Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has announced an amnesty for landlords who do not look after or invest in their properties.
The amnesty will include buying their homes.
Speaking at yesterday’s Future Renting North conference, organised by the Residential Landlords Association, Burnham said he will introduce a Good Landlord scheme, to which landlords can subscribe, showing they are committed to providing a certain standard of service and accommodation.
The Mayor said that although the plans are in their early stages he believes they have the capacity to transform renting in the region.
He told the landlord audience that their attendance at the conference proved their commitment to getting it right and to providing a good service for their tenants.
Burnham pulled no punches and said there are still too many bad landlords out there and that things need to change to tackle what he described as the ”epidemic of insecurity”.
He said: “Safe, decent housing should be a human right as healthcare and education are.
“The fact that you are at the conference today shows that you want to be reputable and do things properly. The truth of the matter is this doesn’t apply to the whole of the private rented sector.
“We need to isolate those that are giving the sector a bad name.”
He then announced plans for the amnesty.
Speaking afterwards, he said that he could not yet give details of what the buy-out package would be.
When asked if he could be accused of rewarding bad landlords by offering them market price for their home, he simply replied: “Who said anything about market values?
“However if people want to exit the market we will facilitate that.”
Comments (2)
A PERSONAL VIEW
“epidemic of insecurity” this is code for – you made an investment in the belief you would be able to sell it when you wished IS TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU AND YOUR INVESTMENT WILL BE RAPED AND DEVALUED BY GIVING TENANTS THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO POSSESSION.
All because the politicians asset stripped the inherited housing stock and did not provide adequate social housing. I see this as:
1. Councils sell your/ratepayers/public housing stock and spend the funds it elsewhere (such as paying council CEO excessive salaries for example).
2. Encourage a private rented sector by ensuring landlords can get open market rents and possession to exit the market if they wished.
3. Start an emotive campaign and use propaganda/brain washing all with the term “ROGUE landlord” when probably 90% of landlords are decent people. Any landlord is then thought a rogue in the sub conscious.
4. Once the PRS has sufficient investment gradually turn the screw (to see how far you can go like a child finding the boundaries) by introducing suspect legislation to trick landlords out of their investment starting with setting traps on preventing use of S21 notices and then expand these actions by introducing rent control to restrict/remove any return on your investment. Introduce security of tenure to tenants so to finally crush the value in your investment (devaluing by probably around 50-60%). Then to finally bury you by making you responsible for every single maintenance repair item down to changing light bulbs that could not be funded by the rent (return to the 1970’s). (Remember labour nicking part of your pensions not that long ago)
To those who remember the rented markets in the 1970’s this will not sound so far-fetched!!!
As they say leopards (politicians) do not change their spots.
Now we have both lunatic lefts and rights as political parties.
Look at the history with labour and conservative governments. 2 terms of labour= conservative austerity to stop the country becoming bankrupt. Who suffers the most? Joe public/Mr & Mrs Average. Target the young voters with promises of utopia and work the same trick on them in time!
Cynical? may be!
Sounds about right to me!