The Government has steered firmly away from regulating letting agents and landlords in its new housing strategy.
Instead, it has pledged to avoid ‘unnecessary’ regulation of the private rented sector.
The strategy, which has come under fire for limiting a mortgage indemnity scheme to new homes only – which critics say could backfire on the mainstream housing market and misuses taxpayers’ money to prop up the prices of new homes – was given a lukewarm reception by some in the property industry.
While the Residential Landlords Association’s chairman Alan Ward welcomed the government’s anti-red tape stance, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors expressed disappointment.
RICS spokesperson Michael Newey said: “An opportunity has been missed to begin delivering real consumer protection and professionalism right across this rapidly growing sector.”
The housing strategy document makes three main points about the private rented sector.
These are: regulation, giving private landlords wider rights to evict convicted tenants found guilty of looting and anti-social behaviour, and boosting institutional investment.
The paper says: “The Government is committed to supporting growth and innovation by avoiding unnecessary regulatory burdens on landlords.”
The strategy document cites English Housing Survey figures showing that 85% of private tenants are very or fairly satisfied with their landlord, compared with an 81% satisfaction rate for social housing tenants.
The document adds that the Government is looking at measures to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords, but does not specify what these are. It also wants councils to make fuller use of existing powers to tackle dangerous and poorly maintained homes.
The strategy document also unveils proposals to make it easier for landlords to evict tenants who have rioted or committed other crimes out of the locality of their homes.
It says: “We want to ensure that landlords have the same powers to deal with tenants who choose to wreak havoc in other people’s communities that they already have where tenants commit criminality and anti-social behaviour in the locality of their home.
“We are proposing therefore to widen the grounds on which landlords can seek to evict tenants, to include where they or members of their household have been convicted of the sort of criminality see in the recent rioting, wherever that took place.”
There will also be an independent review into institutional investment in the private rented sector, which could result in more ‘build to rent’ schemes.
In the housing strategy document, the Government says it will ‘examine the drivers for and barriers to investment and place these in the context of existing landlords’ business models and tenant aspirations’.
A range of measures, several of which had already been flagged up in the 2011 budget, could include: relaxation of stamp duty on bulk purchases and measures to support the development of real estate investment trusts.
Developments of new homes that include private rented homes will also receive taxpayer support through pilot projects in partnership with the Homes and Communities Agency and local authorities.
The first such site will be in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. More pilot projects will be announced next year.
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Comments
Having come from Ireland I find it surprising how unregulated the lettings market is here.
In ireland there is the PRTB or Private Rentals Tenancies Board, which is working very well. there was uproar like anything else that involves the chances of people getting exposed but since then it seems to be working ok.
www.prtb.ie
Maybe its time for something like this here
The NAEA represents Sales Agents,
ARLA represents Letting Agents,
RLA and NLA represents Landlords, and..............
the RICS represents Surveyors!!!!!!!!!!!
They should stick to what they know, not what they would like you to think they know!
No surprise that the RLA wants minimal red tape given that the vast majority of its members are Landlords the bulk of which manage their own properties and do not use agents - regulated or not.
Last thing they'd want is someone making sure they do the job themselves properly. Or that if they use an agent it has to be a regulated agent.
RICS is right - not the right organisation to control and monitor, licence and check regulation maybe. But in terms of regulation being needed how can anyone actually argue against it when housing is such a basic need?
Two things:
1. The RICS has, ever since the late sixties/early seventies (when others set up residential estate agency businesses to do the job properly as we entered a real property owning democracy - which they had singularly failed to do) has wanted legislation to favour itself to control all aspects of the property industry. No surprise here then.
2. Why should the taxpayer be involved in any this?
Lets just get G.B. WORKING & PRODUCING