I’d say it’s about saying things how they are, avoiding sugar-coating matters, and not denying reality because it’s inconvenient or because it doesn’t fit your ideology, world view or political agenda.
Landlords who are unable to raise rents enough to cover their expenses quit the rental market. In under a year, the number of new lets in Scotland dropped by over 25 per cent. The ones that have remained on the market have become increasingly unaffordable.
The role of freeholders, developers, agents, and landlords (both social and private), intersect alongside a multitude of private, social, and home-ownership tenures. These relationships can be complex, accountability and responsibility diffuse.
What is the point of cutting the notice period from four weeks to two if it can take months to get people up in court due to the backlog in cases?
Statistics suggest that rents have increased by an average of 63 per cent since 2015. Demand for housing outstrips supply, and house prices continue to rise year on year.
As long as demand remains as fierce as it is in London landlords will always have the advantage, no matter the legal rights heaped on tenants.
A spiralling cost of borrowing could see lots of people trapped in higher rates or forced to sell, but keep first-time buyers locked out.
Rent freezes, tax relief on mortgage interest payments, and targeted aid to pensioners all need to be on the table.
Lord Frost is right about the dangers of politicians chasing the dragon on regulation. But landlords can’t have it both ways.
It’s not bad policy, but it isn’t obvious why one group is deserving of so much more support than the other.
It’s the worst form of gesture politics in practice – that substitutes for the urgent need for more housing.
Ensuring that everyone has a decent, affordable and secure home is one of the fundamental public policy challenges of our time.
Ultimately, we have to prevent vulnerable people from ever reaching the streets. We should seize this opportunity to work out how.
The key is not just to get homes built, but to provide realistic pathways to ownership for middle- and working-class families.
The seventh part of our series on reducing demand for government, in which we set out a programme for change – focused on families, civil society and government.