NLA CHALLENGES NEW MAYOR TO ‘PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS’
The National Landlords Association (NLA) would like to welcome Sadiq Khan to the office of Mayor of London with a challenge: To use just a fraction of his £17bn budget to help support London’s PRS.
More than 1 in 4 households in the Capital rent from a private landlord. Private landlords provide more than 860,000[i] homes for the people of London, people working in the Capital on wages which are unlikely to ever allow them to buy. Without the private-rented sector the public services and businesses which make this City great could not hope to fill their vacancies.
Despite this we have seen little from this election campaign that demonstrates anything but disdain for private landlords and the homes they provide. We call upon Mr Khan to work with the NLA to achieve a targeted crackdown on criminal landlords.
London boroughs already have the power to enforce standards and prosecute landlords but they often don’t have the money.
Criminals will not sign up to costs licensing schemes, the Mayor’s priority must be funding targeted enforcement programmes resulting in tangible benefits for local communities.
Commenting on the election result, NLA CEO Richard Lambert said:
The NLA welcomes the election of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London and looks forward to meeting him to discuss the crisis facing many Londoners seeking affordable, high quality accommodation.
We urge the new Mayor to take a fresh approach to housing in London by working with the NLA and private landlords to meet the challenge of housing in a global 21st century city.
Instead of wasting millions of pounds on a bureaucratic London wide licensing scheme, which criminals will not sign up to, the Mayor should use the budget at his disposal to fund enforcement across the Capital.
This would demonstrate that Mr Khan is genuinely committed to action and partnership rather unwelcome and unhelpful adversarial politics.
Blog post shared from the NLA.
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