Labour ought to ‘purchase the availability’ of housing from landlords | Housing

My coronary heart clearly breaks for distressed buy-to-let landlords (Are UK buy-to-let landlords dying out – and may we care?, 5 January) however, if some landlords are feeling the pinch, a coverage I’ve lengthy pestered the federal government about is, by probability, tailored to assist them. We have to replenish our decimated social housing inventory, and a part of the reply is what I name “purchase the availability”.

For years, I’ve known as for funding to assist councils improve the variety of properties they’ll purchase into their housing provide. Whether or not that’s shopping for again proper to purchase properties, or snapping up appropriate homes which are put available on the market, this could obtain rapid, construction-risk-free social properties close to current faculties, parks and well being companies.

We’d like as many new council properties as attainable, and we all know we can not rely solely on the prevailing sluggish mannequin of discovering land and constructing new flats, most of that are too small for households. Greater than 169,000 youngsters stay in momentary lodging in England, harming their entire lives, together with their well being, happiness and skill to study.

Costly non-public lease has turn into the dominant tenure in Brighton Pavilion and different city areas within the years because the introduction of proper to purchase, and we’d like pressing motion each to reverse this pattern and add actual household properties to social housing inventory. Shopping for the availability is sort of merely a sooner, good-value complement to constructing, which is ignored by central authorities. As a substitute of “gently” climbing up rents, landlords may as an alternative reap the benefits of a smooth touchdown from a correctly funded authorities programme of council house acquisition. Their newly burdensome money cow ought to turn into somebody’s longed-for house.Siân Berry MPGreen social gathering, Brighton Pavilion

I used to be shocked by the Workplace for Funds Duty’s warning that authorities coverage squeezing non-public landlords “dangers a gradual long-term rise in rents if demand outstrips provide”. They appear to be considering of rented housing as an remoted market, when in truth many renters are additionally potential first-time patrons. There’ll at all times be a necessity for a small rental market (and why shouldn’t that be crammed by council housing?) however the contraction of the non-public rental market in the end means better housing safety and happiness for these of us at present dreaming of hanging up a single image body with out worry of dropping our deposit.Benjamin McKechnieKingsbury, London

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