Response to Labour plans for Private Rented Housing

In response to the Shadow Housing Secretary, John Healey MP’s proposals to end the use of Section 21 notices in the private rented sector announced at the Labour Party Conference, David Smith, Policy Director for the Residential Landlords Association, said: “Many landlords resort to Section 21 notices because the alternative procedures take too long to…

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Shelter response to Labour plans to tax second homes

Shelter response to Labour announcement that they will tax second homes and earmark the money for councils to help families housed in temporary accomodation – please see our response below. Polly Neate, CEO at Shelter said: “Our housing crisis has reached such depths that tens of thousands of families are being tipped into homelessness and…

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Shelter’s response to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Conference speech

Shelter’s response to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Conference speech which included a proposal to introduce rent controls. Polly Neate, Shelter CEO, said: “There is a growing debate about the crisis facing those who rent, with families facing rising bills and insecure lets. Shelter supports controls that lengthen tenancies and protect families from unfair rent rises but not old fashioned rent-setting…

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Labour manifesto contains plans to introduce Land Value Tax

Various reports out today highlight that the Labour manifesto contains plans for a Land Value Tax to replace the council tax and business rates on homes and gardens, council tax bills could treble for middle-class homeowners according to the conservatives. The Conservatives have estimated the average cost to homeowners with gardens at nearly £4,000 and…

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Labour London Mayor candidate launches manifesto.

Labour’s London Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan reportedly announced yesterday plans in his manifesto  to “name and shame” rogue landlords through a New York City-style website, it would be based on a scheme set up by New York mayor Bill de Blasio, it would provide a database of landlords who had been successfully prosecuted for housing-related…

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Buy-to-Let becomes less attractive as an investment.

It would appear that buy-to-let as an investment is becoming less and less attractive, that is the opinion of the Chief Executive of Hargreaves Landsdown Ian Gorham who was quoted in the Mail on Sunday as saying a buy-to-let investment is just too expensive and too much like hard work. The year 2015 has certainly…

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Conservative Mayoral candidate for London chosen.

Zac Goldsmith has been chosen as the Conservative Mayoral candidate for London for which the election is due to take place next May, he was up against 3 other candidates MEP Syed Kamall, Stephen Greenhalgh, and Andrew Boff, he won by a comfortable margin, he will be facing Sadiq Khan recently elected candidate for the labour…

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Corbyn and Social Housing

The result of the labour leader contest was announced on saturday, against all the odds we saw the selection of Jeremy Corbyn, most commentators and many inside his party are dubious as to whether the right person was selected. This major swing to the left has suprised many, how will it affect those moderates in…

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Corbyn backs campaign against RTB

The labour leadership contest is probably not of that much interest to anyone involved in the property industry at the present time, most people are just happy that Labour and their property unfriendly policies were  squashed by the Tory win in the recent election. However a surprise candidate for the leadership of the Labour party…

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Green Manifesto

The Green Party has launched its General Election manifesto, a quick scan and one would think they are living in fairyland,  to be fair it would be wonderful if the world could operate with such well founded ideals, the truth is it does not, we are a market economy and there is only so much…

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