Shadow minister slams rent control plans
A Conservative MS has warned that plans to introduce rent controls in Wales next year could result in higher rents and poorer quality housing for tenants.
Janet Finch-Saunders MS, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change, also called for a “more supportive approach” towards the private rental market.
Last November Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru announced a wide-ranging cooperation agreement that included a series of measures to tackle the housing crisis in Wales.
There is a commitment to taking” immediate and radical action” to tackle the number of second homes in Wales and to make housing more affordable.
This includes moves to establish rent controls, “using the planning, property and taxation systems” to cap second homes and greater powers for local authorities to increase taxes on second homes.
The proposals have been made in response to rocketing house prices across Wales and an increase in the number of second homes, which means many young people cannot afford to get on the property ladder.
Realistic
Mrs Janet Finch-Saunders, MS for Aberconwy, said: “We need a realistic and supportive approach towards the private rental market.
“Welsh Labour policy threatens a state sanctioned rent increase which could make the Welsh rental market unbearable for thousands of families across Wales.
“Rent controls have been proven time and time again to not only be ineffective at combatting the issue of affordability, but to have actually been detrimental to the housing market.
“On top of the mountain of existing legislation, further excessive state intervention could lead to landlords being forced out of the sector, resulting in a decrease in the supply of rental homes for those who cannot or are not looking to buy.
“Case studies from around the world demonstrate the damaging effects that the introduction of rent controls can have. Look at San Francisco where the housing supply fell by 15 per cent, while in Berlin rent shot up by almost 10 per cent between 2015 and 2017 following the introduction of rent controls.”
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I agree that there should be more support for the private rental market but that should NOT enable the exploitation of an overheated market in many of our communities. Jacking up rents willy nilly every year ( or less!) and booting people out if they can’t keep up with these movements is not good practice. That is the kind of behaviour that destroys a market. On the other hand Wales Gov and its agency, RentSmart need to get a touch smarter in dealing with bad tenants. They have produced rafts of material on what is expected of landlords but so… Read more »
I completely agree it is very one sided at present and Private Landlords are leaving the sector. It all well and good Llinos and Jose dismissing her warnings basically because she is a Tory but when i see on FB people saying every rental which comes up is being chased by 100 families – most of whom could never buy- there is an issue.
RentSmart are not much cop at chasing bad landlords either, at least where students are concerned. The filthy, unlivable slum my daughter ended up in for her BSc should have resulted in a prosecution of the slum landlord. The local council didn’t want to know because they were busy with Coronavirus and other than that, Rentsmart were no use whatsoever. In my experience, it is no more fit for purpose when dealing with either private landlords or private tenants. And the shadow minister’s response? Don’t introduce rent controls to help tenants. Instead give more money to the buy-to-let private landlords… Read more »
Im sorry but they certainly are not anecdotal hyperbolic posts i am referring to- i see more and more appeals from tenants asking for rental houses because the landlord is SELLING up. These houses are not being sold to people wanting to rent. I know of several “landlords” Not rich greedy people as everyone believes who have sold up and in doing so taken properties out of the rental market. Councils are not filling the void so where do these people live. As for the Tory nonsense you accuse me of this whole problem started several years ago when a… Read more »
Of course you have only presented hyperbolic anecdotes. “I see more and more …” is anecdotal not equivalent to actual data and your conclusions to these anecdotes are entirely supposition and loaded with hyperbolic strawmen. For example you say these landlords are not selling to other landlords. And yet buy-to-letters are currently driving prices up all over Wales. (This is credible data analysis I have read, not people posting on Facebook) so SOMEONE is creating rental properties.
Make biting personal comments if you want, but I bite back.
Sorry if you take my comments as “biting personal comments” they are not meant to be. We obviously have a different view on the current state of private rentals available in Wales- i live near Rhyl and i can assure you there is a massive shortage of places to rent from private landlords. The issue highlighted by Janet Finch Saunders ie that rent controls are detrimental to both Landlords and Tenants seems to have been lost in the thread.
Conservatives slam ….
Of course they do. Next!
Bitch
Why is this abusive, misogynistic comment still up?
Elsewhere on this website there is an article noting that fewer people wish to become councillors because of online abuse.
Is this website (which draws an indirect subsidy via the Welsh Government funded Books Council) part of the problem, or part of the solution?
Er how about Councils in Wales start building houses in significant numbers again – then thousands of people wouldnt be forced to seek accommodation in the substandard private rental sector and be exploited by greedy landlords. Rent controls are very welcome, and will help a bit, but the lack of new council housing shows we are still allowing some aspects of thatcherite ideology to prevail when it comes to housing in Wales.
Have to agree with you on the lack of movement on the public sector. They have abdicated the housing issue letting Housing Associations take total control. Some of those have a garbled view of housing in Wales seemingly opting to solve housing problems from outside of Wales before addressing our own serious deficiencies. Given the torrid time we are about to confront with energy bills escalating as profits are taken in UK and in global markets its time the public sector entered the fray with a programme of targetted volumes using top class energy efficient building products and systems. In… Read more »
How about the Tories in Westminster properly fund Wales, so that the WG can properly fund Councils in Wales to start building houses in significant numbers again. The WG is being required by the Tories in Westminster to do more with less.
The Thatcherite ideology is prevalent in the Tories in Westminster.
Never trust a Tory (especially ones who are private landlords themselves)!!
The English refugee who owns multiple properties in Wales doesn’t want to help the people she is supposed to represent. What a pig.
She was born in Llandudno- last time I looked that is in Wales
Correct. A lot of people are fooled by her nationality, for obvious reasons. One wonders where she got that accent from. Her parents, obviously, but didn’t she go to school?
Janet Finch-Saunders; Jointly own 2 residential properties in Conwy
Jointly own 4 retail properties in Conwy
Jointly own a residential/holiday-let property in Menai Bridge with my daughter.
Where is Mandy Rice-Davies when you need her.
Not her again?