Labour MP calls for seizing properties from criminal landlords to tackle housing crisis

Reply to the comment left by Route Meister at 18/11/2023 - 09:15
Some of us already feel like we are! One of the reasons I am out. No point being made the villain of the piece when you have done you best for nearly 30 years. I can do better elsewhere for a whole lot less hassle.

Reply to the comment left by dismayed landlord at 18/11/2023 - 09:48
Social housing cannot sustain. Building maintenance service charges have all risen drastically.

This can’t be real - it’s a sick joke in very poor taste!

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 18/11/2023 - 09:53
One reason Margaret Thatcher sold off council properties was because of the inability of local authorities to raise sufficient funds to keep them in good repair. Her thinking was that if the new owners wished to maintain and improve the value of their newly acquired homes they would make the necessary investment and care for them. It worked.

Margret Thatcher was asked in an interview, "isn't selling off council houses like selling off the family silver" And she smugly replied "but we are selling the family silver, to the family" I remember at the time thinking......"you dozy old bird, you only get to do that once, and then its gone. What about the next generation"

I’m writing to my local mp about this and £30k fines - so should we all.

What a coincidence?

In 2003, Betts was suspended from the House of Commons for seven days for irregularities involving the employment and visa of Jose Gasparo, a Brazilian student with previous experience as a male escort.[7] The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on 10 July 2010 that Betts' partner and parliamentary assistant, James Thomas, had tried to edit this fact from Betts' English Wikipedia page in an attempt to cover it up.[8]

Betts was found guilty of breaching the MPs' code of conduct, with the Standards and Privileges Committee stating that he had acted "extremely foolishly" and had risked damaging public confidence in the integrity of Parliament. Particular concerns involved his failure to disclose Gasparo's background to parliamentary authorities and the fact that Betts had knowingly photocopied an altered document on Gasparo's behalf.[9] Betts gave an "unreserved apology" in a personal statement to MPs when the report was published.[10]

In 2003, Betts was subject to criticism for his accommodation expenses after he had previously campaigned for an increase in MPs' entitlements on the ground of "hardship". It was reported by The Times that Betts had "flipped" his designated second home to Yorkshire before buying a "country estate" there, before "flipping it" back to London and taking out a larger mortgage on his flat there.[11] Betts denied wrongdoing, arguing the Yorkshire property had been "two dilapidated listed buildings" and that when he became a whip he had to declare his main residence as his London flat.[12]
In 2004, he was criticised by the British Medical Association for going to Portugal with 15 fellow MPs on an all-expenses trip paid for by the fast food chain McDonald's. Betts responded that if MPs had a "puritanical" attitude about food then people would ignore what they said.[13] He faced further criticism in 2010 after it was reported that he was one of eight MPs who were renting out a "second home" in London while claiming for the cost of renting a '"third home" in the city at taxpayers' expense. Although legal, critics argued the "loophole" was allowing MPs to increase their income after the rules on parliamentary expenses were tightened.[14]
Betts employs his partner as his Senior Parliamentary Assistant on a salary up to £45,000.[15] He was listed in articles in The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian which criticised the practice of MPs employing family members, on the lines that it promotes nepotism.[16] Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Betts' employment of his partner is lawful.[17]

Yeah. This ain't gonna happen.
Landlords that take the p should be penalised and everyone else should increase the standard of their property and management whilst increasing rent to cover the cost.

Labour will build homes and seek to end this crisis.

What about criminal
Politicians that take a world economic forum view of you will
Own nothing and be happy? 15 minute cities which is laughable!

If this idiot were to get his way how
Long before all landlord owned
Properties were seized? How would he like it if some fool threatened to seize some of his property? where do we get these people from who once they get a bit of power think they can start threatening people.

Reply to the comment left by LaLo at 18/11/2023 - 12:59
Writing to MPs is all a bit pointless unless they are a minister for housing.

They are not going to get government or party policy changed for you.