A change in weather notwithstanding, the Landlord Investment Show summer event at Old Billingsgate was the most successful July show to date, with the highest summer attendance ever, in spite of the drizzle.
The morning panel session – General Election: Positive News or Total Disaster – was absolutely superb. Sadly (but not entirely unexpectedly) Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP was called away at the last minute for some urgent electioneering, but we’d like to say a huge thank you to Ian Collins for doing a brilliant job of hosting, and to our panellists, David Smith, Carly Jerymn, Maxine Fothergill and Peter Littlewood, who gave the audience an animated and highly informative debate.
Topics covered included the Labour Party’s pledge to enforce an immediate ban on Section 21, and how it is legislatively impossible in anything less than say, an 18 month period. As we have already pointed out in previous articles, the Renters Reform Bill took years of consultation to come to fruition and hadn’t even cleared Parliament when it was shelved for the General Election. The feeling amongst the panellists was that even fairly minor amendments will push it back significantly and a complete rework could take years.
It was also pointed out by our panellists that the failure to build sufficient housing stock has been a chronic failure of successive governments, regardless of hue, and that the Labour Party plan to build 1.5 Million homes in a 5 year period is at best fanciful. The last time a domestic house-building scheme of this magnitude was attempted was actually under the ambitious auspices of a post-war Conservative Government in the 1950s. Will a new Government have the appetite for this once elected? Time will tell but given the historical precedent, our panellists thought it unlikely.
The spectre of increased Taxation also raised its thorny head, but again the consensus amongst the panel was that both of the major political parties in the UK seem to have a hostile attitude towards landlords and the Private Rented Sector, so a change of political party is unlikely to make a great deal of difference.
By the time you’re reading this the election polling will be well and truly underway, but it was great to hear the expert input from our panellists in anticipation of what will likely be a change of government.