#CPC21: Shelter softens its rhetoric on private landlords

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Shelter has struck a more conciliatory tone towards private landlords, saying it recognises that many have ‘bent over backwards’ to help their tenants during the pandemic.

The comments were made by its Chief Executive Polly Neate (main pic) at a fringe meeting of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

Speaking alongside housing minister Eddie Hughes, she said her organisation did not want to ‘demonise’ private landlords and it recognised they play an important role in providing accommodation within the much-expanded private rental sector.

This is a significant shift in tone compared to its most recent media campaign, which launched a broadside against landlords and letting agents, using research among 3,500 private renters to accuse both groups of illegal behaviour.

But at the meeting Neate was keen to emphasise that, although Shelter wanted to squeeze out rogue landlords, she also wanted to see good landlords incentivised to stay.

Power balance

Nevertheless, Neate caused a stir by suggesting landlords held the balance of power within tenancies.

This led several of the audience to disagree, highlighting how many landlords now feel tenants have been given too many rights to the point where rogue tenants can game the system, and that plans to change evictions law would only make this worse.

But Neate reminded those attending that the private rented sector has changed enormously over the past 20 years and that many more vulnerable renters who used to live within social housing now rent privately.

“Traditionally renters were those on the cusp of home ownership, but now too many on the cusp of homelessness and we need to protect them,” she said.

Watch the meeting.

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LATEST: Minister reveals more about Rent Reform proposals

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Housing minister Eddie Hughes (pictured, 2nd from right) has given the strongest indication to date which of the government’s proposed rent reform policies are to be included within its much-expected White Paper.

The Walsall North MP told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference in Manchester that both a landlord register and a lifetime rental deposit scheme in England were set to go ahead.

Landlords may have some breathing space before they do – Hughes said his officials were still ‘half way’ through the policy formation process, indicating that the White Paper is unlikely to be published until the New Year.

The minister also said he was keen that the new measures would ‘not have unintended consequences’ for either landlords or tenants and that therefore his department was proceeding carefully.

The housing ministry has form on this front – for example its Tenant Fees Act has made it harder, not easier, for tenants with pets to rent homes – many MPs, Lords and pet campaigners have argued.

Landlord register

Hughes said a landlord register would only pull together information already available from different sources, and that similar schemes in both Scotland and Wales had already been successfully implemented without driving out landlords from the private rented sector.

Other speakers at the event including Grimsby MP Lia Nici (pictured, far right) also said that it was time English councils were able to understand who the landlords are within their boundaries, and which properties they rent out.

Hughes also revealed that the proposed lifetime deposit scheme, which would enable tenants to ‘passport’ their deposits from tenancy to tenancy would not expose landlords to extra financial risk and cost, as many have feared.

Hughes said his department had experts looking at how it would work best, but that it would most likely be an insurance-backed scheme. LandlordZONE understands this is likely to be similar in form to the ‘alternative deposit’ schemes available within the rental sector.

The meeting, which was organised by centre-right thinktank Onward and sponsored by Shelter, also discussed the government’s plans to abolish ‘no fault’ Section 21 evictions, during which the minister gave assurances that the new system would offer tenants security from retaliatory or unnecessary evictions but also enable landlords to repossess properties for good reasons – such as to sell up or move back in.

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Unless 3 x the deposit is more than the small claims limit the Part 36 offer is a bluff

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Landlords who fail to protect tenancy deposits and to serve Prescribed Information Forms correctly may be liable for a penalty. The minimum that can be ordered for each breach is one times the amount of the deposit and the maximum is three times.

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LATEST: Fix the rental market or face a landlord exodus, trade body warns Chancellor

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National letting agent trade body Propertymark has told the Chancellor that unless the private rented sector is overhauled a significant number of landlords will quit the sector.

The organisation says within its submission to the Sunak’s Autumn Budget and Spending Review that the rental market is already facing a ‘cliff edge’ as the private rented sector struggles to keep up with demand, but that rent arrear and a crumbling court system are making the situation worse.

Such an exodus of landlords would be catastrophic for the housing system, including the many people who rely on the private rented sector to meet their housing needs.

Research completed recently by broker The Mortgage Works found that 20% of landlords are likely to sell property in the next 12 months.

Tax implications

Propertymark says this is down to a combination of moving goal posts, tax implications, tenant debt and a backlog in the courts as reasons many smaller portfolio landlords are being left with few options.

The trade body says the effect on landlords has been compounded over the pandemic and official government figures show the proportion of private renters in arrears has tripled during the pandemic, from 3% between April 2019 and March 2020 to 9% during November and December 2020.

It warns that if the upward trend in this data continues the number of renters in arears could reach almost 800,000 by the end of 2021.

Mark Hayward, Chief Policy Advisor for Propertymark says: “We are urging the UK Government to look at the bigger picture here.

“It’s not about propping up landlords but more about doing the right thing for the country as we work to build back better from the devastating effects of the pandemic.”

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BREAKING: Gove conference speech side-lines housing as ‘levelling up’ takes over

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The keynote speech by Michael Gove, the new housing secretary, to this week’s Conservative party conference has revealed just how far his newly-named department has swung away from housing.

During his 10-minute speech to the main hall at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, over half of Gove’s speech was taken up by the levelling-up agenda while housing took up just 46 seconds before he returned to levelling up once more, commenting that ‘every department within the government is now for levelling-up’.

Gove dealt with just a few of the key housing policy areas his department is currently grappling with, but left almost all the rest alone.

He namechecked the Grenfell fire, making homes safer and greener, tackling urban regeneration, building new homes on brownfield sites, better social housing, and helping more renters into home ownership.

Housing market

But his speech omitted many other key topics vexing the housing market at the moment including the leasehold scandal, the promised reforms of the private rental market, rent arrears, evictions, pets and commercial landlords’ difficulties on the high street.

The rest of his speech at the conference sounded more prime ministerial than his predecessor Robert Jenkin’s ever did, spending the rest of his oration talking up the UK’s success including its diversity and economic success as well as the benefits of the Conservative’s devolution efforts, and laying into Labour’s economic, home and foreign policies.

He also nodded to criticism of the levelling up scheme – including voter unhappiness resulting in June’s lost Chesham and Amersham by-election – by saying that it would ‘level up every part of the United Kingdom’.

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BTL purchase inside a new LLP?

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Hi, I am looking to purchase a new Buy to Let investment property. However, I would like to make the purchase of the property inside a newly created Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)  i.e. I am not transferring an existing property to the LLP.

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Muslim Charity Increases Housing Grant by 50%

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In response to the recent change in renting law, UK Muslim Charity, National Zakat Foundation (NZF), are introducing a Covid recovery scheme to support those at risk of eviction.

The charity which collects Zakat, an obligatory payment in the Islamic faith of 2.5% of annual qualifying wealth which is then distributed back into the Muslim community

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Star line-up for first live landlord show since Covid is released

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The full list of speakers and conference topics to be tackled during this month’s Property Investor Show has been released.

Taking place on October 15^th and 16^th visitors will have 90 exhibitors to visit and be able to hear many of the industry’s big names speak at 68 different panel sessions.

These include evictions expert and TV star Paul Shamplina, Rightmove’s David Cox, NRLA chief Ben Beadle, Vanessa Warwick of Property Tribes, PIN founder Simon Zutshi, auction guru David Sandeman and journalist Richard Bowser.

The Property Investor Show will be the first large-scale in-person event staged for the sector since the Covid pandemic hit 18 months ago.

Outspoken property industry figure Russell Quirk, who famously launched hybrid property firm Emoov and more recently correctly called the post Brexit/Covid housing market, will also be hosting two industry discussion panels on both days.

“Join me on Friday 15^th October where I’ll explain what will happen in the next 12 months and why,” he says.
Panel debates include the following (and a full list of speakers and panels) can be found here:

• Is now a good time to be investing in UK property?
• Holiday Lets – expert advice on how to maximise yields
• How to buy and sell at property auctions – the way the pros do
• Fraudulent Tenants – identifying them and avoiding them
• How to fund every property deal – dispelling the myths
• Using data to boost your investment outcome
• How to mitigate the three big tax traps for landlords
• Starting and growing your property development business
• The State of the PRS (Keynote Panel)

Nick Clark, Managing Director of the Property Investor Show says: “It’s the first opportunity in two years for anyone interested in investing in property and for suppliers that want to reach investors, to network together and to benefit from each other”.

“Networking is such an important part of our sector and I suspect that most of us are rather Zoomed out now after many months of sitting in front of a screen’.

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Landlords should be taxed more than home owners, voters tell poll

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More people think that landlords should be forced to pay higher taxes than they do investors or homeowners, according to a new poll for the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Only 10% believe homeowners should be taxed more, while 43% think those who earn money from investments should pay more tax, but 47% say landlords should be hit harder – 29% say they should pay the same and only 11% say they should be taxed less.

Interestingly, those who own their homes outright are more likely to want landlords paying more (50%) compared to renters (48%), while Conservative voters are least likely to want higher landlord taxes (48%) compared to Brexit voters (59%) and Labour voters (50%).

The poll, conducted by policy research group Public First, found that young people (28%) and families (27%) are deemed to be most negatively affected by the tax system, while only 5% reckon landlords have been hardest hit and 10% think renters have been badly affected.

The Tax Payers Alliance, which opposes almost all unnecessary government spending and tax raising, has the ear of government and its chief executive John O’Connell is due to interview the Chancellor Rishi Sunak at a Conservative Party Conference fringe event this week.

The poll found that working class voters are turning on the Conservatives over tax and the cost of living. Asked whether they trust the Conservatives or Labour more on “keeping taxes low for people like you”, 34% of people trust Labour more compared to 31% who chose the Conservatives; 35% of working-class voters chose Labour compared to only 22% for the Tories.

O’Connell says taxpayers are facing the highest burden in 70 years.

“They are crying out for politicians to relieve the pressures whittling away the money in their wallets,” he adds. “Hard-working households and struggling firms know that things are only likely to get worse over coming months. The Budget in October is an opportunity for the Chancellor to prove the Tories still care about cutting the cost of living for ordinary taxpayers.”

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Rental demand in cities strengthens as workers return

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Research by Barrows and Forrester, has revealed that rental demand has continued to climb across the vast majority of major UK cities during Q3, as a slow but steady return to the workplace, amongst other things, spurs a greater demand for rental homes within major urban areas.

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