Housing White Paper Released – “Fixing our Broken Housing Market”

Reply to the comment left by "Grumpy Doug" at "07/02/2017 - 16:55":

Agree with that Doug.
However many bungs they give the corporate landlords, they aren't going to meet the demand, not in our time anyway. And it will take a lot of tilting the playing field before they can compete with private landlords.
Prefabs! Do me a favour.

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "07/02/2017 - 17:53":

Hi Monty & all,
I used to live - in a communistic Central European country (we are talking about end of 1980's) - not exactly in prefabs, but in something similar, made of concrete. Big blocks of flats. Cold and crumbling. They are all had to be seriously repaired, insulated in order to last. It probably did cost about the same amount as to build them.
Yes, technology is better, but I am obviously not a big fan...

I noticed in the couple of Bardwell interviews I saw on Sunday that he didn't once attack or refer to private LLs. I think that's one thing we can credit the tenant tax campaign for - he finally got the message. Maybe even all the MPs we saw have started murmuring how this isn't actually our fault and hitting us isn't such a good idea.

But, yes, the White Paper is a useless wish list of intentions. Nowhere does it give any indication of where the money to pay for building all these low cost homes is going to come from. Institutional investors will want to make good money out of such a capital investment, so them offering below market rents is out of the question.

How does the government propose to "encourage" councils, developers etc etc? Hold their hands and ask them really nicely to clean up the nasty mess?

Reply to the comment left by "Whiteskifreak Surrey" at "07/02/2017 - 19:02":

Before condemning the idea of prefabs I would like to know more about the current types. Those of us who have built timber frame houses are already using prefab roof trusses and prefab timber frame sections (8' x 4') albeit then clad in brickwork, tiles and plasterboard. I understand German 'Passivhaus' construction is mainly prefab.
Things have moved on a lot since the awful prefabs of the 60s.

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "07/02/2017 - 17:53":

A million in 5 years would not even accommodate the additional 227,000 households a year projected by the Department for Communities and Local Government.  Therefore the existing shortage that increased by 370,000 in the last 5 years alone will go up, not down.

https://www.property118.com/has-the-national-audit-office-surrendered-its-independence-to-become-the-mouthpiece-of-the-government/94067/

Reply to the comment left by "Rachel Hodge" at "07/02/2017 - 20:51":

Good morning,
last night I was watching (albeit not very diligently) the BBC 2 Newsnight and a discussion with Barwell. Indeed not a single word about the PRS. But I was listening to him constantly moaning how difficult the situation is, how much money he needs to put into building, what is a need for finding a solution quickly, etc etc. All about building new for rent, pumping money to help professional companies to solve the crisis, but, as someone said on this thread, he has a solution in front of him: abolish S24, bring back previous tax levels, stop talking about level playing field mantra and actually help the private landlords who can save his a.... . and provide what he needs.
But no, nothing of that sort at all. I am not sure if that is positive, as it it an obvious solution, not mentioned anywhere at all.
By all means, eradicate the rogue landlords who tarnish our reputation - good idea.
But an astonishing lack of any reference to PRS can be interpreted in different ways. I hope those who interpret that as a positive sign of things to come are correct.

https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/2/the-governments-private-rented-sector-policy-is-hypocritical

Reply to the comment left by "Whiteskifreak Surrey" at "08/02/2017 - 07:59":

Hi Whiteskifreak.
There were a few tiny mentions I noticed and I couldn't be bothered to rewind to check: He said that stupid thing about 'in the past the main cause of homelessness was relationship breakdown' blah blah and then said 'and now it is the end of a private tenancy.' In fact, it is important to keep explaining to people who say this (he has picked it up from nonsense being spouted by Shelter and the likes) that 1. the vast majority of private tenancies are ended by tenants and 2. by far the main reason for landlords serving notice is breach of the tenancy agreement, namely arrears and damage to the property. So I would (and will - as I will send him an email now - say that if an employer sacks someone who has been stealing from them, is the employer or the thief to blame for the thief's actions? Ditto landlords; we are not responsible for tenants whose behaviour leads them to be evicted.

I also noticed - I think anyway - that the woman (can't remember her name) introduced the film about the three people in emergency accommodation by saying that they had all lost a private tenancy - and the very first one had been evicted by a Housing Association and I believe that Housing Associations evict more tenants than private landlords do - it might be that because the latter also use ASTs the casual observer believes that the ASTs figures only relate to private landlords - and this gives them another opportunity to slag us off.

Sorry for repeating parts of my last post. I just thought I would share the letter I have just sent to him in case anyone wants to write something similar. His email address is:

gavin.barwell.mp@parliament.uk

Dear Mr Barwell.

I noticed in your appearance on Newsnight last night that you said the main cause of homelessness was the ending of a private tenancy.

In fact, it is important to keep explaining to people who say this (you have clearly picked this up from the anti-landlord rhetoric of Shelter and the like) that 1. the vast majority of private tenancies are ended by tenants and 2. by far the main reason for landlords serving notice is breach of the tenancy agreement, notably by not paying the rent and by damaging the property.

If an employer sacks someone who has been stealing from them, is it the employer or the employee who is to blame for the latter’s actions? Ditto landlords; we are not responsible for tenants whose behaviour leads them to be evicted. In fact, if you check the figures you will find that Housing Associations evict more than private landlords do and yet no mention is made of them ‘causing homelessness’ (a bizarre accusation to make of any housing provider).

I would appreciate it therefore if you can refrain from making this misleading statement again. You will appreciate how landlords were dreadfully scapegoated by George Osborne for the country's housing shortage when, in fact, without us the housing shortage would be so much worse; if we hadn’t risked our own savings and used them as deposits and taken out BTL mortgages to fund the provision of new homes to rent and the conversion and rehabilitation of decrepit housing over the last few decades, things would have been a lot worse. It is rather sickening to have none of our contribution recognised but instead to constantly have aspersions cast in our direction.

This has to stop.

Yours sincerely
Dr Rosalind Beck

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "08/02/2017 - 09:38":

Thank you Dr Ros,
Indeed I noticed the same. She was evicted by the Housing Association, as her partner ended up in prison. She was heavily complaining that she was given - as a matter of emergency - a studio to live in.
The others - I did not catch up, they did not make an impression of creme de la creme of tenants, so I guess there was something behind that, conveniently forgotten to be mentioned.
Absence of any reference to PRS, lack of NLA/RLA representative and a prominent presence of Shelter CEO was - IMHO - rather significant. Emily Maitilis did not care to mention about private sector too.

Great letter - I am going to adapt that and send out.