A Conservative MP has launched a scathing attack on some landlords in his own constituency following a local council initiative to assist them with the cost of repairs.

Stewart Jackson, Tory MP for Peterborough, has written on the Peterborough Today website that he doesn’t know what to make of a city council proposal to subsidise what he calls “slum landlords” with housing repairs via a £1.2m allocation from the authority’s capital budget.

“Yes – these are landlords currently collecting rents for tenants already living in their substandard or dangerous properties – but who apparently cannot afford to repair and maintain their own properties properly or meet the appropriate regulatory and licensing arrangements” he says. 

Jackson goes on at length in the piece, adding: “That’s YOUR money which could build new homes or give local working families a lift up by paying their deposit on a new house via rent or mortgage. Scrub that. I do know what I think. It stinks.” He accuses these landlords of plying “their dubious trade in the lettings market.”

The MP says the policy – which involves the local authority temporarily leasing the properties from the landlords – sends a curious messages to what he calls “good and ethical landlords” who pay for the upkeep of their own properties.

“Peterborough City Council thinks what we need is a lot of carrot but where’s the stick eh? Aren’t we embarrassed that our city has recently featured on Channel 5’s “Britain’s Rogue Landlords”? Why aren’t these people in court? Why are they not named and shamed? Why are their tenants more deserving than the hundreds on the housing waiting list to whom the money could be better directed?” Jackson asks. 

You can see the full piece here.