Mayor of West Yorkshire blasts landlords for raising rents

Mayor of West Yorkshire blasts landlords for raising rents

9:29 AM, 6th October 2023, About A year ago 101

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The mayor of West Yorkshire has launched a scathing attack on landlords, in a new interview.

Labour mayor Tracy Brabin has criticised landlords who raise rents in a cost-of-living crisis.

However, she does not advocate for the use of rent controls and instead wants to focus on building more affordable homes. 

Avaricious and greedy

Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, told Inside Housing magazine: “People are becoming homeless because landlords are putting rents up in order to be in line with market prices, when actually they don’t need it because they’re in a fixed mortgage themselves.

“It just avaricious, and it’s greedy. I would say to landlords that do that, you’re not really welcome in West Yorkshire because it’s not fair. Particularly when the cost of living is squeezing people’s incomes.”

Ms Brabin, whose combined authority covers Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds, added: “A third of all children in West Yorkshire are living in poverty. 200,000 families are using food banks. This is fuelled not just by the cost of living but also rising rents.”

Not thought about rent controls

This year many labour mayors including Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham have called for an immediate rent freeze to help renters deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy slapped down the calls for rent controls in June, saying: “Rent controls that cut rents for some will almost certainly leave others homeless.”

Ms Brabin stopped short of joining her fellow mayors in directly calling for rent control powers. She said: “I’ve not thought about rent controls currently, it’s not in the forefront of my mind.”

A spokesperson for Ms Brabin later told Inside Housing magazine that building affordable homes was more important to the mayor.

Retrofit social homes

In Leeds last year at the Holtdale estate, 190 social homes were retrofitted with heat pumps, solar panels and insulation by Leeds City Council and low carbon equipment provider, Equans, at a cost of £9.6m.

Ms Brabin praised the work at the housing estate and said more needs to be done.

She said: “There are 680,000 social homes across West Yorkshire and we have to retrofit them all. So while this programme is really fantastic, and the outcomes are really spectacular, we’ve got to turbocharge that delivery.”

The full interview can be read here (for some readers this may be behind a paywall).


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CP

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12:17 PM, 22nd October 2023, About A year ago

This is the trouble, blaming others when they did noting for years, typical politicians playing the public to gain popularity. Do they really care or is this just for votes.
Both Labour and this lot for decades sat on their hands and did noting.
And lets be honest we all know what local councils are like.

Russell Cartner

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14:13 PM, 22nd October 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by CP at 22/10/2023 - 12:17
The General election next year has MP's terrified of losing there cushy jobs. Comments on here achieve very little but even more on here sending a complaiming Email to your local MP and gobshite M Gove will really make them sit up and listen. Its no coincidence (Scared MP's have been lobbying Rishy Sunak) he has altered his anti landlord policies.
You can make a real difference, email your local MP & michael.gove.mp@parliament.uk

Janey

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20:23 PM, 24th October 2023, About A year ago

Wonder how many of those council properties refurbished energy efficiently in Leeds, will then be sold to the tenant with a "right to buy" after 3 years living in the property!?! Excellent use of the taxes we pay!

Russell Cartner

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22:23 PM, 24th October 2023, About A year ago

If you have a grouse Complain, Complain, Complain by email to your local MP &
bullshi##er M Gove
michael.gove.mp@parliament.uk
MP's are now starting to listen because they are becoming afraid of losing there cushy fat wallet expense loving jobs.
Rishi is under pressure from MP's lobbying him so give them hell

Peter Gulline

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10:24 AM, 26th October 2023, About A year ago

Over £50k per home spent on heat pumps etc - when is a home improvement fairy going to pop along to home OWNERS and hand them £50ks worth of improvements.

Russell Cartner

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10:29 AM, 26th October 2023, About A year ago

This is her email complain to her
in fact if everyone complains she might wise up

mayoral.enquiries@westyorks-ca.gov.uk

JeggNegg

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21:53 PM, 26th October 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Russell Cartner at 26/10/2023 - 10:29
Russell. i got a reply from west Yorks.
sadly i cannot open the link. i have notified the council. Maybe you might have more luck?

Thank you so much for taking the time to contact Mayor Brabin. My name is Viktorija, and I am a Policy & Casework Support Officer working within the Mayoral team and have been asked to look into this issue on her behalf.

Data that the Combined Authority has published as part of our Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee papers in August highlighted how private sector rents across the region had risen between April 2019 and March 2023 and can be found here:

https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.westyorkshire.moderngov.co.uk%2Fdocuments%2Fs32222%2FItem%25207%2520-%2520Monitoring%2520Indicators.pdf&data=05%7C01%7C%7C018e9e6097af4212284708dbd5458b07%7C34e93bfcee664345a4fe805b67e480c0%7C0%7C0%7C638338266872807401%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ecE4bPyFObWOiYZ5qjybs%2BpN%2B07iUP8A27qECq88iHw%3D&reserved=0.

In particular, we highlighted how people on lower incomes are disproportionately impacted by rent increases, finding that those on low incomes in Leeds for example, are spending 47% of their income on rent.

The Local Housing Allowance has been frozen nationally since 2020, yet private sector rents have increased as we have faced inflationary challenges and subsequent interest rate rises. As a consequence, the gap between the maximum amount that can be claimed by those who are eligible has grown substantially. For example, the average Local Housing Allowance for a two-bedroom home in West Yorkshire is £483, yet the average private sector median rent in West Yorkshire is £620, leaving a shortfall of on average £137 (note: Local Housing Allowances are set at Local Authority level, therefore this is an average across the five West Yorkshire Local Authorities).

This is set against a backdrop of fewer affordable homes being built, where rents are controlled and capped nationally by the regulator. That is the Mayor is focused on boosting the delivery of truly affordable homes. This is one of the key objectives of our Strategic Place Partnership with Homes England, our work with Housing Associations in West Yorkshire and through the Brownfield Housing Fund, whereby 1113 homes currently in contract with us are expected to be affordable.

The Mayor does however recognise the importance of working with private landlords in the region to make sure that we can deliver good quality, affordable, safe and secure homes for everyone, especially as more and more people are now renting privately, and we would welcome further conversations with those landlords who share our ambitions to deliver good quality and sustainable homes in West Yorkshire

Once again thank you for contacting the Mayor about this issue, I hope the above context and detail helps.

Many thanks,
Viktorija

Viktorija Kiselyte (she/her)
Policy and Casework Support Officer (Mayoral Office) West Yorkshire Combined Authority Wellington House | 40-50 Wellington Street | Leeds | LS1 2DE

Russell Cartner

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8:34 AM, 27th October 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by JeggNegg at 26/10/2023 - 21:53
No I can't access it either
At least you have had a reply

JeggNegg

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10:13 AM, 27th October 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Russell Cartner at 27/10/2023 - 08:34
thank you for trying.
as i mentioned i have sent new email requesting anther link. today i received an auto reply to acknowledge receipt.

JeggNegg

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10:28 AM, 27th October 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Russell Cartner at 24/10/2023 - 22:23
the management of housing requirements in UK has been a miserable failure.
WHY?
i dont know but
there needs to be a major rethink! if we actually care and want to provide enough homes for humans to live in and have a chance to have better quality of life.
i dont have the stats but i guess for years successive government's have paid lip-service only to targets of 300,000 and then use the words 'SORRY AND WE APOLOGISE' with some feeble excuse.
is it time to take housing out of the hands of the politicians?
or maybe the Chancellor eases some Pension Fund restrictions so a percentage could be invested into building residential dwellings.
a deep dive is required as the problem has escalated out of proportion.
PS
could someone please clarify for me, ' is the target 300,000 houses or homes'

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