Renters Reform Bill pushed back and Rent controls off the table

Perhaps this is as a response to the news that half of all private landlords have exited the rental market over the last two years, resulting in rental bidding wars between tenants trying to find accommodation. I'm not surprised. Increased regulation, threatened loss of Section 21 and the government making the payment of rent largely optional during the covid years has served to send the message loud and clear that landlords are filthy scum who deserve only to be annihilated. I heard an interesting figure that during the covid years, 85% of tenants fell into arrears. I can't quite believe that's true, but certainly a straw poll around my associates revealed that I was the ONLY landlord amongst my peers with no arrears. Imagine if the government had said instead "Please feel free to go and get food from the supermarket, but you won't have to pay for it and we'll insist that the supermarkets provide you with food free of charge at their cost for an indefinite period..."

Why should we believe this given the Governments tendency to back track on their promises? When the Government says they are not considering it, of course they will be. They are just working out how to do it without using the words “Rent Control” somewhat akin to Rishi Sunak avoiding the use of the term “windfall tax” by referring to it as a “temporary, targeted energy profits levy”. Let's see what happens as the recession comes and rent arrears evictions rise. The Government cannot house evicted tenants so will seek to keep them in place to avoid a crisis Maybe they will straight out ban evictions with no landlord compensation like they did during the pandemic knowing that as evil landlords nobody will cry for us if we lose out!.

One of the issues that potentially may hit us all is this business of EPC bands rising.

For many of us we are invested in the PRS because we are accidental landlords; because we are letting out property that is one day destined to be for a family member; because we do not trust the fund managers managing the funds in our pensions not to churn our assets just to create fees for themselves rather than long-term security for us; or because we do not trust so-called "Independent Financial Advisers" and the non-independent firms who pay their incentives not to levy excessive fees on our pension portfolios.

You still can't trust the financial services industry to behave in a way that is 'green'.

https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4050620/dws-deutsche-bank-raided-police-following-whistleblower-claims-greenwashing?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral#tblciGiA1XinsZQRnU2BrDe9LeZkcDssZbu5hdjWZ-fVpzdtlcyDWjT0o9bbSiJf_seurAQ

We were stopped from offsetting all our finance costs against our rents to avoid the risk of another housing boom. But right now we need a boom in housing that uses energy from renewable resources and the truth is that we needed it years ago. This country is presently energy bankrupt and it needs a 'boom' in energy that is not under the control of despots right now both for environmental and energy security reasons.

Rather than stopping us investing our pensions in housing this government needs to let us invest our pensions directly in our buy-to-let portfolios in order to upgrade our properties to use renewables.

There is no other pot of wealth in the country that is a big enough resource to create the change required. But it needs to be done in such a way that it allows us to control this directly rather than creating another means for the financial services industry to milk us and our portfolios.

Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 08/06/2022 - 14:24
Wait until Labour or theLibs get in. Then we'll definitely need to worry

Reply to the comment left by Lucy Fryer at 08/06/2022 - 12:03
Well said Lucy. We Landlords seem to be able to be told When tenants are struggling, u landlords will NOT CHARGE rent.

We forget the Welfare State offers a safety net. Broadly, a homeless person has to be housed or re-housed. If the state (local or Central) does not wish to carry this burden or delay this, then it will make eviction as difficult as possible.
The AST reform was meant to be for short term lets, and the landlord was guaranteed vacant possession.
There was a time when the topic for discussion was how to make a fortune and be a landlord.
Landlords cherished good tenants, who became long term tenants.
All of a sudden section 21 notice became "no fault eviction."
It could quite easily be called the "landlord's guaranteed vacant possession notice" may be a mouthful, and will not sell whatever the anti-landlord brigade is trying to sell.