General Election 8th June – Who on earth do landlords vote for?

We are the sacrifical lamb to convince the JAM's and London centric Generation Rent the Conservatives are on their side, whilst removing competition for their preferred big company corporate landlords who will charge more and are unlikely to find social tenants profitable enough.
We have been demonised by the populist press and NO other party has opposed any of the Conservatives anti landlord policies/regulations or even challenged the lack of consulatation/fact based policy so they have populist a free ride.
If another party had tried to bring in clause 24 the Mail etc. would have been up in arms.
If we don't stand up for ourselves and hold them to account no-one else will and I am sure they are counting on the "lesser evil" "other issues are important" votes to dilute any coordinated landlord protest vote.
The question landlords need to ask is will voting for their other policies benefit me more than their anti landlord legislation deprives me and my family?
It will be interesting to see how much additional tax is raised by landlords selling and the 3% extra stamp duty in the next couple of years and then after that how tax receipts for individual/small ltd landlords do (I'd bet on falling).
Short termism in politics and business seems rife and is the opposite of most landlords long term mindset,

This was my MP's response to my first email to her, she responded within eight hours. In it basically I was a bit harsh in my manner before hearing her own views. Hence her first line. The last paragraph is the important one.

Dear Colin

I am very happy to support your campaign but can I gently ask that the tone of your email will not help your cause. If I am not re elected I will happily go back to the job of nursing instead. It is an honour to be a MP and not a right and as such I am aware that elections will be won or lost and at all times my decisions must be based on what is right for local people and not what will win me the most votes.

That said I have supported landlords in my constituency, especially in terms of the fees they are charged by letting agents and ensuring that renting is seen as a significant part of the housing market and support is given to renters as well as those who want to buy.

It is up to you how you vote but I would be concerned about the value of properties in this country if Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM in a Liberal/Labour/SNP coalition which is currently being proposed. I think there would be little profit or turnover to tax if that were to happen.

I am of course supportive of your campaign and would want to see landlords treated as any other business and taxed in a fair way and in that way I would support the campaign you suggest.

I hope that answers your questions.

Maria

I then sent another email apologising for my manner, but spelling out again the position for landlords.

Dear Maria

Thank you for your very quick response.

I am sorry for my tone if it offended in any way that was not my intention. I, like many other landlords are seeing their business and their future at risk, and are extremely upset at how we are being treated. The frustration obviously came out in my previous email which on re-reading I see was quite aggressive and I really must apologise for that, that is not me. It was not aimed at you personally, and I thank you for the work you have done in our constituency, but I am afraid you have taken the brunt of what was focused squarely at the treasury and the way the party seems to be heading. When the Prime Minister says, Conservatives are the party of working people she must remember the working people who have supported and elected her party to office, and not just the labour voters she is trying to woo.

This loss of relief only affects private landlords who are the backbone of Buy to Let. Many are in no position to incorporate, where finance costs are still deductible, due to their existing lenders restrictions and refinancing as a company would be at higher interest rates and coupled with the crushing cost of Stamp Duty Land Tax on incorporation all makes it impossible to go in that direction. There are many thousands of plumbers, electricians, decorators, and other trades across the country who rely on Buy to Let for their income, maintaining properties for landlords, this affects a great many more than just landlords.

I thank you being in support of landlords and our campaign to be treated as other businesses and taxed fairly, but what can be done to put matters right? Are you able to bring pressure on the government to reverse Section 24 before the election, and are you able to speak to other MP’s and ask them to add their support to stopping this unjust tax on private landlords? We are now being taxed on turnover not profit which will bankrupt some landlords, increase rents and put tenants out of their homes. There seems to be a misconception that every person wants to buy their home and landlords are stopping them, many do not, and many others are not financially able to do so. Buy to Let landlords play a very important role in housing people in this country and to penalise them will only make it harder for tenants to find homes, which in turn will create more burden on local councils.

Kind regards

This was my MP's response to my second email to her, printed in my comment above. I live in a marginal seat, so if people don't vote, or vote UKIP then a sympathetic Conservative MP may be lost, is this a sensible way to go? We need to know our MP's position and back them if they understand our situation. Not chase pies in the sky that will never get elected and we lose our vote and our voice.

----

Thanks Colin

Please do not worry about the tone of the email. I can sense your frustration. We can put pressure on treasury to relook at this and a reshuffle post the GE may well bring a change of mind. I am happy to push for this when Parliament resumes and once we know who the treasury team are I can set about raising this in parliament.

With all good wishes

Maria

Call me a cynic, but it appears that MPs are suddenly answering the emails from landlords very quickly and amiably, with vague promises of taking up the issue after they are re-elected... They weren't doing that when they thought they had another 3 years until an election. I think it would be good to push them where possible to get crystal clarity; for example, getting them to say that they will ask questions in Parliament about Section 24 - questions we can help with - and that they will couch these questions with supportive comments about landlords in order to raise the profile of this for a fight-back.

I agree that this time we are looking at individual candidates' positions on landlords and Section 24 and not necessarily parties' positions on it. I have mentioned that I will be voting for my local Labour MP, in his safe seat, as he has said all along that he supports landlords and he is anti-Corbyn. I think this issue is a bit like Brexit - no-one should be getting personal about it and we all need to make our own decisions about whom we vote for, weighing everything up.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "18/04/2017 - 16:01":

I know the opinion polls have been wrong in the past - but a Labour landslide ?

Even if the pollsters are wrong by a greater margin than ever - we're still only talking the size of the conservative majority.

Either way the choice before us is unedifying !

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "25/04/2017 - 06:54":

Ros - I cannot agree more with you!
Yes, the only thing the candidates are interested in, is to get in for another 5 years. Indeed it took ages to actually get any response at all from my MP and it was always Osborne's / Gauke's / whoever's governmental tosh.
I am going to write to her again, and somehow I suspect she will suddenly be all for PRS and Landlords and Tenants.

But I just cannot force myself to vote Conservative - after all what they did. And I am a 'natural' conservative voter.

IMHO the election is not about the stronger leadership, Brexit negotiations etc. Conservative have majority already and why are thy so bothered to have a landslide advantage (after all 4% is all what takes us out EU). Call me cynic, but it is all about taxes, taxes, taxes - Brexit is going to cost close to 60 million... I am sure LLs will finance a large part of it.

Reply to the comment left by "Whiteskifreak Surrey" at "25/04/2017 - 08:25":

I agree, voting Conservative is like saying, - okay so you've cut one of my legs off, but I could still get about with crutches. If I vote for you again perhaps you spare amputating my other leg !

Reply to the comment left by "Whiteskifreak Surrey" at "25/04/2017 - 08:25":

Yes, it would be good to whip an email off to her asap and time the response time and see if she has changed her tune. That goes for others too who have had the awful regurgitated Treasury lies courtesy of their MP - and both Labour and Conservative MPs have done this. It would be an interesting social experiment showing how different they are when they fear losing their seats.

I also agree with Chris' comment and like the amputated legs analogy.

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "25/04/2017 - 08:36":

I've already written to ALL 3 of my MPs which cover the area's of my properties to state the consequences of the Section 24 bill.
In all of them i have stated only 3 options as a result of the Tax raid on Landlords;
1) Increase the rent to the tenant to pay the tax;
2) Evict current family tenants, and replace with HMO
3) Evict tenant and Sell the property.
I have stated, that these are the only viable options without taking the properties into bankruptcy & withdrawal from PRS.

I have suggested that i think 2017 will be a 6-8% increase in rent & a total of 30% increase over the 4 year roll out till 100% is completed.