REVEALED: What new housing secretary Michael Gove thinks about landlords

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New Housing Secretary Michael Gove could have landlords’ and letting agents’ backs judging by his previous form during Commons debates.

The Whitehall big-hitter has previously voted to phase out secure tenancies for life and not to ban letting agents charging tenants, or prospective tenants, fees in recent years, and has also voted to reduce the basic rate of capital gains tax.

During a debate on the Rating (Empty Properties) Bill, Gove defended landlords, saying: “The Minister could not offer us any evidence because there is no robust evidence that landlords are wilfully depressing their balance sheets and turning away eager tenants simply out of perversity or idleness.”

And in a debate about overcrowding in the housing sector he said: “We also need to recognise that private landlords can play a significant part in meeting housing need.”

During his failed bid to lead the Conservative party in 2016, the former Cabinet Secretary and key Brexiteer pledged to build a swathe of social rented housing.

Housebuilding

Gove called for a “national ambition” to build hundreds of thousands of homes a year, both private and socially rented.

Back in 2007 – while Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, Housing and Planning – he had promised that a Conservative government would massively push up the housebuilding target from the 200,000 homes a year pledged by the then Labour administration.

However, this enthusiasm for house-building doesn’t seem to translate to his own constituency of Surrey Heath where he has a record of objecting to new developments.

In 2019, he declared he was “deeply concerned” about plans to build a 1,500-home garden village on the site of Fairoaks airport, while in October 2020 he spoke out against a scheme in Bagshot for 44 homes, almost half of which were to be affordable, complaining it would “alter the character of the village for the worse”. Both schemes got the go-ahead.

Read more about Michael Gove.

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EXCLUSIVE: Landlords and agents ‘wrongly rejecting’ Hong Kong visa holders

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London Assembly members have raised concerns that landlords and letting agents in the capital are wrongly rejecting British National Overseas (BNO) visa holders – who at the moment are largely those arriving from Hong Kong.

Hackney councillor Seb Moema (pictured) says there is anecdotal evidence that landlords and agents aren’t aware of the BNO visa and are denying people permission to rent – despite Hong Kong citizens having the right to live, work and study in the UK.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says he shares concerns that the Home Office’s hostile environment creates barriers for Londoners to access their rights and entitlements.

He told members he has raised the issue with the National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA) and the Mayor’s Private Rented Sector Partnership, which brings together officers responsible for enforcing against rogue landlords and letting agents.

Khan added: “My officers are continuing to seek opportunities to publicise the rights of BNO visa holders and others impacted by Right to Rent checks.”

An NRLA spokesman says it has long held concerns about the Right to Rent policy.

He says: “Above all, landlords should not have to cover for the failures caused by those responsible for policing the country’s borders. However, whilst it remains in force, landlords must carry out checks fairly and understand the various documents, including BNO visas for those from Hong Kong, that entitle a holder to rent property in the UK.” 

Right to rent

Earlier this year, former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told landlords that both BNO status holders and their eligible family members with a BNO visa, or those granted Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR) at the border, have the right to rent in the UK.

“A landlord can offer a 12-month assured shorthold tenancy to someone who has been granted LOTR for six months. Right to Rent ensures that those with time-limited leave are not prevented from accessing the private rented sector, by having an ‘eligibility period’ which provides a landlord with a defence against a civil penalty.”

Find out more about the BNI visa.

Read more about Right to Rent checks.

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12 Buy-To-Let Flats Under One Roof Case Study

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The smart way to achieve high cash flow in Buy-To-Let property is to take a defunct commercial building and convert it to multiple one-bedroom flats.

Join me at one of the projects from my Mastermind student, Mindaugas ‘Mindy’

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Renters picket parliament to back abolishing Section 21 evictions

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Private renters held a day of action outside Parliament to demand that the government delivers on its promise to end unfair evictions.

Renters and members of the Renters Reform Coalition met Sam Tarry MP (pictured, main image), Stephen Timms, chair of the Work & Pensions Committee and Lloyd Russell Moyle, chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Renters and Rental Reform, to share their experiences and ask them to reform the sector.

The Renters Reform Coalition is made up of 20 charities, unions and advice centres including ACORN, Citizens Advice, Generation Rent, NUS and Shelter. It organised the event to flag up the end of coronavirus protections for private renters; extended notice periods revert to two months on 1st October.

Evictions

According to the English Housing Survey, 57,000 private renter households (or 1.27% of the PRS) were evicted in 2019-20. The coalition is calling on the government to end unfair evictions and introduce open ended secure tenancies, introduce a national register of landlords to raise standards, stop illegal evictions, end discrimination in rented homes and tackle the affordability crisis.

Coalition chair Sue James (pictured) says the pandemic is a painful reminder of the importance of a safe and secure home. “The lifting of the eviction restrictions takes that basic need further away,” she adds.

“Private renters cannot go back to the status quo – of high rents, unsafe homes and insecure tenancies. It’s time to make private renting better, not worse.

“Now that Parliament has returned, we have a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the private rented sector is secure and safe.”

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Rental sector is ‘structurally racist’ claims Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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Welfare and immigration policies have led to renters from ethnic minority communities being much more likely to live in unaffordable housing, says the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). 

Its new report – What’s Causing Structural Racism in Housing? – says two in ten Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) households across the UK live in unaffordable housing (defined as spending more than 30% of your income on housing), double the national average for white households.

The charity says the benefit cap disproportionately limits the incomes of BAME families; eight in 20 households affected by the benefit cap in England are BAME, although they only make up three in 20 of the population.

It adds that the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy bars people with temporary immigration status from accessing the social security system.

Unaffordable housing

JRF’s analysis shows how BAME workers in lower paid occupations in London – probably subject to NRPF – are three times as likely to be living in unaffordable housing, at risk of poverty and homelessness, compared to white workers. 

It says that although direct discrimination against BAME groups by landlords has long preceded the Right to Rent rules, the government’s decision to devolve immigration policy to landlords by making it a criminal offence to let to people without leave to remain in the UK, has further fostered this practice.

All but one of the 10 most ethnically diverse local authorities in England outside London has a significantly higher rate of eviction possession claims than the 10 least diverse.  

Darren Baxter, policy & partnerships manager at JRF (pictured), says: “These injustices are not inevitable, but they have wide foundations in our economy, society and legislation.

“If we do not look closely at the systems which are holding people back, we will only continue to see evidence of shocking racial inequalities in our society.” 

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Yet another new Housing Minister – ‘Big Beast’ Michael Gove

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Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has been sacked in the latest Cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Tory ‘Big Beast’ Michael Gove who famously stabbed Boris Johnson in the front during the first conservative leadership campaign after the Brexit vote.

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