Can’t give customers Jam Tarts when they want Doughnuts!

The Customer is always right! Even when he is wrong he is right! The problem the Conservative Party had was that they can never be wrong and even when they are not right they are never wrong.

The rot all started with my MP, Helen Whately, asking a question in the House of Commons. She wrote in her constituency notes:

“If you rent your home your landlord could ask you to leave with just 3 months notice – tough if you’ve got children in a local school. The Government is now looking at 3-year tenancies to give renters more security, after I asked the Housing Secretary about it in the House of Commons”.

What when the average stay in an AST is over four years?

Hansaard records the question and Dominic Raab’s response that will come back to haunt Dominic Raab in the next couple of months.

The treasury said it would not work. It has put off would be Private Sector Landlords (PSL) from investing.

I have tenants who have been with me for almost 15 years. Who have come with small children who have passed through Primary and Secondary Education, and flown the nest for University. Yet the tenants remain in the same house.

The problem which Helen Whately failed to recognise is a numbers problem and nothing to do with PSL or tenants putting down roots! The South East is becoming a Sea of Houses yet they are not built quickly enough! The Gap is getting wider and that is hardly the PSL’s fault.

The average PSL has just one house with a tenant of around 4½ years. He is not  a Developer.

The message for Nigel Farage at the next General Election is restore Landlord’s Tax Relief to the Headline Rate and bring in a 10% Capital Gains level for the PSL.

Well of course, the majority of Brexit Voters are not landlords. They were just Fed Up, Fed Up, Fed Up with the constant arguing and bickering of the two major parties who are now licking their wounds. Ann Widdecombe is my immediate past MP and is most analytical. She said the people are Fed Up. They have had enough. She is absolutely right!

Landlords have had enough also!

Very many PSLs openly declared their support for the Brexit Party was due to the punitive tax system applied to PSLs!

It is a numbers game!

Each Private Sector Landlord has a Private Sector Tenant! The whole idea is new estates are built and PSLs buy houses to rent to tenants. No landlord then no tenant. What will happen I am sure, is that The Brexit Party will lead the way with the Lib Dems and Greens in support saying there must be incentives for investors to invest in housing rather than other things, in order to resolve the housing problem.

Fergus Wilson

Share This Article