Shelter says social housing is the only long term solution to homelessness

Crack on and build it then - provide some actual shelter...

When evictions were banned during the pandemic, how could this happen?

I had a feckless tenant who simply refused to pay rent for 16 months, and fortunately he is now homeless and I hope he never finds decent accommodation again. Harsh? How would you feel if you lost £12,000 because of a man who was also claiming all the self-employed grants while still working?

Could it be these homeless figures relate to people who have never been in accommodation in this country?

Shelter need to use their financial resources to build properties and show how landlording should be done?

Shelter's history of manipulating figures to prove a point is legendary and it has rendered their statistics meaningless.
Maybe they are correct and maybe they are wildly off the mark, who knows?
They are correct though that there needs to be more social housing available for those who need it and of course as we know, those numbers will never be static.

Shelter (and generation rent) want and need the properties in the PRS, however, they clearly do not respect or want the landlords who provide them.
They continously tarnish the vast majority of good, law abiding landlords with the relatively few number of rogue landlords.
Furthermore, for Shelter and generation rent, a bad tenant is non existent.
These organisations lack balance and reason, and as
a consequence do more harm than good for both landlords and tenants in the PRS and housing in general.
I sincerely hope that the governments white paper is not unduly influenced by such organisations who appear to have a vendetta on landlords in the PRS.

Reply to the comment left by Ofer Moses at 29/10/2021 - 14:47
I fondly remember joining one of Acorn's 'action group taskforce' webinars where they got themselves into a pickle when declaring they'd ALWAYS take 'positive' (often physically) action to support ANY member of theirs, no matter what the surrounding circumstance. I probed them on how they'd go about a situation where a tenant member of theirs was being evicted by their landlord due to, say, anti-social behaviour and causing the whole street misery, but one or more of those neighbours that were supportive of the eviction due to being on the receiving end, they nearly imploded with a conflicting possibility.

My main thrust was that they should not ignore the circumstances of an eviction and it is not, as all these type of groups believe, because of a nasty landlord and should be prevented at all costs.

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 29/10/2021 - 16:03
Absolutely right.
Reasons for evictions seem irrelevant, hence the push to abolish section 21.
I believe that the vast majority of landlords have not resorted to using section 21 without good reason (as portrayed by shelter and like minded organisations).
Their intentions are to keep tenants in situe, regardless of their behaviour wether it be ASB, non payment of rent, etc.
A good, law abiding landlord deserves a good, law abiding tenant, and the law must apply equally.

Reply to the comment left by Ofer Moses at 29/10/2021 - 16:26
But it’s only a temporary ‘fix’, because eventually (as sad and frustrating as it’ll be for them) landlords will quit the industry…then what’s their cunning plan??

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 29/10/2021 - 16:32
If the entire PRS were to quit at the same time, their true worth would be realised.
As things stand, attempts are being made to absorb the PRS into the social housing sector, EXCEPT that the social housing sector is self regulated and funded and/or subsidised by the taxpayers(which includes taxes paid by landlords).
Sadly, there is a point where landlords will be forced to quit, and it is just a case of how much it will take.
Meanwhile, with all the legislation aimed at the PRS, these properties offer safer homes than some homes in the social housing sector.
Perhaps Shelter should focus more on the social sector and less on the private landlord.

Reply to the comment left by Ofer Moses at 29/10/2021 - 17:01
Time-after-time the English Housing Survey shows a marked difference in the opinions of PRS tenants contentedness with their properties and landlords over those in the social sector...