Shelter Scotland criticises politicians as temporary accommodation reaches record highs

Remember this?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49032915

A government plan to ban no-fault evictions in England will backfire, landlords say, as lower-income tenants will find it harder to rent homes.

Housing charity Shelter dismissed the fears, arguing that there had been no such consequences in Scotland since it banned section 21.

Reply to the comment left by Monty Bodkin at 25/09/2024 - 08:58
According to this link the SNP rent controls caused a 20% jump in rents.

https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/failure-to-plan-for-post-rent-control-period-caused-20-jump-in-rents-says-labour#:~:text=The%20SNP%27s%20failure%20to%20plan,by%20Scottish%20Labour%20have%20indicated.

And according to this article SNP rent controls dissuaded landlords from investing in rental property in Scotland.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buy-to-let/rent-controls-scotland-housing-market-snp-green/#:~:text=Statistics%20from%20the%20SAL%20starkly,or%20all%20of%20their%20properties.

Shelter Scotland are criticising the Scottish Government for” failing to get a grip on the housing crisis”. Didn’t the Scottish Government do what Shelter requires the whole of the UK to do by banning evictions and controlling rents? Everybody except Shelter, it seems, knew what would happen. Talk about the law of totally foreseen consequences!

Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 25/09/2024 - 10:43
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the government's outstanding debt pile reached 100% of GDP for the first time since 1961.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/20/uk-debt-gdp-rachel-reeves#:~:text=Figures%20from%20the%20Office%20for,rose%20by%20more%20than%20expected.

The SNP didn't have the money to drive investment out of the housing market and labour doesn't have it either.

Anybody care to guess what impact net migration has on homelessness?

Starmer and Rayner say it doesn’t impact the housing crisis.

How does that work?

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 25/09/2024 - 10:54
They work 24-7 in the NHS so don't need homes - I think that's the Guardian's official position?

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 25/09/2024 - 10:54
Clearly, it will have a knock-on effect on homelessness. However, lower income sections of society are less likely to experience any obvious benefits of migration and more likely to experience negative effects of migration through competition for resources, such as access to better housing, a reasonable standard of education, or access to healthcare.

If lower income tenants are unable to afford rental homes but they can see migrants being housed, one of the more difficult consequences of catastrophic left-wing housing policies is that it is likely to drive right wing populism, as has recently been seen in other parts of Europe.

The flight of capital is something that left-wing governments never manage because all of their efforts to contain it both disincentivise investment and also drive it out. This isn't just an international effect - badly thought out left-wing policies can drive local investment out of housing. Over the last few years the SNP have demonstrated that with their own brand of left-wing-right-wing-nationalist populism. When you look at the extremes in politics there isn't much difference between a left-wing Vladimir Putin and a right wing Adolf Hitler....nuts is nuts and the people who really feel the pain of the incompetence and the psychosis of their fuhrers are the poor. Your incompetent leader can still follow the money and find refuge in Switzerland, the middle east or South America.

In reality, the UK economy is disproportionately driven by small businesses. An increasing proportion of small businesses now do much of their business online. I know coffee shops and delis that do business online. We now live in an environment where not just rock stars and film stars can base themselves offshore, but small businesses can do the same. I even work now with self-employed professionals who work 'in' the UK but do their work via MS Teams or Zoom from France, Ireland or elsewhere. Their obligation to declare and pay tax is not necessarily in the UK. Your small online UK business can be based in Dublin.

Nobody sheds a tear for the rich but the consequences of driving film stars like Sean Connery or the Rolling Stones offshore (as happened in the '70s) is that the tax-take goes down. The effect of this is more of the tax burden falls on small businesses, homeowners, plus people who work and just aspire to own their own home one day. And there is also then less money to fund those further down the economic scale to have a chance to gain their own stake in society.

Rachel Read may wish to attack home owners, pensions and owners of BTL property in her October budget as being an easy target but the consequences of those attacks will be experienced by lower income tenants and the homeless, probably with a medium to long term shift to right-wing populism. If Rachel Reeves attacks small business that would be a disaster for the UK economy and more of a disaster in the third century of this millenium than it was in the 1970s.

The PRS has already been attacked and lower income tenants are already feeling the pain. Take a good close look at the SNP and learn, labour conference.

It’s truly heartbreaking to see so many families, especially children, trapped in temporary housing in Scotland. Those figures are shocking, and it makes me feel frustrated that our politicians haven’t taken stronger action. Instead of just talking about the housing crisis, they really need to focus on creating more affordable homes and ensuring families aren’t turned away when they need help. Everyone deserves a stable place to live, and I genuinely hope we see real change soon for those affected.

Reply to the comment left by havens havens at 25/09/2024 - 14:13
Given that the Scottish government doesn't have enough money and has done a lot of damage under the control of the SNP and Greens, what 'stronger action' would you suggest? And against whom?

It seems to me that rather than taking stronger action against somebody or other, the strong action that they should take is to facilitate the housing of homeless people by charities that do actually house people, and that of course does not mean Shelter. But there are some excellent housing charities and perhaps they should look at how they can support those charities that do actually house people without attacking anybody that currently keeps the rain off somebody's head.

Reply to the comment left by northern landlord at 25/09/2024 - 10:43
The tenants rights bill will be just a re-run of what is happening in Scotland.

The homeless problem can only get a lot worse and the government and charities such as Shelter are to blame.

Clueless people who want to Strangle the PRS yet they expect the PRS to house the homeless and as my Mum used to say they cannot have their cake and eat it because it just will not work!
It is a pity that the tenants cannot understand what is happening.