ARLA joins criticism of Labour’s private tenant rig...

The Association of Residential Lettings Agents appears to have joined the chorus of criticism against Labour’s controversial right to buy policy - but it has yet to actually make comment on the issue.

A statement was issued by the association yesterday and posted on its website under the headline: Landlords would be hit with a Labour Government.

However, the story below the headline is merely a summary of Labour’s policy, and does not contain any specific comment from ARLA or a spokesperson.

It does however say that a Labour government, if elected with the party’s current leadership and in a snap election, would be “the most left wing in modern history.”

ARLA summarises that the Labour leadership is determined to shift power away from landlords and towards tenants, which would include a form of right to buy the private properties they live in.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told the FT that he wanted to “tackle the burgeoning buy to let market.”

There was little by way of detail from McDonnell, but he is quoted in the FT as saying: “You’d want to establish what is a reasonable price, you can establish that and then that becomes the right to buy … You (the government) set the criteria. I don’t think it’s complicated.”

Landlords failed to reinvest in properties and had made a “fast buck” at the cost of the community and their tenants, McDonnell argued.

“We’ve got a large number of landlords who are not maintaining these properties and are causing overcrowding and these problems. In my street now, a third of the houses are right-to-buy, badly maintained, overcrowded; it’s horrendous” the Shadow Chancellor claimed.