Budget 2015: what does it deliver for renters?
In short, not much. It took 40 minutes for the first mention of housing, behind an announcement of £1million to celebrate the 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt no less. As well as expected announcements on funding for a London land commission to address ‚Äòthe acute housing crisis’ and the 20 housing zones due to be launched to boost house building, there was a surprise announcement of a ‚ÄòHelp to Buy ISA’.
Labour’s housing manifesto takes shape
Alex Hilton presented Emma Reynolds with a box of chocolates when they sat down to talk housing at our event with SHOUT last night. It was in recognition of Labour’s work so far on making renting less of the waking nightmare it currently is – but not anything fancy – just Milk Tray, this time. There is still a lot we want from the next government.
Council gets tough on letting agents
Newham Council has claimed to be the first local authority in the country to tackle letting agents who are flouting the law.
An initiative by the council to tackle poor practice by lettings agents and protect tenants has helped to improve standards in the profession with the majority of agents now complying with the law.
Major letting agent backs all-custodial deposit protection
Eric Walker is Managing Director of Northwood UK and tweets at @justericwalker
We in the property industry have more common ground with the likes of Generation Rent and Shelter than many would think. Professional agents do an immense job and provide a valuable service to help protect consumers from the small minority of rogue agents. MPs call for regulation every day, yet the only group which can change the law is in fact the politicians who refuse to do so.
This Government wants agents to regulate themselves. Their reason is in no small part due to the horrors which would be uncovered if agents were forced to regulate. Clients’ money should be held in a ‚Äòring-fenced’ client account, but while this may protect money from creditors, it is not ring-fenced from the agent. If their business is struggling, there is little point in seeking bank assistance and as such, clients’ money is a very tempting resource.
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Generation Rent receives funding from the Nationwide Foundation
The Nationwide Foundation is a registered charity (number 1065552); its main benefactor is Nationwide Building Society. Funding decisions are made by the Nationwide Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which is independent of Nationwide. Nationwide Building Society does not necessarily endorse the organisations funded by the Foundation. Instead it respects the Nationwide Foundation’s right to create its own strategy to tackle social issues.
£40,000 competition to help renters with open data
Nesta and the Open Data Institute are offering a cash prize of £40,000 to the team that can devise the best way of using publicly available data to improve the lives of renters.
The Housing Open Data Challenge has been launched today at the HouseParty Unconference in Manchester. The Challenge invites businesses, startups, social enterprises and community groups to collaborate and compete with each other to answer the question, “How can we use open data to help people get the best out of renting?”
No let-up for house price inflation
House prices continue to outpace wages. Hot on the heels of Mark Carney’s interview with Sky News and David Cameron’s interview on this morning’s Today Programme, the Office for National Statistics published its House Price Index, which confirmed that there’s no let-up for first time buyers, who are facing double-digit inflation and stagnant wages.
Only a national landlord register will stop rogue landlords evading justice
A research report published by a landlord representative body today tries and fails to defend deregulation of private renting, and only reinforces the case for a national landlords register. The Residential Landlords Association has published “The impact of regulation on the private rented sector”, a report by Professor Michael Ball of Henley Business School, which claims that current regulations are failing to achieve their aims. We agree that existing regulations are not working, but what renters need is a national register of landlords.
Labour pledges to fix private renting
With the news that private renters could hold the deciding vote in 86 seats at next year’s election, political parties are realising that they need to win them over.
First to make a move is Labour, whose leader, Ed Miliband, will announce plans on Thursday to introduce new laws to:
- extend the standard length of a tenancy to 3 years
- ban letting agent fees
- cap rent rises