Goving, Going, Gone.
Friday 14th June 2024
Dear old Micky G – you have to love him!
Known for his vim and vigour, forcing through changes in various departments in which he has been a Minister - Education comes to mind - in the last couple of years he has been in in charge of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities known as DLUHC.
In a post-marital bid to get ‘down with the kids’ in that Department he has allowed himself to be overcome by Stockholm Syndrome, succumbing to the left-wing ideas of the idealistic but economically illiterate young civil servants therein.
Heavily influenced by lobbying from the likes of Shelter and Generation Rent, these naïve young PPE graduates have produced some of the most ill-thought-out proposals around housing and renting, plus freehold and leasehold ownership.
To be fair to Micky G he did manage to carve mandatory rent caps out of the Renters ‘Revenge’ Bill, which even he could see would simply push up rents further as landlords exited the market, as proven in Scotland.
The Renters ‘Revenge’ Bill fell before Parliament could ratify it in advance of the ‘Genny Lec’.
Just wait to see what the civil servants pull out of their closets and present to Angela Rayner when she takes over. I shudder to think what we may get in a New ‘Revenge’ Bill - on Steroids.
He did get the easier parts of the Freehold and Leasehold Reform Bill through, and some of those changes will be better for Leaseholders without being overly onerous on Freeholders. Even S’Kier’s Labour will struggle to slalom through the Courts if they implement the proposals the DLUHC civil servants would like.
A plea to S’Kier when he gets to No. 10:
Please create an entirely separate Department of Housing. Stand-alone and with its own Minister in Cabinet.
Housing issues overlap with many Govt. Departments and should not be subsumed (somewhat artificially) into and alongside Communities and Levelling up.
Time for a change, and time for a genuine focus on Housing for at least the next 5 years.
Please!
Until next time….
PB
(Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_for_Levelling_Up,_Housing_and_Communities)
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