We Don’t Need Compulsory Three Year Tenancies
February 8, 2017
There was a rumour last week that the government were to propose the introduction of three year compulsory tenancy agreements in England in this week’s housing white paper. It then emerged that there would be no compulsion and the proposal was simply to promote longer tenancies in homes let by housing associations and institutional investors. According to the white paper, finally released on 7 February 2017, the government “will consider” what more can be done for security of tenure for families in the rest of […]
The government’s stamp duty surcharge continues to be a fantastic cash cow for the treasury. Official figures show that it raked in £670m in the first six months since it was imposed on 1 April 2016 comparing very favourably with the projected tax take of £625m for the whole of the first year. Such figures mean that it is highly unlikely to be repealed as it is providing more useful than expected amelioration of the national debt.
According to NLA research, 57% of landlords use letting agents. Of these 37% are regular users, 19% occasional users and 22% use full management. So a big whopping 43% are choosing not to use agents and many will be taking advantage of the wide range of services out there now for this part of the lettings market.
Cumulative hearts sank when landlords of East London heard that Redbridge was planning to bring in another selective licensing scheme. Councillors fell foul of new legislation introduced following NLA campaigning in 2015 which meant that schemes covering more than 20% of a boroughs privately rented properties or geography had to seek permission from the Secretary of State. The Redbridge proposed borough wide scheme failed to gain approval.
The Bank of England introduced four measures last week aimed at mitigating the negative economic effects of the referendum result. The headline grabbing cut in the Bank of England base rate from 0.5% to 0.25% is the first since 2009. This will have a marginal effect on borrowing costs, but the bank is determined that lenders will pass it on and is providing them with £100 billion called ‘term funding’ provided they do pass on the cut to encourage them to lend. The […]