Richard McCarthy “PRS needs to have a clear voice,” says NALS and CLG
Richard McCarthy, Director General, Communities and Local Government explained the views of the Housing Minister and CLG on regulation, saying that Mr Shapps and the CLG welcome constructive proposals for improvements to the PRS. Richard called for the industry to come
together to find solutions to look for ways to better inform the consumer about the dangers of using an unregulated or uninsured agent. Caroline Pickering, NALS Chair says
that NALS completely agreed with Richard McCarthy and echoed his call for unified, industry wide action to improve awareness
in the consumer market of the role of organisations promoting strict codes of conduct for anyone operating in the sector. “What, amongst other issues, became
clear from our conference was the overwhelming need for the Private Rented Sector (PRS) to take a cohesive approach.
Speakers in conference
caroline and lord BeST NALS Chair Caroline Pickering welcomed Lord Richard Best OBE, Chairman of the conference, who opened the day with an overview of the market. Among positive notes on the growing professionalism in the sector, Lord Best delivered some sobering views on the timescale to recovery of the housing market. He said that the UK is not attracting institutional or international inward investment in property and would not be able to do so until our debt is drastically reduced and the economy has more to offer.
eddie Hooker, MD of my|deposits outlined the changes to the deposit protection limits and highlighted the fact that larger deposits could spell danger for agents. The fine of 3 x deposit levied if the deposit is not protected gets frightening when that deposit is £15,000!
JameS Bacon James Bacon, Industry Manager, UK Property at Google, ran through the amazing range of tools that Google supplies, many free of charge, that can help you bring your business right up the SEO rankings, build business traffic to your website and analyse that traffic.
STeve HowleTT, Peabody Trust (Pictured), Damon Thomas, MD, FastTrak and Alan Elborough, Director, Settled Housing Solutions and presented their solutions for agents to work with social sector tenants to build business.
Tracy Falke, Director of Content, Search and Social Media, Powershift TV was the last presenter but there were no dozing as her rapid fire summary of the latest technology, whizzed through the conference hall.
Isobel Thomson, Operations Director at NALS, was joined by cHriSTopHer Hamer, The Property Ombudsman (pictured) and Chris Day, Operations Director, Spicerhaart and Nick Cooper, MD, Northwood, to discuss the ‘joy’ or at least, the important benefits, of accreditation and membership of NALS and The Property Ombudsman.
roger SmiTH, Partner, Barlow Robbins, explored the legal issues likely to surface with the higher limit on the protection of deposits. Government guidelines recommend a non-litigious response to deposits that fall into the new limit but are not quickly protected by their landlord, but it is not clear how long the softly softly approach will last.
PROPERTYdrum OCTOBER 2010 45
This includes the need for all us to help the consumer to understand what they need to look for in an agent. Top of this list is a recognisable single kitemark to ensure that, in the same way consumers look and use travel agents with the ABTA logo, they look only to use a licensed letting agent.”
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