Denham accuses Tories of caving in to landlords
John Denham has accused the Conservatives of a ‘devious misuse’ of parliamentary process over regulation of shared housing.
The communities secretary was writing about Tory leader David Cameron’s recent decision to sign an early day motion calling for new planning regulations around houses in multiple occupation to be revoked.
In a blog post on the Labour Matters site, Mr Denham said: ‘This is an incredible and devious misuse of the parliamentary process, apparently at the behest of the National Landlords Association.
‘[David Cameron] is showing his true colours at last – doing favours for the National Landlords Association rather than listening to residents’ concerns.’
The EDM was also signed by prominent members of the Conservative party, including shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman, shadow planning minister Bob Neill and shadow communities and local government minister Justine Greening.
It calls for the government to scrap legislation in the Town and Country Planning Order 2010 that would force landlords to apply for planning permission if they wanted to convert family homes into HMOs.
The NLA dismissed Mr Denham’s comments as ‘electioneering’. David Salusbury, chair of the NLA, said: ‘This law was rushed through Parliament without a chance for debate, excluding MPs from having a say on this ill-thought-out policy.
‘It would have been more honest for John Denham to make the case for this change in Parliament, rather than avoiding debate.’
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Readers' comments (8)
bannside | 19/04/2010 3:44 pm
Justine Greening is on record as saying the tories favour self regulation for the private housing sector. We have seen earlier, that many landlords are not carrying out gas safety checks in rented property. With self regulation, safety will be compromised for profit - it's what happens - look at how the banks did self regulation. Houses in Multiple occupation require regulation to ensure they are safe. Family houses are needed even if they are less profitable than HMO's. Safety and need are as important as profit. Do the tories care?
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B.S.Townroe | 20/04/2010 8:42 am
It appears that some landlords are one 'criminal' element of society that the Tories are soft on. Causing premature death is, apparently, is perfectly acceptable as long as it takes the form of not insulating/heating a home properly or failing to service a gas heater. 'Big State' regulation gone mad, clearly!
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B.S.Townroe | 20/04/2010 10:21 am
It appears that some landlords are one 'criminal' element of society that the Tories are soft on. Causing premature death is, apparently, is perfectly acceptable as long as it takes the form of not insulating/heating a home properly or failing to service a gas heater. 'Big State' regulation gone mad, clearly!
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Liverpool Landlord | 20/04/2010 10:48 am
Your kidding right?????
I have 25 properties and the regulations surrounding housing under this government have meant me passing on 18% rent increases - pretty much forcing tenants to dig deeper. Every safety check we have to do has gone up by 10% at least in the last year and rental yield has gone down we simply cannot continue to absorb these costs.
Government should be making landlords sign up to a body like the NLA who have a code of practice and lots of useful landlord services many of which at a considerable discount.
Self regulation by landlords for landlords is the only way forward; simply because if I and many other landlords are investing in our housing we want to make others do the same. Big Brother with it's sweeping reforms have done nothing to improve the industry and personally John Denhams Labour Party will soon hopefully be out on their ear.
Less regulation and lower taxes are the way out of recession not Gordon Brown and Co raising taxes and swallowing us all in paperwork & regulation.
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Mr Smart | 20/04/2010 1:00 pm
Mr/Mrs/Ms Townroe is clearly misguided. As per a previous posting on this site I refer him to instances at L&Q and Notting Hill HT - then we can discuss gas safety issues. Clearly RSLs are protected from prosecutions as far as "criminal" activities are concerned. and yet your houses required a 'decent homes' standard to make them acceptable to live in.
It's a tough old life, but my 1933 Armagnac helps me keep my warm feeling!
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Bannside | 20/04/2010 1:13 pm
Liverpool Landlord's comments are remarkably similar to what the banks said about self regulation - but that comment has gone quiet. Regulation is required and it has been shown with the banks that self regulation was an appalling mistake. Why are so many landlords not doing gas safety checks?
In fairness to Liverpool landlord, a level playing field is needed. The current licensing of houses in multiple occupation does little but punish good landlords and lets off rogue landlords. Councils can prosecute or take over the management of unlicensed HMO's - but they don't. In fact there is little in Labours Housing Act 2004 that works. So maybe if landlords regulated landlords they would clamp down on rougue landlords. But how is this to be done? How can we trust landlords to regulate themselves when the evidence is there that they don't comply with essential health and safety regulations that are in place to protect life.
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sam | 29/04/2010 3:08 pm
This is a personal view.
As the financial chickens come home to roost it seems some people just don`t get the picture.Are we seriously expecting a major housebuilding surge?
The most severe spending cuts for 50 years WILL be implemented by the winning political party or coalition.You don`t believe me ? -- I do wonder, reading some of the comments on this website what planet some of you are on.
The harsh reality is a desparate shortage of housing coupled with a population surge. If the thinking from the so-called `professionals` is " how dare these people make money from renting property" ,it says much to explain the mess that this country is in at the present.
Greece,Portugal,Spain and Ireland will all have to come to terms with the results of an bloated public sector....... so must we.
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A good landlady | 11/05/2010 11:19 pm
I have been looking after HMO's for a couple of landlords for the past 8 years and we do them up to an extremely high standard and let them to young working professionals who's days of mad socialising are done and they want a more mature way of life around others wanting the same. However they cannot afford to purchase their own home or pay all the high outgoings of renting their own flat or house. We feel we offer them accomodation with a special contemporary feel in which they can live comfortably in at an affordable price. I have recently taken my house back from my ex-partner and as it is not a good time to sell I felt I would turn it into an HMO. It is in a very nice area and is a beautiful house and I have spent a lot on it to get it right. Therefore I am not about to put people in there who are going to be roudy or party all night every night. Also, as I might want to move back in so I wouldn't want blood on my hands by not having safety checks etc. how ridiculous that landlords are all tarred with the same brush. Most that I deal with are good sensible people who keep their properties in tip top condition and wouldn't dream of having old gas boilers that could kill or mame!! I have now found that I require planning permission. I was also informed that it would be a simpler form of permission than that of requiring permission to build or do structural work. How wrong!! I have got to provide a full "to scale" detailed drawing of the inside of the house - more money. It has taken me 4 weeks just to get the planning department to call me to explain all that I need to do and why the planning forms bear no relation to me wanting to do an HMO. I was told permission will take up to 8 weeks but I haven't even been able to get the forms in yet due to them taking 4 weeks to ring me so I can see that this is going to be a long drawn out procedure. What used to take around 2/3 months from buying to refurbishing to letting could now possibly take up to 9 months or more if the councils drag their feet. NO!! We are not allowed to make a decent living in Britain anymore. Earning a profit under this government has turned into a dirty word and yet we are all expected to cough up more money each and every year when councils put up taxes again and again!!
I agree with one of the previous writers that we should all have to sign up to an independent body like a Landlords Association and submit our intentions to them to go on record. We should also have a landlord vetting system. This should be dealt with by people who understand our business and not jumped up beaurocrats who have just popped out of university and been given more power than they can handle and who do not have a clue about how much it costs to have a house sitting around empty and people desperate for somewhere to live!!!
I say David Cameron is right so Dave I know you are busy right now but please bring it on so that I can let my house to some very nice working professionals and cover my very expensive mortgage cos thats about as much as I will get after taxes, expenses maintenance etc. I am only trying to keep the house filled until I can finally move back in - its almost a non-profit making business at this rate.
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