Parking lark: Is this the future of renting in the UK’s increasingly squeezed city centres?

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An unusual new housing development in Bristol is looking for ‘super tenants’ who’ll help to make others feel at home, both in their property and wider community.

The social housing project, being built on stilts above a car park in St George, consists of 11 ZEDpod apartments let and managed by Bristol Council – the first development of its kind in the city.

It aims to address Bristol’s housing crisis by providing housing specifically for young people and will act as transitional accommodation for tenants on low incomes or those making their first steps into independent living.

YMCA Bristol, one of several partners working on the project, is taking applications for four ‘community builders’ to move in when the site is ready in November.

Super tenants

These super tenants will be tasked with uniting residents and encouraging them to get involved in their community – although they won’t be paid and will still have to cover their own rent of £80 per week for a room in a two-bedroom flat.

ZED Pods reclaims urban areas with housing built above car parks and hard-standings where conventional construction won’t work; these low cost, modular homes can be erected in days, fully fitted for immediate occupation.

Two two-bedroom homes have been set aside for the four chosen tenants, who will live there in pairs for a minimum of two years. The developer says they’ll act as a catalyst in bringing together all of the residents in the new apartments by encouraging them to get involved in wider community life in St George.

It adds: “Building homes is one thing, but building community takes people with vision and commitment to make it happen. We hope that this new approach can be replicated in other places in the city and around the country.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Parking lark: Is this the future of renting in the UK’s increasingly squeezed city centres? | LandlordZONE.

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Demanding funding for Renters and justice for Landlords

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COVID-19 has been a challenge for landlords and tenants, on a scale that no one could ever anticipate. Whilst our research shows that the vast majority of tenants have been able to pay their rent as usual, sadly, through no fault of the tenant

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Service charge payment difficulties?

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Has anyone had problems paying into what appears to be a ‘protected monies account’? Xenia Estate Services (formerly Fortis) have complained that they are not receiving the monthly service charge on my flat by the due date. Since April it’s been going into (I think) an HSBC Client Deposit Account and (presumably) Xenia transfer it to their bank account and then post it onto my account.

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SHOCKING report calls for action on illegal evictions, violence and scams against tenants

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A group of leading campaigning and regulatory figures have joined forces to recommend key measures for local and national government to adopt if the burgeoning problem of the ‘shadow’ private rented sector is to be tackled.

Their report, launched today at a virtual meeting attended by key figures from parliament, local authorities, enforcement bodies and campaigning groups, is seeking to combat the rising tide of illegal evictions, harassment, and abusive and threatening behaviour carried out by a growing criminal minority within the PRS.

“The current regulatory framework fails to deal with the kind of landlords who have no intention of complying with the law,” says one of its co-authors Julie Rugg (right).

“Too often we call these landlords ‘rogue’ but this doesn’t describe their activities adequately – they are criminals for whom this is a business model.”

Rugg says these landlords and often letting agents can be pigeonholed into several categories.

These include those ripping off tenants through rent-to-rent scams and illegal sub-letting; corporate corner-cutters; organised criminals who knowingly operate dangerous and over-crowded properties; lettings connected to sex trafficking and cannabis farms; and landlords who employ violence and intimidation.

Ben Reeve-Lewis, also a co-author of the report, says the nature of criminal landlords is changing rapidly as technology enables organised criminal landlords to become more difficult to identify and track.

“It’s not a few rotten apples as it used to be – it’s systematic organised illegal activity,” he says.

The report’s recommendations include:

• Make online renting portals like OpenRent and Airbnb more culpable for the property listings they publish and introduce property MOTs and unique identification numbers to help achieve this.
• Put a duty on police to stop illegal evictions.
• Create a fund to help authorities recruit more enforcement teams with the relevant skills – austerity has severely reduced this.
• Force authorities to adopt a multi-agency approach – too many criminal landlords take advantage of councils whose different enforcement arms don’t work together effectively.
• Amend housing legislation to introduce joint and several liability for housing offences to include the property owner and/or letting agent.
• Introduce a right to expert statutory advocacy for private renters faced with criminal behaviour by landlords.
• Ban Section 21 evictions.

During the launch Chris Norris of the NRLA, a lone representative of landlords at the event, said that local authorities must be given more money to tackle the shadow PRS and that relying entirely on the fees from licensing schemes was unfair on compliant landlords.

The Journeys in the Shadow Private Rented Sector report is jointly published by the University of York and Cambridge House Research and funded by Trust for London. It is backed by, among others, the Mayor of London, Generation Rent, Karen Buck MP, James Murray MP and the NRLA.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – SHOCKING report calls for action on illegal evictions, violence and scams against tenants | LandlordZONE.

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Heat Pumps could deliver London Mayor’s environmental ambitions

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The new report from the Carbon Trust and commissioned by the Mayor of London concludes that a heat pump retrofit programme for residential and commercial buildings in London will have a critical role to play in meeting the capital’s net zero carbon emissions targets by 2030.

“The Mayor of London has set ambitious aims for London to be a net zero carbon city by 2030 and to have the best air quality of any major city. In addition, 28 London Boroughs have declared climate emergencies with over half of these committed to achieving net zero by 2030. The political will to deliver net zero carbon emissions in London has never been stronger,” says the report

Reducing emissions cause by heating buildings will be one of London’s biggest decarbonisation challenges. Natural gas, says the report, is currently used for most space and water heating and accounts for 37% of London’s greenhouse gas emissions and 22% of Nox emissions, whilst conventional electric heating also contributes significantly to CO2 emissions and increases the peak demand on local energy networks.

The report is intended to provide help and guidance for local authorities, social housing providers, private owners and landlords and also for builders and installers when considering a change of energy source, a heat pump retrofit often being a viable alternative.

Heat pumps are an efficient form of heating and have the potential to deliver CO2 savings of 60-70% compared to conventional electric heating and 55-65% compared to an A-rated gas

boiler. These savings are expected to increase further, as the grid decarbonises over the coming decades, towards 90-100% CO2 emissions reduction by 2050.

How does it work?

In simple terms, its a bit like domestic refrigerator in reverse: a compressor creates a small amount of higher temperature energy from the large amount of energy collected at a lower temperature. The actual process is a lot more complicated, using the ‘vapour compression cycle’ to harness energy available when vapour returns to liquid.

Heat pumps for central heating systems use the technology to extract energy from the outside air (air source) or from under the ground (ground source). These are low temperatures (below 10°C in winter) but there’s lots of energy when compared to absolute zero (-273°C).

Ground source or air source?

A heat pump has maximum efficiency when the temperature gap between the heat source and the heat demanded is minimised. A ground source heat pump is more efficient than air source because around two metres down the ground stays constant at around 10°C all year round, protected from temperature extremes. This heat there is mainly from the solar energy absorbed by the ground through the summer. Air source heat pumps are not as efficient, but they don’t need available ground and are cheaper to install.

There are a number of factors that can make heat pump retrofits challenging in urban settings and they will only work effectively where the buildings are highly energy efficient, i.e., very well insulated. High rise blocks pose problems as does noise pollution from the pump systems, especially with air source, however, there is a diverse range of solutions that exist to overcome a number of these challenges and new technology is becoming available all the time.

Undertaking energy efficiency upgrades combined with installing heat pump technology will likely require considerable initial investment in most cases but this will be offset by long-term reductions in energy bills.

Most buildings in London will likely require considerable initial investment and perhaps government support to move from oil, gas boilers or electric heating. However, this sort of transition can be phased in as buildings are refurbished over time.

Tom Delay, Chief Executive, the Carbon Trust, says:

“Buildings and heat have been identified by the Committee on Climate Change as key challenge areas for decarbonisation in the coming decades, and so the analysis and recommendations detailed in the report to promote low carbon solutions that are available now is very timely.

“As always, heat pumps are not a silver bullet solution, which is why we have provided a suite of policy recommendations, including investment in energy efficiency in buildings and flexibility in the energy system.”

Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Greater London Authority, commented: “Retrofitting heat pumps and improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings are key to achieving the Mayor’s ambitious target for London to reach net zero carbon by 2030.

“Not only will retrofitting heat pumps help support jobs and skills vital to a green, fair and prosperous COVID-recovery, they also reduce energy bills if designed well. However, delivering this at the scale needed will require the Government to step up investment and implement strong supportive policies.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Heat Pumps could deliver London Mayor’s environmental ambitions | LandlordZONE.

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The best Government regeneration schemes for Buy to Let

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The latest research by Howsy, has revealed the best spots of the UK property market being bolstered through Government infrastructure spending and investment, for buy-to-let investors with an eye on the future.

Howsy analysed 34 areas currently benefiting from Government investment and likely to see demand for rental properties grow

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LHA overpayment demand reversed without the need for a tribunal

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Hi, One of my landlord clients recently received a demand for a £10,000 Housing Benefit overpayment.

The overpayment was caused by a failure on the part of both the tenant and my client reporting his change of address

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BREAKING: House prices jump by 2% during August, Nationwide reveals

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Landlords looking to sell off part of or all of their portfolio could be hitting the jackpot after the Nationwide this morning reported prices up during August by 2% compared to July.

It also says house prices are rising by 3.7% year-on-year and that the August monthly surge was the largest for 16 years.

The average price of a property in the UK is now £224,123 up from £220,935 in July as demand for homes outstrips supply in many areas of the UK.

Nationwide says momentum has returned to the housing market and its figures show that house prices have now reversed the losses recorded in May and June and are at a new all-time high.

“Pent up demand is coming through where decisions taken to move before lockdown are progressing,” says Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist (pictured, right)

“Behavioural shifts may also be boosting activity, as people reassess their housing needs and preferences as a result of life in lockdown.

“Our own research, conducted in May indicated that around 15% of people surveyed were considering moving as a result of lockdown.

“Moreover, social distancing does not appear to be having as much of a chilling effect as we might have feared, at least at this point.

“These trends look set to continue in the near term, further boosted by the recently announced stamp duty holiday, which will serve to bring some activity forward.”

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, says: “This year, many people didn’t get to go on their summer holidays – for obvious reasons – stayed home and bought property instead.

“We expect September to continue to be busy while consumer demand remains strong although as the furlough scheme comes to an end and there is an increased potential for higher unemployment, there may be a question mark over how sustainable this activity will be.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: House prices jump by 2% during August, Nationwide reveals | LandlordZONE.

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