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Arnie Newington

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Any calculation has to take account of the length of the tenancy and should not just be from the last rent increase. Many Landlords did not put rents up when Mortgage Rates were low and the Rents significantly lag Market rents. Mortgage payments on Interest only BOE base rate tracker mortgages have gone up 200% so Landlords need to raise rents to closer to the Market Rent to reflect this. During this period Landlords in Scotland were restricted to a 3% increase for 20 months. There are already accepted ways of Accounting for Inflation for Capital Gains Tax so there is no need for a new calculation to reinvent the wheel. There needs to be balance and fairness between the Tenant and the Landlord or the Landlord will have no choice but to sell up and the Tenant will have to find a new home at the Market rent.

From: Arnie Newington 05 January 2024 09:58 AM

The reason is simple and is that whatever happens they will still have an asset at the end of this period, and no other sector can guarantee that at present. As a consequence they have the greatest capacity to bear this cost." - The only way this is true is if they sold their asset and this would mean eviction for the tenant. It's a pity they don't have a measure for stupidity!

From: Arnie Newington 05 March 2020 08:48 AM

I think the problem is housing social tenants in the private sector.

From: Arnie Newington 26 February 2020 09:41 AM

I think if we had a housing minister that lasted more than a year then they might realise that outsourcing housing policy to Shelter is the reason why we have a housing crisis. Shelter aren't a Charity they are a QUANGO.

From: Arnie Newington 24 February 2020 11:08 AM

If you sell your rental property you pay Capital Gains Tax at 28%. If you rent your property as a Furnished Holiday Let for two years and it meets the HMRC rules regarding days available and actual days let then the Capital Gains Tax is 10%.

From: Arnie Newington 24 February 2020 09:05 AM

I think this is a policy that sounds good in principle but bad in practice. If you sell a property on 6 April how do you know if you will be a basic rate tax payer or a higher rate tax payer for that tax year? Especially as section 24 is pushing a lot of basic rate tax payers into the higher rate bracket due to the bonkers way it is calculated. Also if you sell a property for a profit then sell a property for a loss in the same tax year. You are expected to pay the Tax on the property within 30 days but have to wait until after the end of the tax year to get money back on the loss which will knacker up landlords cash-flow.

From: Arnie Newington 20 February 2020 09:23 AM

It's like something from George Orwell's 1984. Shelter would be a great example of doublespeak an organisation that provides no Shelter whatsoever and vilifies those that do. A CBE to Polly Neate the highly paid leader of the pitchfork brigade???? No thanks.

From: Arnie Newington 30 December 2019 14:39 PM

What Shelter wants Shelter gets seems to be the housing policy for all parties.

From: Arnie Newington 18 December 2019 08:59 AM

I can't see the Tories investing in Social Homes as that would create Labour voters. If Generation Rent want cheaper rents then they need to stop supporting Section 24 Tax on landlords as these additional costs are ultimately paid for by rents.

From: Arnie Newington 16 December 2019 08:52 AM

It's Labour policy on Capital Gains Tax that concerns me as a Landlord. Nobody earning less than £85k will be worse off (unless they are a landlord).

From: Arnie Newington 27 November 2019 09:21 AM

I am sure that the figure for most parts of the country are currently 30% or below and it's only London that has 39%.

From: Arnie Newington 27 November 2019 08:49 AM

Trying to fix one problem by creating more problems. If this is the best they can come up with then they should just leave the PRS alone.

From: Arnie Newington 22 November 2019 16:42 PM

If the Duke of Westminster had paid Inheritance Tax the amount he would have paid would have been more than the Government collected from Inheritance Tax in the year. It is not right that someone this rich and powerful is able to avoid Inheritance Tax whilst someone inheriting the family home has to pay the Tax.

From: Arnie Newington 01 November 2019 10:57 AM

Who don't even vote

From: Arnie Newington 12 September 2019 13:23 PM

Well said Jeremy!

From: Arnie Newington 12 September 2019 09:04 AM

Hit the nail on the head.

From: Arnie Newington 11 September 2019 11:30 AM

I think you are doing exactly what the Tories want you to do. Which party was it that had an emergency budget a week after a General Election to introduce section 24 without including it in their manifesto? Answer The Tories. Now they are applying project fear to scare landlords into voting for them.

From: Arnie Newington 02 September 2019 12:50 PM

I think that the Blair government tried to create more tenants as they were more likely to vote labour in the same manner as the Thatcher government tried to create more homeowners as they are more likely to vote Conservative.

From: Arnie Newington 02 September 2019 12:05 PM

I think you should judge political parties on their actions. The Labour party pretty much left landlords alone from 1997 onwards it was The Conservatives who attacked landlords by introducing section 24, charging a higher rate of Capital Gains Tax and banning letting agent fees to tenants.

From: Arnie Newington 02 September 2019 10:14 AM

The same thing happened in Scotland (in particular Edinburgh) and now Shelter Scotland are calling for rent controls. It's all a bit "there was and old lady who swallowed a fly"

From: Arnie Newington 28 August 2019 12:24 PM

The lease is open ended and most tenants who are leaving give notice (84 days) and leave on 31 May. The main change is that tenants are taking properties from June rather than September to secure accommodation for the next academic year. Purpose built student accommodation is exempt from the PRT and can still offer fixed term contracts.

From: Arnie Newington 08 August 2019 15:33 PM

The only winners in Teresa May's war against Landlords was Shelter. Landlords, Letting Agents and Tenants were all losers. Landlords through section 24, Letting agents through the fee ban and tenants through higher rents. Ian Duncan Smith and John Redwood have already called for an end to the attacks and hopefully Boris listens to them rather than Shelter.

From: Arnie Newington 05 August 2019 12:46 PM

In Stockholm rent control has created a massive black market in illegally sublet apartments.

From: Arnie Newington 19 June 2019 16:06 PM

The flats in the picture look like the same as the empty ones beside Chernobyl. Build to rent will be the slums of the future.

From: Arnie Newington 13 June 2019 09:10 AM

They need to point out that the changes in legislation in Scotland have caused an affordability crisis that leads to rent control and a supply crisis. If you leave the PRS to market forces with sensible minimum safety standards rigorously enforced then it will thrive. If you turn the PRS into a political football then you will inevitably lead to a supply crisis.

From: Arnie Newington 04 June 2019 09:14 AM

The Scottish Government are consulting on a Rent Control bill proposed by Labour. It is hard to see any scenario were MSPs will not introduce rent control.

From: Arnie Newington 04 June 2019 09:08 AM

A victory for people in wooly jumpers with to much time on their hands.

From: Arnie Newington 04 June 2019 09:04 AM

It’s just another link in the chain to Rent Control. Scotland did it in 2012 and now their is a bill going through the Scottish Parliament to introduce Rent Control as rents have soared. Who would have thought that if you put more money into customers competing for the same scarce resources that the price of said resource would go up.

From: Arnie Newington 31 May 2019 14:13 PM

I would be interested to find out the views of the Conservative candidates towards housing and whether they would continue with Hammond as Chancellor. I know John Redwood thinks the attacks on landlords are a mistake as he writes it in his blog so hopefully he isn't the only one in the Conservative party who is of this opinion.

From: Arnie Newington 30 May 2019 09:00 AM

Residential Property Funds? Is this Build to rent? If so what a depressing scenario, renting your whole life in a tower block in the middle of nowhere. I think I would prefer to live a short period of my life in a transcient community near my work or place of study whilst saving up to put a deposit down on my first property to buy when I am ready to settle down providing me with security and a hedge against inflation.

From: Arnie Newington 29 May 2019 09:14 AM

At least London has introduced a 90 day limit in Scotland short term lets are completely unregulated.

From: Arnie Newington 23 May 2019 09:19 AM

The Tories are toast. May and Hammond have tried to position them just to the right of the Labour party and their traditional supporters hate it.

From: Arnie Newington 20 May 2019 08:54 AM

The Conservative party are toast. They have alienated their core support.

From: Arnie Newington 14 May 2019 09:44 AM

John Redwood Conservative MP says in his blog that Section 24 Tax should be cancelled.

From: Arnie Newington 10 May 2019 13:25 PM

Nothing that Shelter have done in Scotland has improved the rental market. You have landlords chasing their tails to comply with unnecessary legislation and tenants paying sky high rents as a result. Meanwhile the rogue landlords have either moved into the unregulated Airbnb sector or ignored the legislation and no enforcement action has been taken against them.

From: Arnie Newington 09 May 2019 09:24 AM

Following the war Germany needed to rebuild and the Private rental sector was one of the fastest ways of getting new homes built. As a result you tend to have landlords with very large portfolios. In the UK it’s very different and until recently the PRS mostly catered for transient tenants as long term was for social renting or people buying there own homes. It is the fact that social tenants and priced out tenants are now being housed in the private sector that has attracted the attention of Shelter. Shelter destroyed the social sector and are not trying to do the same to the private sector. In Scotland rents are now unaffordable and this will no doubt lead to rent control and the problems this will cause whereas before their involvement rents were rising at below inflation.

From: Arnie Newington 18 April 2019 07:37 AM

D J Alexander aren’t Shelter plants but they are very into free publicity. They used to have a rents going through the roof story in the Scotsman every quarter even though rents weren’t even rising by inflation. It was just free publicity for them.

From: Arnie Newington 17 April 2019 11:16 AM

The Tories have now brought in two pieces of anti landlord legislation within a year of a General Election taking place and without including them in their manifesto.

From: Arnie Newington 16 April 2019 08:30 AM

At a time we are bringing in no fault divorces, we are getting rid of no fault route for ending tenancies.

From: Arnie Newington 16 April 2019 08:27 AM

We are moving towards a socialist rental sector and the Swedes would be a good example of what the rental market will look like in a few years time with a thirteen year wait for rent control properties and massive subletting.

From: Arnie Newington 16 April 2019 08:02 AM

Totally agree with your comments that the Government appears to see landlords as an extension of the Social rental sector.

From: Arnie Newington 16 April 2019 07:55 AM

In Scotland if you want to sell your house you can do so and the tenants get roughly three months notice. For a tenant in that situation with children in a particular school they have to find a new let close to the school however due to a shortage of rental properties as a result of this legislation they are going to find it harder and most likely much more expensive to do so. I think a lot of tenants who believe the spin that they now have security of tenancy are being misled.

From: Arnie Newington 16 April 2019 07:49 AM

Rent controls just turn an affordability problem into a supply problem.

From: Arnie Newington 24 January 2019 08:52 AM

When the ban on fees was introduced in Scotland, ARLA didn't even mention it on their website that's how much they cared. If they had fought it in Scotland then it wouldn't have been introduced in England.

From: Arnie Newington 16 January 2019 09:02 AM

“The change will also push many landlords with buy-to-let mortgages up a tax band, despite their income not increasing, as tax will be applied to turnover instead of profit.” This is the worst thing about the legislation and very unfair.

From: Arnie Newington 07 January 2019 08:47 AM

The fact it is based on weeks when the industry works on a monthly basis tells you all you need to know about this decision.

From: Arnie Newington 05 December 2018 09:01 AM

The amount of monies unclaimed by tenants, dwarfs the amount that was being withheld unfairly prior to the introduction of the TDS. Another own goal by Shelter.

From: Arnie Newington 22 November 2018 16:24 PM

Agent fees are actually anti-inflationery. Once they are gone then you are left with consumers who have more money in their pockets all competing for the same properties hence the price goes up. It has already happened in Scotland.

From: Arnie Newington 12 October 2018 17:09 PM

Housing social tenants in the private rental sector doesn't work.

From: Arnie Newington 11 October 2018 09:05 AM

Shelter fund raise under the pretense that they are providing Shelter to the homeless (they don't). In fact all the money is spent on paying high wages to Polly and her mates to play lefty politics that do more damage to Housing.

From: Arnie Newington 23 August 2018 09:08 AM

The irony is that we probably wouldn't have deposit schemes if it wasn't for sensationalist media reports full of made up statistics.

From: Arnie Newington 15 August 2018 08:56 AM

Rents will be a lot more that 15% up in five years time.

From: Arnie Newington 09 August 2018 13:06 PM

I read last week that the Tax take from SDLT and the additional dwelling supplement is less than was taken under Stamp Duty. A typical example of the Laffer Curve in action were an increase in tax rates leads to a reduction in the tax take.

From: Arnie Newington 06 August 2018 09:18 AM

Personally I would just get a Gas homecare plan for the four properties with babies. Job done!

From: Arnie Newington 25 July 2018 09:10 AM

That's why I posted the link above. The rogue landlord whose flat caused the death of two tenants that led to the introduction of HMO Licensing in Scotland in 2002 still isn't even registered as a Landlord.

From: Arnie Newington 08 June 2018 16:49 PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43640615

From: Arnie Newington 08 June 2018 10:57 AM

Perhaps the GMB would like to oppose policies that will drive rent up such as S24, the ban on tenant fees and longer term tenancies but I very much doubt it.

From: Arnie Newington 05 June 2018 09:52 AM

They would have only have saved tenants £3 million if the deposits were non refundable.

From: Arnie Newington 31 May 2018 09:21 AM

The headline is wrong! Landlords in Scotland have been beneficiaries of the ban through much increased rents. As per the Citylets index from Q1 2008 to Q3 2012 Edinburgh rents rose by only 6.2% (well below inflation) since the ban they have rose by a massive 34% (well above inflation). The reason for this is that tenants have more money in their pocket at a time when they are competing for the same properties (demand pull inflation). Property Management in Edinburgh is still very competitive and it has not been possible for agents to pass on these costs to Landlords but the loss to agents has been partly offset in that higher rents mean higher management fees. There are still though Property Management Companies in Edinburgh who are asking tenants to pay referencing companies direct a practice that is probably illegal.

From: Arnie Newington 31 May 2018 09:18 AM

On the second reading of the bill it confirmed that tenant groups are happy that rents will rise as a result of this ban. So the winners will be Landlords and tenants who move property frequently whilst the losers will be letting agents and long term tenants.

From: Arnie Newington 30 May 2018 09:04 AM

In Edinburgh rents spiked after the ban on letting fees and tenants were worse off. This was just the market reacting to the fact that tenants had more money in their pockets whilst competing for properties. The losers were Letting Agents and Tenants whilst the winners were landlords.

From: Arnie Newington 25 May 2018 09:32 AM

In Scotland we have longer tenancies and the biggest problem with them is tenants giving 28 days notice within a week of moving into a property.

From: Arnie Newington 18 May 2018 15:47 PM

I am not surprised! Shelter and the Government seem to think they have an entitlement to our properties if they are let as long term lets, but seem happy to ignore them if they are let as short term lets.

From: Arnie Newington 01 May 2018 09:23 AM

I don't think making the PRS a political football is going to make for a better rental market. At present there are elements of the PRS that both Landlords and Tenants don't like but if people play by the rules then it works quite well. If you have reluctant tenants because they can't afford to buy then they are never going to be happy until they are able to buy.

From: Arnie Newington 25 April 2018 09:07 AM

Shelter destroyed the Social Rental Sector and now have their guns set on the Private Rental Sector.

From: Arnie Newington 09 April 2018 09:23 AM

If you read the comments at the bottom of the article you can see that the general public just don't get it. When supply restricts and rents rise just as they did in Ireland they wont realise that they caused this with their economically illiterate policies.

From: Arnie Newington 05 April 2018 17:22 PM

Letting Agents fees were banned in Scotland putting more money into tenant pockets. When you have more money chasing the same amount of goods this leads to inflation which is exactly what happened in Scotland.

From: Arnie Newington 29 March 2018 11:03 AM

The housing crisis didn't happen overnight. It was down to the poor housing policy decisions over the last twenty years. Rather than admit their mistakes politicians are now adopting populist policies such as rent control even though this will just turn an affordability problem into a supply problem.

From: Arnie Newington 14 March 2018 09:59 AM

Long term lets are heavily regulated meanwhile there is nothing to stop you putting a 12 strong Stag party into a two bedroom flat for a short term let.

From: Arnie Newington 24 January 2018 09:03 AM

The budget was more about what the Chancellor didn't do than what he did.

From: Arnie Newington 23 November 2017 08:58 AM

Perhaps the Church could provide them with subsidised accommodation to prevent usury.

From: Arnie Newington 03 November 2017 08:59 AM

There is no doubt that young people who have done the right thing are in a bad position regarding housing. Rent control is a popular well meaning policy that will make the housing crisis worse. It will move the problem from housing being expensive to housing becoming unavailable. The challenge for the current government is to come up with an alternative to solve the housing crisis and at the moment they seem to prefer to try and exploit it through a tax grab (S24) and grandstanding (ban on letting agent fees). What is needed is a plan to make the supply of houses match demand and for this to be done in a manner that provides housing of a quality that people want to live in (no soviet style ghettos).

From: Arnie Newington 28 September 2017 09:22 AM

We will know in a few years time but there are already signs that Western Harbour is going to turn into a ghetto.

From: Arnie Newington 09 September 2017 11:45 AM

Unfortunately most landlords wont realise the damage caused by S24 until they receive their self assessment bills.

From: Arnie Newington 08 September 2017 09:38 AM

Build to rent = Soviet style housing schemes. The housing problem needs more housing to be built but high rise build to rent flat that will only last twenty years are not the answer.

From: Arnie Newington 08 September 2017 09:36 AM

Disappointing that nobody bothered to research the relationship between the ban on Agent fees and rent increases in Edinburgh. If they had then they would realise that this policy is a lose lose situation and a cap would achieve the desired objective without leading to rent increases (win win situation). Our firm lost significant fees as a result of the ban, about enough to fund the Shelter MD's wage for half a year.

From: Arnie Newington 08 September 2017 09:32 AM

What a waste of time! The Government are fiddling whilst Rome burns. They need to tackle the chronic under provision of house building over the last twenty years instead of wasting time on a policy that will just drive up rents as it has in Scotland.

From: Arnie Newington 01 August 2017 08:59 AM

The changes to taxation in Mortgage interest started 4 months ago and are being phased in over a four year period. How Shelter can decide that this policy is not going to cause landlords to leave the sector at such an early date is ridiculous. The Social rental sector is a mess because of Shelter and it looks like they are hell bent on breaking the Private rental sector as well.

From: Arnie Newington 28 July 2017 09:59 AM

Disgraceful and not surprising

From: Arnie Newington 26 July 2017 14:10 PM

I would be interested to see what these properties are going to look like. The build to rent in Manchester look like the kind of tower blocs that the local authorities in Scotland have recently been pulling down.

From: Arnie Newington 12 July 2017 09:17 AM

Newsflash to ARLA based on the Scottish Experience rents will go up by £1,500-£2,000 per year. I have no idea where they got the figure of £103.

From: Arnie Newington 22 June 2017 09:27 AM

It's no surprise that Scotland has the biggest drop as Shelter are driving Government policy for the PRS in Scotland and making a real mess of it.

From: Arnie Newington 22 June 2017 09:23 AM

They tried banning letting agent fees in Scotland and all that happened was that rents went up. As a result of the rent increases caused by banning letting agent fees the Scottish Government have brought back rent control and are considering implementing it in Edinburgh.

From: Arnie Newington 22 June 2017 09:12 AM

It looks like the kind of tower blocks that most councils have been demolishing recently.

From: Arnie Newington 08 June 2017 09:06 AM

I read yesterday that average rents in Scotland are up 6% from last year and today they are down 1.6%. http://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/rents-scotland-6-average-12-months-april-2017/ So which figure is correct?

From: Arnie Newington 06 June 2017 09:05 AM

Politicians and Shelter should focus there attention on cleaning up the the mess that they have made of the Social Rental sector rather than intervening in the Private Rental Sector.

From: Arnie Newington 26 May 2017 09:10 AM

"are actually undermining the whole concept and basis of the modern private rental sector/market and returning it to the stagnant mess of the late 1970s and 1980s" Well said!

From: Arnie Newington 18 May 2017 14:13 PM

"a ban on new homes being advertised overseas before they are marketed to Britons" Hard to see how they can implement this. It's not called the "world wide web" for nothing!

From: Arnie Newington 18 May 2017 09:06 AM

If politicians don't think the Private Rental Sector is fit for purpose then they should build an alternative rather than destroying a sector that is working fine without their help.

From: Arnie Newington 17 May 2017 09:33 AM

It would be interesting to see what percentage of properties in the Private Rental Sector currently meet these standards. I don't think this is a big issue for tenants especially those in older properties with sash and case windows such as those in the world heritage site. It just smacks of more anti landlord policies by the Scottish Government who cannot understand that their interventions into the PRS are restricting supply and driving up rents to unaffordable levels. Rents are already at unaffordable levels and the only way they will bring them down is by either deregulation to increase supply or rent controls which will decrease supply.

From: Arnie Newington 14 April 2017 09:48 AM

The Private rental sector has became a political football with all parties other than UKIP scrambling around to gain the tenants vote. This is pretty silly as tenants are a diverse group with very different circumstances for renting and unlikely to vote enmasse for any party. Most tenants are more likely to be concerned about rent increases than letting agent fees. Letting agent fees are actually counter inflationary and put downward pressure on rents. The removal of letting agent fees will lead to rent increases (as seen in Scotland) and are a good example of why politicians should not interfere in markets. Markets work best when there is little government intervention and common sense regulation.

From: Arnie Newington 14 April 2017 09:32 AM

The stamp duty on second homes is too blunt a tool and encourages investors to buy properties that first time buyers would like.

From: Arnie Newington 12 April 2017 14:00 PM

Add the other deposit schemes and there is likely to be over £1 million in tenants deposits unclaimed and will eventually be paid over to the crown. I would be interested to find out how this compares to monies returned to tenants following adjudication. My guess is that the amount unclaimed will be significantly more than that awarded to tenants following adjudication.

From: Arnie Newington 12 April 2017 13:56 PM

I wonder where ARLA get the £103 increase in average rent figure from. Based on the Scottish experience the figure should be closer to £1700 hence why Scottish Letting Agents are now quite relaxed about the ban and the predicted redundancies in the industry didn't happen (salaries have actually gone up). Now Shelter and the Green Party are pushing for Rent Control in Scotland as rents have gone through the roof and the proposed end of the no fault route soon to be introduced will drive them up even further.

From: Arnie Newington 11 April 2017 22:11 PM

The ARLA website didn't even mention the ban on letting agents fees in its news feed when they were introduced in Scotland.

From: Arnie Newington 11 April 2017 22:01 PM

The ban on letting agent fees in Scotland drove rents up now guess what Shelter would like brought in http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/edinburgh-rent-control-backing-for-tight-controls-on-landlords-1-4413101

From: Arnie Newington 07 April 2017 09:13 AM

ARLA have missed an open goal. The ban on Letting Agent fees has driven rents up by £149 per month in Scotland. The data is available on the Citylets website.

From: Arnie Newington 28 March 2017 17:44 PM

This issue has been driven by Shelter. My opinion is that to save an average £233 fee the evidence shows that in Scotland it has cost tenants an extra £149 rent per month in rent so this policy is not in anyone's best interest. What I have noticed is that Shelter are using different language regarding rent increases in Scotland. When talking about increases in rents in Scotland generally they say: Adam Lang, head of policy at Shelter Scotland, said rents had soared in recent years while wages had remained stagnant. “So a great many people see a bigger chunk of their income going to pay for housing costs, which makes it really hard to save". “At the heart of the problem is the fact that demand for houses far outstrips supply which is why we urgently need a step-change in the provision of truly affordable housing. “We need at least 12,000 affordable homes built across Scotland each year for the current parliament just to meet demand. “Next year will see the introduction of a new tenancy regime in Scotland which will make it harder for landlords to evict tenants without good reason and will also limit rent increases to once a year. “Tenants will also be able to appeal to a rent officer if they feel the increase is unfair. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/business/rents-in-edinburgh-set-to-soar-20-in-five-years-1-4390128 However when asked if rents in Scotland have risen due to the ban on letting agent fees they say: Many industry insiders had predicted that abolishing fees would impact on rents for tenants, but our research show that this hasn’t been the case. The evidence showed that landlords in Scotland were no more likely to have increased rents since 2012 than landlords elsewhere in the UK. It found that where rents had risen more in Scotland than in other comparable parts of the UK in 2013, it was explained by economic factors and not related to the clarification of the law on letting fees. http://blog.scotland.shelter.org.uk/2016/11/23/scotlands-experience-of-abolishing-letting-agent-fees/ So if wages have remained flat (as per evening news article) then what are the economic factors that Shelter are referring to in their blog? Simple answer increased anti landlord/letting agent legislation in Scotland is feeding through into higher rents.

From: Arnie Newington 20 March 2017 09:24 AM

"agency fees are contributing towards stifling tenants' ambitions to become home owners". I wonder what will happen when Citizens Advice learn that to become home owners you have to pay Stamp duty.

From: Arnie Newington 08 March 2017 09:17 AM

I would imagine that the Treasury advised the Govt. that they need to raise taxes. The Govt. told them not to raise the basic rate of tax as that would be too sensible/politically difficult and to come up with another way of raising taxes. The Treasury suggested this tax but didn't recommend it as it would push up rents for young people but the Govt. said don't worry about that we will spin it as helping tenants and hurting Wilson type landlords and the Guardian will lap it up.

From: Arnie Newington 08 March 2017 09:14 AM

Rent prices and location are most important to tenants. You would then think that Tenant lobby groups would be concerned about various govt. policy that are going to increase rents. The Govts. recent housing white paper states that rents can be considered "affordable" if they are 20% below market value. By driving up market rents by 30% the build to rent sector can provide "affordable housing" to tenants at rents that are higher than today's market rents. This is very Machiaveillian.

From: Arnie Newington 17 February 2017 09:22 AM

The salary is true. I would add that his background is that he was a former Labour Party civil servant and had no previous charity experience prior to taking up the post.

From: Arnie Newington 16 February 2017 23:17 PM

I think you underestimate how far from the truth Shelter will stray to demonise landlords. http://media.shelter.org.uk/home/press_releases/almost_one_million_people_victim_of_landlord_scams,_shelter_research_reveals3 I think misleading the public and politicians with stories such as the one above that you know fine well is absolute nonsense is destructive and not worthy of a charitable body.

From: Arnie Newington 16 February 2017 14:34 PM

They hate landlords more than they hate homelessness.

From: Arnie Newington 16 February 2017 11:30 AM

Shelter doesn't care about Landlords, Tenants or housing. Shelter cares about Shelter! Their destructive influence can be seen in the mess that is Social housing. When rents go up and people can't afford their homes, Shelter will call for Rent Controls to stop the greedy landlords profiteering.

From: Arnie Newington 16 February 2017 09:14 AM

Shelter are just parasites on the housing market. They raise money by giving the impression that they are a charity providing accommodation to homeless people but are really just very well paid middle class champagne socialists who want to play politics. For the avoidance of doubt they provide no accommodation whatsoever and their Chief executive Campbell Robb is an ex labour party mandarin who earns over £130k a year.

From: Arnie Newington 09 February 2017 11:11 AM

The ban on letting fees in Scotland has driven rents up by £147 per month. Average letting fees are a one of charge of £223. So for a twelve month tenancy tenants will pay an increased rent of £1,764 to save £223. This has been a complete own goal in Scotland and even Shelter admit that rents went up before stabilising.

From: Arnie Newington 08 February 2017 09:20 AM

The Government defines affordable renting as being 20% below the market rent. They then introduce various policies such as S24 that will increase rents up by more than 20%. Good new for build to rent who can provide so called affordable housing at todays market rents but bad news for tenants and landlords with mortgages.

From: Arnie Newington 08 February 2017 09:14 AM

97.8% of Shelters statistics are made up on the spot!

From: Arnie Newington 08 February 2017 09:10 AM

Build to rent will be over priced rabbit hutches similar to purpose built student accommodation. Tenants want to be able to buy a property in the future not to rent forever.

From: Arnie Newington 06 February 2017 13:33 PM

The problem is having social tenants in the private sector doesn't work. Now the rules are going to be changed so that the tail is wagging the dog. What is needed is a laissaez private rental sector with safeguards to prevent the worst excesses and more social housing to be built.

From: Arnie Newington 06 February 2017 09:07 AM

This hasn't been as much of an issue as we thought it would be and we haven't experienced an increase in tenants pulling out. We do though continue to take a small holding deposit which is refundable if the tenancy doesn't go ahead.

From: Arnie Newington 10 January 2017 12:22 PM

By my calculations the ban on letting fees in Scotland has increased rents by £147 per month. To pay an extra £147 per month to save a one off fee of £233 is crazy and this is being proposed by the person who is in charge of the nations finance.

From: Arnie Newington 10 January 2017 09:11 AM

Based on the same calculation in Edinburgh. Tenants are currently paying 19 times more than they would have been if letting agent fees had not been banned.

From: Arnie Newington 07 December 2016 09:08 AM

One of the differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK is that in 1988 the rest of the UK lifted the ban on premiums whilst in Scotland the ban on premiums was not lifted as a protest against the 1988 housing act. It was the ban on premiums that eventually resulted in letting agents fees being banned in Scotland after Shelter put pressure on The Scottish government to clarify that letting agent fees were premiums. As premiums are not banned in the rest of the UK there is no reason why the rest of the UK should follow Scotland.

From: Arnie Newington 29 November 2016 14:58 PM

D J's have never been shy about using journalists to plant free publicity articles for them. The Edinburgh Evening news runs about four articles a year attributed to them claiming that rents are soaring whether they are or not. Never the less the advice is correct that Letting Agents in Edinburgh are not losing out due to the ban on fees. The ban on letting agent fees and other government interference has driven rents up by approx. £140pcm. Therefore letting agents are able to recoup their fees from the increase in Management fees collected all be it takes a longer period of time.

From: Arnie Newington 29 November 2016 09:21 AM

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