Michael Gove says landlords are ‘vital’ for a fair rental market

I suspect Mr Gove had his fingers crossed when he spoke. Either that or he does not realise what his civil servants and the Parliamentary draftsman have been up to.
Take the sentence: "However, he also assured landlords that they would have ‘more comprehensive grounds’ to reclaim their properties if tenants breach their contracts or cause problems."
As I pointed out here and here things are not as he would have us believe.
An additional big issue that Mr Gove does not mention is the backlog in getting cases to court. Cases using section 8 necessarily take longer than those using section 21 and so even with the same number of cases the delays will be longer. This may be exacerbated because at present many tenants do not bother to fight a s21 eviction. If more of them choose to fight s8 cases, perhaps to put off the evil day, then it will take even longer to reclaim properties. Having ‘more comprehensive grounds’ to evict is of little comfort if the tenant is not paying rent and you have to wait months to get him or her out.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 03/07/2023 - 12:20
Agreed 100%.

All the 'grounds' in the world are meaningless without the infrastructure to implement. That said, even before we think about implementation, the wording of the grounds currently is not conducive to Landlords getting possession.

Try harder Mr Gove, then we might, just might, believe you. At the moment your words do not ring true or genuine to me - and I wouldn't expect you to say differently when speaking to the NRLA. I bet you wouldn't say the same when addressing the likes of Shelter and Generation Rent, would you?

"The Secretary of State expressed his commitment to work closely with the NRLA, the leading association for landlords in the UK"

....who represent a tiny proportion of UK landlords.

Gove is a renown backstabber, I take everything he says with a very large pinch of salt.

He was hardly going to come and say this was anti-Landlord.. Spin, spin and more spin.

As I've said to my local MP several times whenever a housing minister says how important Landlords are to the country I brace myself for the inevitable kick in the gut.

If you believe a single word that Michael Gove writes or says you must have had your eyes and ears closed for the last decade! Trust him I do NOT!

All section 21’s are going to have to go to Court in future as section 8’s. How on earth are the Courts going to cope with this massive increase in workload ? Also what happened to a specialist housing court ? It’s the fact that a section 8 will take years to get through the courts that frightens the pants of me.

Actions speak louder than words, Mr Gove. Few landlords will believe you have their interests in mind when they remember the governments actions over the past decade.
When you introduced payment of the housing element of UC direct to tenants we said it would increase arrears leading to higher rents and more evictions. It did.
When you brought in Section 24 we said it would lead to higher rents. You didn't listen and it did.
When you brought in selective and additional licensing we said the additional costs would be passed on to tenants in higher rents. They were.
When you legislated for the abolition of S21 we said that without prior changes to and investment in the courts systems it would lead to landlords leaving the sector, with a reduction in supply and therefore higher rents. You pressed ahead anyway and that is exactly what is happening.
Since 2012 your government have introduced wide ranging changes to the PRS. Some have been beneficial, but many have not helped landlords or tenants. They have all heaped additional costs on to the sector. Most of the benefits could have been gained with better implementation and enforcement of existing legislation.
The "unforeseen consequences" of your actions were entirely foreseeable and we shouted out what they would be. Constant changes to the housing minister have meant that there was no consistent policy, and what there was was disjointed and suffered from bad advice from a revolving door of sudo-experts. Some of the ideas coming out of the Cabinet Office and CCO were mind-numbingly badly thought through.
You didn't listen to what we said over the years and now we all - landlords, tenants local and central government, are suffering the results.
The school year is ending and you get a D-. Must do better next term (if you get one).

MrGove is like a multifaceted diamond; you never know which face he is using.

Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 04/07/2023 - 09:55Remember it’s Gove that thinks it’s perfectly fair to single out landlords to pay tens of thousands of pounds themselves to fix the cladding issues, not caused by themselves. This alone demonstrates the absolute evil of the man.

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 04/07/2023 - 10:05Just my point, a very different face to the one which says how important individual landords are.