Meeting The Welfare Minister
November 7, 2012
Welfare Reform Minister, Lord Freud, spoke at the National Landlords Association conference in the Midlands on 31 October 2012. He was concise, thoughtful, engaging and positive about the contribution of the private rented sector. He outlined the government’s philosophy behind the welfare reforms and said that the mass exodus of landlords and huge population shifts that some had forecast had not materialised.
There was much consternation from landlords, many who spoke felt that the responsibility agenda (tenants receiving direct payments) was utopian. A number of contributors complained […]
I’ve been to six welfare reform presentations in different boroughs across London and the picture is extremely worrying. Major changes in benefits regimes are all being brought in on 1 April 2013. These are on top of changes brought in over the last 12 months. These changes are beginning to impact landlords and tenants in the private sector. But the area worst hit will be London and we are going to see unprecedented housing problems.
When I attended an NLA meeting in Newham in November 2011 and watched the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales talk about his proposed licensing scheme, it became patently obvious to me that he was absolutely determined to make it happen. The room was packed with around 100 landlords who were totally opposed, but as a very experienced politician he just bounced back, even seemed to be enjoying himself. It was a carefully staged appearance, he had brought a team of advisers and […]
I went to an auction last week and it was very busy. Interesting. We’ve just gone into the double dip of the recession, Spain is about to be bailed out by the IMF and EU and I think we’re about to see the break up of the eurozone, beginning of course with Greece after their next election. So why are there so many hungry buyers around? They were not just developers – there were some owner occupiers about too.