In the Community

Perhaps Which? should consult with DEA's to get their thoughts on pricing before making suggestions on how to increase their workload? Currently the work required by a DEA is not reflected in the fees they can charge, not helped by various websites quoting as little as £34 and even then some customers refuse to pay. It is therefore hardly surprising there will be errors and corners cut by some DEA's who will try and do as many in a day they can just to earn enough to pay the lodgement fees and other expenses such as travel and parking.

Unfortunately, Barry, the Great Deceiver Tony Blair, decided that all the hereditary peers were undemocratic and replaced them with his friends. The hereditary peers, in the main, had a sense of duty and did their jobs responsibly. Their replacements see their job as frustrating the Tory government. It will be interesting, in an academic way, to see if that behavious changes when/if we get a Labour government.

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Another ‘dogs dinner’ of poorly framed legislation.

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Great information!!

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2.8 million new instructions- who wants some? While preparing a submission for the at the time unannounced CLG inquiry in PRS (CLG only told their friends) I did some number crunching in the hope of adding a positive input into a department that is seemingly bereft of any experience of the Private rented sector and almost allergic to anyone who has. I identified that a 100,000 tenancy provision by private landlords into the assisted tenancy market (pensions and benefits) was worth approaching £1 billion to landlords. One hundred thousand tenancies was a deliberately small percentage ; an easy , appropriately sized sample to make the point rather than a scientifically calculated figure. It represented about 1.4% of the middle ground between PRS and social housing that many agencies and landlords steer clear of. Subsequent research (discussion) shows that about 40% of assisted tenants are no worse at paying their rent than anyone else. Essentially what that means is that there is an additional £28 billion rental opportunity for those prepared to engage the sector. Increasing the PRS provision by up to by 70% is surely a good start in solving the housing crisis. It will obviously put a large rental income in the pocket of those who can afford to buy to rent out, it will put a large commission income in the pockets of those servicing the industry but moreover it will add the incentive to have another 2.8 million private rented sector properties available to ease the housing crisis. Obviously that will leave the remaining 60% of the sector to house but it seems reasonable that government doesn’t attempt to privatise their entire housing obligation, such schemes tend to lead to civil unrest. There will be natural envy at the rich seemingly exploiting the poor, I am not getting into the social ethics of a solution, simply suggesting how a set of government departments could set about solving issues in an industry they don’t properly understand.