Labour is backing a rent freeze in Scotland and flirting with one in England - but it’s just stopped one being imposed in Wales.
Welsh nationalist politicians in the Plaid Cymru party made the call for a freeze in the Welsh Parliament; they were hoping to follow in the footsteps of Scotland where nationalists and Green politicians run that government jointly.
In Wales however, senior Labour ministers warned of "unintended consequences" of a rent freeze such as landlords resorting to short lets, or simply quitting the sector and selling up.
In particular housing minister Julie James said she wanted to "target the support at the people who are most vulnerable and make sure they stay in their homes" but insisted: “We don't want to drive landlords away from the sector.”
Instead she called on the UK government to unfreeze housing allowance, which has not kept up with rent rises.
One Labour member of the Welsh Parliament said a rent freeze was "superficially attractive" but could encourage landlords to switch to "the Wild West of housing - Airbnb".
Meanwhile Conservative Janet Finch-Saunders said rent controls were a "nightmare" and that Plaid's debate "tries to do down the private rented sector."
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Good lord , a politician with actual knowledge of the real world
We don't want to drive landlords away from the sector!. Too late it is already happening due to the abolition of S21 in Wales and the new contracts being forced on us from December. I have sold 2 in N Wales and the tenant in the 3rd to go on sale is under notice. Purely because of the new contracts. I looked at available rental properties in my area of operation and very little is available as other landlords are doing the same. My property is mine to do with as I wish. What gives any government the right to appropriate private property and control what owners wish to do with it.. The appropriation of our private property with no recompense during covid was enough thanks.
I have properties up for sale for the same reasons. It’s mine. I control it. Not the government, so called housing charities and least of all not my benefit milking tenants.
I sold my property in Edinburgh. Let the Scots enjoy socialism.
You think that this is socialism? Who is imposing the constraints? I wouldn't call Johnson or Truss socialists.
I'm afraid that it is the opposite, in extreme.
As far as this government's concerned, no one who isn't a billionaire should be allowed to profit from property.
Unfortunately Scotland is under the control of Comrade Harvey and his assistant, Nicola Sturgeon. There's no mechanism from a credible opposition to keeping near the centre ground, a privilege Westminster has but nearly lost when Corbyn was a potential threat.
I would rather have a party that veers towards rewarding enterprise than one which protects the work shy and indolent, which is modern Scotland!
So they don’t wish to ‘drive’ landlords away do they … 😂 they already have, adding more of this nonsense will just make me sell quicker 👍🏻… Sunny Uplands 🌈 forever.
There's lots of Anti-Landlord policies that need to be reversed to stop the Further erosion of available rental properties.
Where have politicians heads been buried for not realising this years ago - they have been warned.
I think that it's quite deliberate. They want to remove small landlords, with relationships to their tenants, forcing them to sell to the fat-cats. Remove the good-quality competition.
When the eviction ban was temporarily lifted in September 2020, they kept it open just long enough to enable the big boys to remove their belligerent tenants. Then the axe fell again and stayed for a further nine months. It was blatant discrimination.
Section 21 will be abolished everywhere, and a whole host of other suffocating measures will be introduced, until all of the properties are owned by huge corporations.
Then, all of the restrictions will be removed and Generation Rent will be weeping into their cider.
NO they wont the fat cat bosses of generation rent shelter and acorn will mysteriously appear as shareholders and directors of said companies along with MP's and ministers surprise surprise, did you really think that they were going to all this trouble to exterminate private landlords for nothing
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