May

87 MPs are now landlords including Chancellor, reveals campaign group

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Nearly one in five Conservative MPs are currently landlords, according to research by campaign group 38 Degrees, a surprising figure given the Government’s anti-landlord stance in recent years.

The study counted 87 MP landlords – more than 13% of the Commons – of whom 53 claimed rental income from one home and 34 from two or more properties, according to a report in The Guardian.

Of the 68 Conservative MPs, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has seven flats in Southampton, while home secretary Suella Braverman, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, and Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, all declared one rental property in the latest House of Commons members’ register of financial interests.

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Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, declared a flat in Shepherd’s Bush and a share in a cottage in Gloucestershire, both producing more than £10,000 a year in income.

On the Labour frontbench, David Lammy, Emily Thornberry and Lucy Powell are all landlords. Overall, MPs could be earning as much as £2.2m a year from renting out homes, the research found.

38 Degrees chief executive Matthew McGregor (pictured) says: “Whilst we make no inherent criticism of those politicians who make money from renting property, we highlight their extra duty, to their tenants as well as their constituents, to bring forward reform without delay.

“With MPs almost four times more likely to be landlords than the rest of the population, and with eight cabinet members and nearly one in five Conservative MPs earning rental income, we highlight the need for tenants’ voices to be heard at the top of government.”

Housing Secretary Michael Gove has announced that the draft Renters Reform Bill will be published next week and would “change the way the relationship between landlords and tenants works, providing tenants with new protection, which should ensure they are better protected against arbitrary rent increases”.

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