It’s very rare that we, as a company, make any statement about any Government’s plans for the Private Rented Sector. But, as a company involved with and working within the UK Private Rented Sector we have to express our opinion about something so momentous as the action taken yesterday by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.
Our first reaction is one of genuine shock that Ms Sturgeon feels that a political attack on landlords during a time of increasing housing crises is an answer to anything. Because, let’s face it, this is a political attack. As has been pointed out there is no way that the SNP would freeze supermarket prices, force pubs to sell beer at a fixed price or tell clothing retailers that they cannot increase their prices to match increases in costs. And yet that is exactly what Ms Sturgeon has done to one sector of the economy – the Scottish Private Rented Sector.
Coupled with the rent freeze Ms Sturgeon has gone full tilt and decided that landlords cannot evict tenants until next spring.
It is madness and a frankly obscene victimisation of one sector of Scottish business, namely residential landlords. It’s an abhorrent attack on landlords purely designed to score petty little political points and curry favour with the SNP’s base.
Already the London Mayor Sadiq Khan has indicated he would like to follow suit in London, the Scottish Labour party have said Ms Sturgeon’s measures do not go far enough and in Wales the ruling Labour party is almost certain to follow suit. The implications are serious and potentially devastating for the Private Rented Sector, landlords and tenants alike.
Most landlords own one or two properties. They are not wealthy, they are in the main ordinary people looking to bolster their savings or help plan their retirement. They try their best to provide decent housing at a fair price. It will come as news to Ms Sturgeon and her ilk that most landlords and tenants enjoy a good relationship. But landlords have costs. Those costs won’t stand still as the rent is frozen so what will happen is that landlords will see the writing on the wall and start exiting the industry as they have been doing in increasing numbers throughout 2022.
In our opinion it takes a special kind of naivety to believe that freezing rents and stopping evictions will be anything other than bad news for landlords – and tenants.
And for those who might argue that this is a temporary measure during an exceptional time we would remind you that freezing rents is a stated aim of the Labour party, the forthcoming changes outlined in the Government’s White Paper will stop Section 21 evictions and landlords are currently taxed in a way that no other business in the UK is subject to. Activists like Generation Rent, Shelter and Citizens Advice dominate the column inches and airwaves and landlords have no consistent, centralised voice in reply.
Not only does all this impact heavily on landlords it ultimately impacts heavily on tenants. If Ms Sturgeon wants to help tenants she could ensure that the Scottish landlord registration scheme is properly administered, that the 200+ pieces of legislation that affect every landlord are fairly implemented and work with both landlords and tenants instead of doing her level best to drive wedges between them.
Yesterday Ms Sturgeon admitted that her Government will have to make some hard financial decisions. Attacking landlords and through them tenants, the homeless, asylum seekers and students isn’t going to help make those decisions any easier, or cheaper. Whether this signals the start of the end of the UK Private Rented Sector will be seen over time but we believe that the sector is now in grave danger and that hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who happen to also be landlords face some incredibly hard decisions over the coming months and years.
The knock-on effect could trigger a collapse of the housing market and of everything associated with that like builders, home improvements, furniture and white goods suppliers and on and on. Nothing exists in a vacuum Ms Sturgeon and the decisions you took yesterday could eventually have seismic repercussions, but first to feel the pain you have unleashed will be landlords and the tenants they serve.