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The Last Word Comment


Landlords would desert if ‘Right to Buy’ became law


A policy raised at the highest level in the general-election campaign could have a significant impact upon the personal-rental sector


Mark Bailey Director, Landwood Group


In the run up to the last election, the Labour Party made it clear that, should they have emerged triumphant and Jeremy Corbyn walked into 10 Downing Street, it planned to introduce the most radical right- to-buy property scheme that this country has seen in generations. At its heart, this policy proposal sought


to do the right thing – tackle the issue of problem landlords who do not maintain their properties and address the buy-to-let market that is making it harder for many people to get on the property ladder in certain districts, but it was also fatally flawed.


Sleepless nights The point in the proposal that caused so many landlords sleepless nights was that the price tenants pay for their properties would not be set by the owner or by the market at large, but by the government. This means that tens of thousands of


landlords – many small-business owners who have between five and 50 properties – would lose their livelihoods overnight. It was a classic case of punishing the many for the sins of the few. Of the 2.6 million landlords in the UK, the


numbers who could be considered ‘rogue’ are tiny. The overwhelming majority are honest, treat their tenants well, and maintain a high standard of property. They bought their properties at market


rate and the prospect of a few politicians deciding how much these houses and flats are to be sold for is unthinkable. This is why the National Landlords Association called the policy ‘ludicrous’. In the 1980s, the Conservatives under


Margaret Thatcher were the last government to shake up the housing sector in such a major way when council tenants were given


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the right to buy their properties. This would be of a similar scale – only in reverse as it is private property that is being ‘sold off’. Lots of landlords were saying ‘why bother


to stay in the business?’ They were assessing whether it might actually be better to get out of the sector before the election, rather than wait for all the upheaval that might follow. This view was copied all over the country and large numbers of landlords may have considered selling up and exiting – before they were forced to.


If politicians of any leaning are serious about fixing the housing crisis, then this ridiculous ‘rogue landlord’ policy is not the way to go about it. No, the solution is to build more social housing, more starter homes


A glut We are waiting to see if there is a glut of buy-to-let properties coming on to the market in the next few months. If that happens, prices will come down for sure and the knock-on effect may be that the numbers of rental properties could actually fall. At present, landlords provide one in five


homes in the UK, it as a prosperous and popular part of the property sector. However, if politicians of any leaning are


serious about fixing the housing crisis, then this ridiculous ‘rogue landlord’ policy is not the way to go about it. No, the solution is to build more social housing, more starter homes, and get more people on the property ladder, and reduce the number of renters that way. The slowdown in new house building is


due to several factors – economic, Brexit, the complication of planning regulations in parts of the country – but it is crystal clear to those of us in the industry that it is the best way out of the mess the UK finds itself in. Forcing many thousands of honest business


people to take a huge hit on their assets – to the point of being forced out of business – is not just absurd, it is harmful to the wider economy. CCR


January 2020


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