21st May 2013
Nottingham City Council's consultation for a proposed landlord licencing scheme has breached data protection rules and will result in rents going up, according to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).
The RLA claims the council has handled the process badly, and has warned that the move will deter new landlords and stop existing ones from expanding, resulting in a shortage of accommodation in the city and pushing up rents.
The council is proposing that a new additional licencing scheme should be...
21st May 2013
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has announced plans to accredit all of its members by 2020.
In a speech at the NLA's and Chartered Institute of Housing's joint Private Rented Sector Conference, Carolyn Uphill, deputy chairman of the NLA, outlined the Association’s ‘Vision for Accreditation’.
The NLA believes that landlord accreditation is a key tool to improving standards in the private rented sector (PRS).
The Association's ‘Vision for Accreditation’ ai...
16th May 2013
Reforms to the way the private rented sector operates in Wales are based on ideology rather than evidence, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has claimed.
The RLA is warning that the government’s Welsh Agents and Landlords Licencing Scheme (WALLS) will impose "a bureaucratic and ill-defined licencing scheme" on the sector.
The group claims that WALLS has the potential to put many existing landlords off investing in new homes and deter new ones from entering the market.
This, the RLA says, despite t...
15th May 2013
Thousands of landlords across Scotland are facing fines as the deadline for the tenancy deposit protection scheme arrives.
Figures show that there has been a "worryingly low" sign up to the scheme.
Malcolm Lindo, managing director of SafeDeposits Scotland, warned landlords their time was now up and urged them to get in touch for help if they hadn’t signed up.
He said: “The clock has stopped for landlords and agents in Scotland. The deadline is now and if you let a property that is ...
8th May 2013
Earlier this year, Moody’s downgraded the credit ratings of 26 housing associations by one notch. Here Roshana Arasaratnam - the agency's Vice President Sub-Sovereign Debt - explains why it felt compelled to take action.
Moody’s decision to downgrade English housing associations followed a similar action on the UK Government’s rating, it was also in response to changing developments in the sector.
Specifically, we are reassessing how forthcoming support would be from the regulat...
2nd May 2013
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has called for the compulsory regulation of estate agents after almost a third of first time buyers said that they do not have a good understanding of the purchase process.
Almost 80% of first time buyers believe that compulsory regulation of estate agents would ensure consumer understanding improves.
RICS survey of 1,017 first time buyers found that:
• 93% believe agents should have to meet minimum competency standards before practicing•...
10th April 2013
Housing Quality Network chief executive Alistair McIntosh shares his initial thoughts on the revised regulatory framework proposed by the Homes and Communities Agency.
Protecting social housing assets in a more diverse sector – HCA
No more Cosmopolitans? – New proposals to prevent failure of social landlords and rescue those that do fail You are about to learn a whole new language. The buzzwords are ‘ring fencing’, ‘recovery plans’ and ‘living wills’. Wh...
27th March 2013
A housing association has visited over 4,000 of its tenants to make sure they understand the implications of the imminent bedroom tax.
Gentoo Group has identified just over 4,400 of its tenants who will be deemed to be under-occupying under the new rules.
From next week, social tenants who have a 'spare' bedroom in their home will have 14 percent of their weekly housing benefit axed, and those with two or more 'spare' bedrooms will see a 25 percent cut.
Gentoo says that 77 percent of its affec...
21st March 2013
A council has announced planning guidelines to limit the size of 'super-prime' homes and encourage the construction of affordable homes.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has proposed restricting the size of very large residential units to 25 percent of the overall floor space, in a bid to counteract wealthy foreign investors who are able to put huge sums of money in very large 'super-prime' residential units over 350 sq m.
The council has also announced restrictions on creating very...
19th March 2013
The amount of protests against the bedroom tax are growing, with 52 held across the country last weekend.
Around 1,000 campaigners gathered in Manchester and Liverpool, with hundreds also protesting in Newcastle, Durham and other cities.
According to campaign group Defend Council Housing, protestors have been encouraged by recent government concessions over the bedroom tax.
Foster carer families and those with children in the armed forces are now exempt from the new rules.
From April 1, those deemed to be un...
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