15:29 PM, 4th September 2024, About 17 hours ago 2
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Landlords are calling on the housing minister “to level the playing field for landlords and tenants”.
In an open letter to Matthew Pennycook the Portfolio Landlords Action Network group demands the housing minister support landlords rather than “demonise them”.
Portfolio Landlords Action Network (PLAN) is an informal network of Landlords with 75 Properties or more. Their largest member has over 1,500.
PLAN is a small group of large portfolio landlords who cannot walk away from the PRS no matter what reforms are passed. The network does not want to walk away because they believe in the value of the PRS.
Marcus Selmon, Chair of Portfolio Landlords Action Group, comments:
“What we want is a fair playing field for both Landlords and Tenants and a constructive dialogue with the Government and other stakeholders to come up with a new PLAN for the Private Rented Sector. A PLAN that includes us.
“To assist in that process we have written an Open Letter to the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook. A letter that we want to circulate widely to the various stakeholders in this debate so that we can start a constructive process of engagement with the Government.
“We now set out that letter below.
“If you want to support our aim of engaging with the Minister please feel free to circulate or contact me in the comments below about how you could do that.”
Dear Minister,
I would like to congratulate you on your appointment to this crucial role. I am writing to you on behalf of PLAN, a group of private non-institutional portfolio housing providers. Collectively we develop, own and manage over 10,000 private homes, larger than many Housing Associations.
Like the Government, we actively want and need, for all concerned, to provide good quality, appropriate, flexible, safe dwellings for those that we house. We are committed to working with the Government to build a healthy and thriving private rented sector. We support your aims for rogue landlords to be driven out and wish that the myriad laws that already exist were enforced properly before introducing another raft.
We would welcome the opening of a dialogue around:
The private rental sector, as a whole, provides housing to millions of people. We understand that we are a crucial part of that system, with roles and responsibilities that can make a real difference to our tenants’ wellbeing.
We believe we can offer insights to you and your colleagues at the Department into the wider context of today’s housing market through our knowledge and experience of developing and managing the full range of short, medium and long-term privately rented properties.
The sector is under pressure, not only from the impact of inflation, interest rate increases and huge increases in costs of labour and materials (construction inflation up 40% compared to Consumer Price Index increase of 25% since 2020), but also from the previous Government’s policies, particularly on taxation. The changes in legislation mean it is highly possible that landlords can be running an unprofitable business and yet still be liable for taxation on “profits” that don’t exist.
The result has been that many private housing providers have left and continue to leave the sector. Hamptons International points to 163,000 rental properties disappearing from the market between 2019 and the end of 2023. By driving private landlords out of the sector, the most vulnerable in society are worse off and all renters have less options rather than more. This in turn puts increased pressure and cost on local authorities who have a responsibility to house residents.
The ideas around planning reform, housing target reintroduction, green/grey belt and social and affordable housing all make sense, but all have their own challenges in delivery. No one wants a sector where tenants are becoming worse off, where rents take a higher share of household income/disposable income or where families have to live in temporary and expensive short-term accommodation. What’s needed is supply growth and stability.
The Private Rental Sector is a business and will remain so – we believe the Government wants that. So we believe it is wrong to demonise Landlords in the way some groups do. Because the Private Rental Sector delivers significantly higher satisfaction levels than social landlords (82% vs 74% in the 22/23 English Housing Survey). But many Landlords only have one or two properties and so have a choice if they are put under too much pressure; many are voting with their feet, and retiring from the sector, and moving to passive investments. This is bad timing as it further reduces the available number of rental properties at a time of rising demand. That can only be bad for Tenants
What we consider is needed is a positive vision for Landlords going forward that shows support for the right type of Landlord as approved by the Government. They can then play their part in finding solutions to the current rental crisis.
To do that we believe it is essential to work collaboratively with the Government to develop a solution to the housing issues the country is currently facing. We have considerable expertise, insights, ideas and solutions that would benefit everyone and enable you to meet Labour’s election manifesto. That is why we are reaching out to you in the hope you will meet with us so we can give our vision of a PRS that works for everyone.
Please can you let me know your availability for an initial conversation to discuss these urgent matters – ideally, prior to Party conference season.
Please note this letter has been signed by a variety of members of PLAN and the PRS who support what we are proposing namely a dialogue with the Government on these matters
Yours sincerely
Marcus SelmonChair
Portfolio Landlords Action Network ( P.L.A.N)
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Sign Up16:10 PM, 4th September 2024, About 16 hours ago
Let's hope this gets some well-deserved traction Marcus!
Cider Drinker
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Sign Up18:29 PM, 4th September 2024, About 14 hours ago
Good luck with your quest. I fear it is doomed to fail because politicians will always aim for the easy targets.
𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞
I’d be happy to offer 2 years notice if I needed to sell. I think 6 months would be reasonable for most landlords. However, whatever the notice period, it is essential that tenants leave on the final day of the period, without the need for expensive and time-consuming legal action. Other than that, good tenants should only be asked to leave if the landlord (or their family) need to move into the property. Again, a lengthy notice period would be reasonable. Of course, Section 8 Grounds should continue with most of them being mandatory.
𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬
Private rental properties should be at least as good as the average property as far as EPCs are concerned. Properties that have rents lower than LHA rates should be allowed to be 5 EPC points lower than the average.
𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬
I don’t agree that public money should be used to improve private property in much the same way that Thames Water shouldn’t be bailed out by the taxpayer for their failings.
𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝, 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭
I’d need 103% of market value plus £2,000. This would cover the cost of replacing the property in my portfolio (stamp duty and legal fees).
𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬
Taxes need to be seen to be fair for them to be acceptable. The current taxation of rental income is an outrage and means that private tenants are paying a disproportionate amount in tax (albeit indirectly through higher rents).