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The GMB union says councils and any future government must do more to regulate the private rental sector's agents and landlords.

This is because of issues concerning length of tenure, exorbitant rents, arbitrary evictions and rent rises, retention of deposits, exorbitant charges by agencies and safety of electric and gas appliances it claims.

The union says it is concerned that private landlords .... continue to acquire a growing slice of the UK housing stock.

It wants councils to establish local registers of private landlords and to insist that as a condition of registration there should be minimum standards for length of tenure, terms of contract, safety, the condition and energy efficiency of rented accommodation.

This should include at least reserve powers to intervene to impose fair rent levels says a union statement.

The GMB appears to be concerned particularly about London. It claims the number of multi-person households in the capital continues to grow from 132,980 in 2011 which was 16.2 per cent of the then 819,085 private rented households.

In Wandsworth, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Southwark and Islington these multi-person households account for more than 25 per cent of all private rented households.

This call for regulation of private landlords is one of the radical and realistic proposals for a comprehensive housing strategy for an incoming Labour government it concludes.

Comments

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    You should have experienced the state controlled housing in the USSR. It satisfied all the above union citeria and was absolutely by horrible. When I was travelling there I used to say to people back home who asked, "Just think of the worst housing in the UK and Soviet housing goes down from there." This of course did not apply to party and union leaders as you would expect anywhere.

    • 27 March 2015 20:57 PM
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    What has the private rented sector got to do with GMB

    They should stick to what they know best!

    Another example of envy from the low life's in society. Why don't you try and encourage people to do better rather than trying to control people all the time.

    • 27 March 2015 12:00 PM
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