The BBC has reported that:
As England's coronavirus eviction ban comes to an end on Monday, around a million households fear losing their homes, a charity says.
About 400,000 renters have had eviction notices or been told to expect them, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says.
What seems like a very long time ago I wrote about the need for the government to decide between prioritising landlords, or people and jobs as the coronavirus crisis unfolded. Admittedly, much of my focus was on commercial landlords then, but I had from March onwards emphasised the need for rent holidays, and waivers.
What is apparent is that, typically, our government did not really make a decision. It simply kicked the can down the road. And now domestic landlords will, at the end of June, reacquire the right to convict tenants and seek to recover rent owing. I believe that this is a mistake.
I am not saying that I am unaware that there are landlords who have suffered as a consequence of this. But I would add, that almost every single one will have seen a considerable increase in the value of the property that they own in this period that will be way above the value of the rent that they will have lost. And taking that into account the number who will have actually lost as a result of rent not paid will be very small indeed.
In contrast, those households will have seen real stress. No one withholds their rent for fun.
And no one faces eviction lightly.
There will be massive consequences of these evictions, including many cases of real homelessness which local authorities may not be able to handle.
And that will be because the government has chosen to prioritise the rights of landlords over people, against which I warned. Now the consequences will be arriving and they will be very hard to handle at a great many levels, but most especially for the children involved.
It's still not too late for the government to change this policy, most particularly as we are now heading for another Covid wave. But I know that is incredibly unlikely. It's not in this government's DNA to do that. Making people suffer is.
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Private landlordism – promoted heavily by the Tories for as long as I can remember – is now going to reveal yet another dark side all due to the need of the landlords to make money from their asset. Why? Because wages and pensions are being allowed to decline continuously. We’re seeing 50% increases in property prices in the town I work in. Who wouldn’t want to sell now?
Even now, the Tories are STILL priming ownership – the latest Homes England move is how to expand access for Help to Buy.
It’s a sorry affair and will illustrate yet again the limits of markets – especially in the context of a crisis. Successive Governments have created this mess by not building enough affordable housing or regulating rents.
The other thing that I’ve noticed in my area is a huge amount of incomers from the South East – we are hearing a lot more Southern accents now. They are arriving here cash rich when compared to the locals and there must/there will be some displacement effects that will be prejudicial to the locals. But those I’ve spoken to tell me that the cost of living say in Brighton means that their wages cannot keep up, hence the move/cash in using their property as a ‘get rich quick scheme’.
It does not augur well for the future. I’d hate to be starting off again now.
State should offer to buy out bankrupted landlords and let houses. Council Houses.
A fair comment on the possibility of a housing crisis. But for your unnecessary comment: “But I know that is incredibly unlikely. It’s not in this government’s DNA to do that. Making people suffer is.” It indicates that your opinion is based on your contempt for a that you did not vote for government. Your outburst weakens your case.
No it does not
It’s a statement of political fact
Don’t excuse their pathological hatred of people who do not own property
Unless you share it, that is
Trevor
What is wrong with contempt based on the evidence? Are you saying Government is beyond contempt? Since when has cap doffing ever changed anything in this class riddled fiefdom?
This Government is subsidising home ownership when not enough affordable to rent homes have been built. Most house building has been geared towards the executive markets because housebuilders make a huge profit from it.
It has introduced universal credit that pays people benefits in arrears so that the pay day loan companies and loan sharks have a field day and people go into debt.
It is reducing the portion of UC that pays for accommodation year on year since 2010, meaning that people face a choice between heating and eating.
It has a so-called ‘Nudge Unit’ that is more like a ‘Shove Unit’ by cutting off things like B&B accommodation etc,. to needy people making it harder for people to find emergency accommodation.
And yet it is content to allow the introduction of driverless cars and buses that will mean the loss of jobs because investors will seize upon the reduced operating costs and higher profits!!!!
None of this is adds up. It is a world where business will increasingly need less people to do stuff and if you just so happen to be one of those not needed anymore, you will be harried to the day you die for just existing. And if you don’t own property – well, God help you.
But what your comments add up to is wilful ignorance. Period. Now please go and parade your ignorance elsewhere – the Daily Mail perhaps or the Telegraph or some Tory website.
Thanks.
Local examples of pressures which will affect those evicted:
1 A Devon business has failed as a consequence of Covid. The owner now needs cash and is selling a house in which several families live. They have been given notice to quit because the new owner is converting the house for Air B&B.
2 There is at least one village near the Dorset coast where more than 40% of the houses are holiday homes.
3 I know of a family paying rent of £1000 per month. There is no hope of saving enough for the minimum deposit required by building societies to buy a house.
4 A recent Facebook post: “People of _____. I need your help to find somewhere to live in our lovely town. I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING and I don’t want to have to move away!! I’m interested in renting anything from a 1 bed to a 4 bed, with or without a garden. I’m pretty flexible. Please share this and keep your ear to the ground for me. “
You say, “Don’t excuse their pathological hatred of people who do not own property.”
You are a strange man. Have you thought of getting help?
It did not take you long to out yourself as a Tory troll
And yes, they do pathologically hate those who do not own property
They eugenically think them inferior
While I realise that bashing private landlords is fashionable in some quarters, do not tar all landlords with the same brush. I have a small property portfolio in the northeast which provides a pension. There are none of my properties that I would not live in myself, most of my tenants have been with me for some years, and I do not intend to evict anyone. For the record, my portfolio would have been worth more in 2006 than it is now, so not all landlords are fat capitalists. I happen to know that there are many other responsible landlords like myself, many are members of the NRLA, we promote best practice and treat our tenants with dignity and respect. Rant over!
Small error there.
“To provide a pension”
Why do you need to provide a pension? The State provides a pension.
Any justification you can give will always revert to the basis premise of rentierism. The rentier exists on the advantage their wealth provides to make other people work for them.
And as you follow this blog you know that the current level of the State Pension is due to political decisions, not an absence of money. Have you been choosing politicians with the wrong priorities?
It is fair to say that the state provides a wholly inadequate pension
Agreed.
Housing’s asset value has been used to cover the precipitous drop in incomes over the years (wages and pensions) having a marked effect on the use element of housing (as accommodation and shelter).
To be fair though, the market as it is set up now does not even help landlords who have been encouraged in to the game by Governments who don’t wish to regulate it properly. Too many get into trouble or lack the skills to deal with housing related issues and are on their own at considerable expense. You could quite easily say that a lot of risk in letting has been privatised with perhaps too many private landlords naïvely thinking in terms of income but not liabilities.
My view is that this is deliberate, because it creates conditions for vulture operators (the really rich operators) to sweep in and clear up the mess as well get these assets at cheaper prices.
A system that helps no one is not a system. Put simply, just about any market left to its own devices is bound to fail and course damaging overspill effects elsewhere.
Covid has made this even more apparent.
You say “It did not take you long to out yourself as a Tory troll.
And yes, they do pathologically hate those who do not own property
They eugenically think them inferior.”
Dial 999 For Help. You will be accommodated free of charge in a warm home until you are well again.
Tax payers will foot the bill for you.
Posted just to show the sort of crap that is posted by idiots from the right when you write a blog
Well, poor Trevor is obviously one of those easily deluded Johnson cultists.
Where I live, the Tories have been closing down care homes and/or bringing in charging regimes.
The Guardian & the BBC have been reporting on the crisis in wales, Cornwall, and Coastal towns as either residential lets are being converted to holiday lets or any available property is being bought up by ‘outsiders’ for holiday lets or second homes.
While I would not condone what happened in the past with Second Homes and Holiday Cottages in Wales being set alight, I can see that in the absence of a robust response by ideally The Government or at least Labour I could see ‘Unrest’ as a result