End landlord squeeze or face social breakdown, Ministers warned

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The boss of one of the UK’s biggest lenders has warned of impending social breakdown unless the squeeze on private landlords is eased.

Skipton Building Society chief executive, Stuart Haire (main picture), says “demonised” landlords are dealing with crippling taxes, rising mortgage costs and increased red tape that has made the housing crisis worse.

In an interview with the Telegraph, he blamed unaffordable property prices and rising rents for a disappearing middle class. Haire said a toxic mix of rising costs meant it no longer made financial sense for some landlords to stay in the sector, and that the resulting reduced supply of rental accommodation meant more people on social housing lists as well as higher prices.

“You’ll have an awful lot of people maybe back living with the family in difficult circumstances, you’ll have a lot more social pressure,” he predicted.

Breakdown

He added that there was “a genuine risk of social cohesion breakdown” triggered by a lack of housing affordability and increasingly divided fortunes between the “haves and have nots” in society that could give rise to “desperate acts”.

Haire urged the government to think harder about the impact of higher taxes and other costs imposed on landlords and ultimately renters.

“There’s [fewer landlords] coming in. It’s just all becoming a bit hard. They’re not yet selling up, because there isn’t yet the level of buying demand in the market because mortgage costs are going up.”

Gavin Richardson, MD of Mortgages for Business, echoed Haire’s comments and questioned what would happen if landlords were taken out of the housing equation.

“The impact on the property market would be significant and almost entirely negative,” he said. “It’s not as if the government is pouring money into social housing or making any progress on house building. Landlords are bailing the government out.”

Read the interview in full.

View Full Article: End landlord squeeze or face social breakdown, Ministers warned

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