The National Landlords Association has hit out at the self-styled renter manifesto' written by pressure group Generation Rent, calling it first class propaganda in order to support their assertions that tenants in the UK receive a second class service from their landlord.
Richard Lambert, chief executive officer of the NLA, says that the UK private rented sector is not at crisis point suggested by the pressure group.
Generation Rent is funded by the Nationwide Foundation, a charity which - ironically, perhaps - has as its main benefactor the Nationwide Building Society.
The GR manifesto is a long 4,400-word document issued as a consultation statement to elicit views which may form some kind of more specific document ahead of the general election in 11 months' time. The manifesto currently looks at options to make changes (in favour of tenants) to security of tenure, affordability, agents' fees, property management, living conditions, and the legislation and regulation surrounding the private rental sector.
The NLA is not impressed.
Generation Rent seems to overlook the fact that tenancy durations are determined largely by tenants, not landlords. The number of tenants who lose their homes through so called revenge evictions' represents 0.1 per cent of households who rent privately. Far from indicating a market failure, it actually shows that Generation Rent is well off the mark says Lambert.
He says councils should do more to tackle bad landlords and force them out of the private rented sector. In 2012, he says, fewer than 500 landlords were prosecuted; compare this with the 155,000 people prosecuted for not having a TV licence.
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