran by large corporations, that can better be controlled. Hitler and Mussolini would be impressed.... Read More

At rent review time, we have now started spelling out to tenants why their rents have to go up so much.

This is what we say:

“We recognise that this is a bigger increase than has been applied in the past. As you will know, our rents have always been competitive and, even with this rise, your new rent remains below most local market rents, but regrettably we have been forced into a higher increase than in past years.

This higher increase is mainly a consequence of the governments of recent years substantially increasing the way landlords in the private rented sector are taxed as well as significantly increasing the regulatory burden that responsible landlords like us face.

In addition, central government has imposed costly requirements on us to upgrade to improve energy efficiency to meet our government’s self-imposed, so called “net zero targets”. (All privately let properties must meet an energy performance certificate level of grade C by 2030).

At local government level too, there are new local taxation schemes, (so called “selective licensing schemes”), which have been introduced by your local authority. These also come with a cost.

In addition, we also face significantly higher financing, maintenance and insurance costs”.... Read More

Spot on, it is all about getting rid of the "kulaks", the Mom and Pop landlords: It is all part of the great reset - and the handing of control to global corporations who will do the bidding of the corpora-technocracy.

Same happening in farming.

Gen Rent and other clowns are all in on this too.... Read More

V good piece, v succinct.
The only homeless charity that actually tried to help people and talks a small modicum of sense is Crisis.

Shelter and Generation Rent are simply idiots.
I was once (about eight years ago) along with Carolyn Uphill, formerly of the NRLA on BBC Five Live discussing PRS out of their Manchester studios.
When I pointed out to Gen Rent (who were on the line in a live debate) that a lot of lenders (at the time) would not let landlords let to people on benefits, they did not want to know.
Later I found out they were getting funding from The Nationwide Foundation, linked to Nationwide, owners of The Mortgage Works brand.
You could not make it up!... Read More

I was writing about this 14 years ago - about how the government was determined to hand over our business to big global corporations and banks - and I have frequently revisited this topic since that time.
Glad others have woken up to it too now.

It is the same playbook as we see in farming / agriculture where the clear intent is to wipe out the family "kulak" farmers.

All the links to our many articles on this here -

https://www.lettingfocus.com/blogs/category/build-to-let/page/2/... Read More