Letter to Gavin Barwell Housing Minister

Letter to Gavin Barwell Housing Minister

10:27 AM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago 57

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Dear Mr Barwell,Gavin

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

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

 

It would be good if other readers could also write to Gavin Barwell.

His email address is:  gavin.barwell.mp@parliament.uk


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HMOLandlady

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15:24 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Here's my response:

Dear Mr Barwell

I’m picking up on some of the comments regarding last night’s Newsnight discussion.

Private landlords have been vilified throughout the centuries, probably with good reason in the past. However, the majority of modern landlords aren’t greedy and run decent businesses housing people. Over the last two decades they have plugged the gap of providing housing for recipients of state support/DSS/LHA in light of the unavailability of council housing. In the last ten year’s of being a landlord I have learnt that some people are either unwilling or unable to run a home of their own either due to a lack of education, support or not wanting to take on such a responsibility.

This wonderful world is made up of people who differ from each other in so many ways but every one has an overriding desire - to have a roof over their head that they can afford. Whether it’s the Government, charities or private landlords which are facilitating this need to be achieved, doesn’t matter; the point is we are all working towards the same goal. The recent tax legislation has caused mortgaged private landlords to become annexed from this group prompting much needed houses to be withdrawn from the rental market.

It hasn’t escaped many of us that the real plan appears to bring rental houses under the umbrella of large corporations - many of these are involved in property and are major contributors to the Conservative party. I can understand why this is a market which is attractive to large companies if they are given the land and resources to build houses purely for rental. If this is the case, I can see no need to bully landlords out of the PRS. Wouldn’t we all be better finding a cohesive approach to housing the nation rather than picking fights for the media to feed from? Build the houses, protect the vulnerable and work towards this basic goal of providing homes.

Yours sincerely

Rod

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15:40 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

I too, often write to M.P.s. This time with a few extras eg paying fall council tax on an empty property after getting rid of the deadbeat who lived there at my expense! My comments are always strongly worded as I feel it gets through better but never bad language and keep it down to one paragraph, otherwise they can't be bothered reading it all. If everyone does the same, they'll soon get fed up! I always mention I rent out for £85pw but after mort', exp's, tax etc, I'm left with just £45 pw. It's not much!!!

Dr Rosalind Beck

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16:03 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Well done Frank, Layla, McFresh, Property Man, Whiteskifreak and HMO Landlady. Including mine that is 7 letters sent from us so far - if others can also do this, it will have a far greater impact.

I have also now made a complaint to Newsnight - it is a bit tricky. I sent them an email and they sent me the contact page and then it wouldn't let me paste half of what I wanted so I referred them back to my email. Hopefully it will get through. We have made complaints to the BBC before however and their responses are very poor. I felt I wanted to do it anyway and post the letter here so that there is a public record of how abysmal the reporting was. This is the link to the letter:

https://www.property118.com/newsnights-biased-anti-landlord-coverage/94522/#comment-87105

Rod

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16:22 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "08/02/2017 - 16:03":

I sent one too! In my view the BBC have become very political lately. The media have a lot of power, without any votes!!

Dr Rosalind Beck

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16:26 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jack Ass" at "08/02/2017 - 16:22":

Yes, a programme like Newsnight should not be allowed to offer biased, inaccurate and flimsy reporting. Emily Maitlis speaks with a nice posh voice as though what she is saying is sensible and true, when in the case it was neither.

Arnie Newington

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17:35 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

The fact that the Govt. are still going to ban letting fees and introduce section 24 whilst knowing these have policies have been a disaster in Scotland and Ireland tells you all that you need to know about this Govt.

No wonder they did not include these stupid policies in their manifesto when they stood for election.

Yet the attacks by the Govt. on landlords started as soon as the new MPs took their seats.

Rod

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17:59 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

I've always thought that L/Ls are seen the same as a secondhand car salesman, 'a bit dodgy' ! It's hard to shake off this image, if at all! I've written to M.Ps for years about many things and feel sure my name is well known in the corridors of power but I'll never know! Trick is, keep it short!!?

Paul Green

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18:06 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "terry sullivan" at "08/02/2017 - 12:00":

Education... labour is for the working man, what do you think landlords are. Vote Jeremy corbyn he is a decent man ... you obviously can't hear him, and have been betrayed by your own party, the conservatives who purport to be on the just about managing side... cant you see this a an assault on the middle class... or class warfare...

terry sullivan

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20:48 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Green" at "08/02/2017 - 18:06":

i do not vote conservative--labor party represents the real enemies of working people

Layla .

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22:25 PM, 8th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Green" at "08/02/2017 - 18:06":

Absolutely, its class war and nothing less.

Two generations from now when we are all living in rented cardboard pre fabs like battery chickens the people will finally see whats happened to them.

You can even see it with something like smart meters, its a massive marketing campaign selling so called benefits to the people but wait until we are all hooked and watch how they adjust the tarriffs on an individual basis hiking the unit cost for you during your period of high demand.

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