Meet The Housing Minister – Tell Him What You Think

Meet The Housing Minister – Tell Him What You Think

7:10 AM, 16th February 2017, About 8 years ago 51

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Meet Gavin Barwell - Housing Minister - Tell Him What You Think

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell is about to go on a tour of the UK to discuss Housing from 20th February to 6th March.

Is there a message you would like to give him?

As you know, the Government has published a housing White Paper, ‘Fixing Our Broken Housing Market’, setting out our strategy to build the homes that this country needs. It contains a comprehensive set of proposals to deliver the step change in house building that is required. But the challenge of increasing supply cannot be met by government alone.

Mr Barwell said …. “That is why I want to hear from a wide range of stakeholders – Councillors, local authority planning and housing officers, large and small developers, housing associations, estate agents, letting agents and others – about what they think about the White Paper and how we can work together to fix our broken housing market. To that end, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks travelling around the country trying to hear from as many housing and planning professionals as possible. I would be grateful if you could use your networks to spread the word and encourage attendance. We expect to hold events on the following days in the following locations. Further details regarding each of the events and how to book places will follow shortly.”

Meet The Housing Minister - Tell Him What You Think

Meet The Housing Minister - Tell Him What You Think 2

Please note event amendment:

Wed 22nd Feb Cambridge
Time: 15:00 – 16:30 Hosted by Cambridge City Council at Homerton College

 

We suggest contacting the host organisations to register interest in attendance and to reserve seating.

We would like as many Property118 members as possible to attend these events and to raise the key points made by Property118 members in “The Ros Report“.

We also encourage you to collect as many business cards as possible from other attendees and then send them an email after the event with a link to The Ros Report – see link below.

https://www.property118.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/6G0YKMd1Wf.pdf


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Whiteskifreak Surrey

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9:53 AM, 22nd February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Darlington Landlord" at "21/02/2017 - 22:58":

Hi Darlington Landlord,
When preparing questions you might want to include something about equal treatment of all housing providers - as mentioned by Teresa May in Davos:

“… It means stepping up to a new, active role that backs businesses and ensures more people in all corners of the country share in the benefits of its success.
And for business, it means doing even more to spread those benefits to more people. It means playing by the same rules as everyone else when it comes to tax and behaviour, because in the UK trust in business runs at just 35% among those in the lowest income brackets. And it means putting aside short-term considerations and investing in people and communities for the long-term.”
“Businesses large and small are the backbone of our economies, and enterprise is the engine of our prosperity. That is why Britain is – and will always be – open for business: open to investment in our companies, infrastructure, universities and entrepreneurs….”
“…But, at the same time as promoting this openness, we must heed the underlying feeling that there are some companies, particularly those with a global reach, who are playing by a different set of rules to ordinary, working people.”

Surely not everything, but " It means playing by the same rules as everyone else when it comes to tax and behaviour" is of particular importance IMHO. And the last sentence too.
Good luck!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:56 AM, 22nd February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "22/02/2017 - 09:28":

Fantastic question Ros, I love it.

Not only does it back Barwell into a corner but the question will also help to educate everybody else in the room.
.

Ian Narbeth

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13:09 PM, 23rd February 2017, About 8 years ago

I didn't see this thread until recently and have posted here: https://www.property118.com/letter-to-gavin-barwell-housing-minister/94497/comment-page-5/#comments about my attendance.

Can I suggest that if any of the people reading this attends one of the later sessions and if Mr Barwell trots out that the "OBR agrees that only 1 in 5 landlords will be affected" you say something on the lines of: "As you well know and as you accepted when speaking to a landlord in London on 20th February the affected landlords have substantially more than 1 in 5 of the rental properties in the UK. Please don't keep repeating the Treasury's misleading statistics. Section 24 benefits corporate landlords, unfairly taxes individuals, is leading to increased costs and increased rents and is harming the poorest tenants.

Instead of citing the OBR you might like to quote instead the Institute of Fiscal Studies who wrote: “Far from levelling the tax playing field, this policy puts a cliff face through the middle of it… It is likely that landlords will increase their rents to compensate for the loss of tax relief and the number of rental properties may decrease.”

Please relay this to Philip Hammond and ask him to reconsider."

Please let us know how you get on.

Dr Rosalind Beck

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13:33 PM, 23rd February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Narbeth" at "23/02/2017 - 13:09":

Good plan, Ian. Just one correction - it was ICAEW who made the statement about the cliff edge. Well done for your efforts on this - as you say, I think it is crucial to nail him on his 1 in 5 statement and also to ask him the question I have suggested above regarding whether he agrees we should be taxed on fictitious profit rather than actual profit.

Ian Narbeth

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14:08 PM, 23rd February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "23/02/2017 - 13:33":

Thank you for the correction.

Darlington Landlord

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17:57 PM, 23rd February 2017, About 8 years ago

Many thanks to Ros, Whiteskifreak, James and Ian for your coments, fingers crossed I'll get chance to make some good points tomorrow

Ian Narbeth

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16:33 PM, 27th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Darlington Landlord" at "23/02/2017 - 17:57":

Hi Darlington Landlord
Any news from Friday?

Darlington Landlord

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18:34 PM, 27th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Narbeth" at "27/02/2017 - 16:33":

The York meeting had over 100 attendees. Gavin said at the beginning that he was looking for allies and a cross party solution. He emphasised he was tasked with delivering more homes and as he didn't think there was a silver bullet he was looking at all means, particularly making local plans accountable in terms of homes delivered and giving planning some teeth to make sure developments happen. I was lucky enough to get a question after Gavin had responded to a housing association representative who was saying they had stopped plans to build as unaffordable due to changes to rent and UC. GB said to him (roughly quoting not exact) you've got/can withhold something I want (more homes) I'm going to have to help you. After joking that he'd had some rough questions from landlords (He had agreed that the PRS is the second highest tenure) he said that he wants to help good landlords, with easier eviction for bad tenants (arrears, damage) and to stop costs such as councils advising tenants to stay until eviction, but to crack down on rogue landlords. So overall I don't think he's going to step outside the party line on clause 24, but he has listened to concerns and is willing to help, he has asked for evidence of mortgage Ts&Cs / buildings insurance which stop landlords offering "familly friendly" 3 year+ tenancies

Gromit

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7:47 AM, 28th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Taunton have changed venue to the County Cricket Ground, and there are now 22 places available this Thursday 2nd March at 3pm

Book here: eventbrite.com/e/fixing-the-broken-housing-market-tickets-32091988000?invite=&err=29&referrer=&discount=&affiliate=&eventpassword=

Unfortunately I cannot now make this.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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8:25 AM, 28th February 2017, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Darlington Landlord" at "27/02/2017 - 18:34":

How can we get the Housing Minister to realise there are better solutions to all concerned than longer term tenancies?

We need him to understand the benefits of a "Deed of Assurance".

Please see my link below.

https://www.property118.com/government-discussed-deed-of-assurance-in-2013/92696/
.

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