Patrick's Property Politics

Steer clear of S’Keir?

Tuesday 17th October 2023

By Patrick Bullick

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Can ‘S’Keir’ (Starmer) really slalom his way around the planning regulations to build 1.5 million properties in five years?

Or is he more like a novice snowboarder - careering noisily past your left side, with no idea what he is doing?

If he can steer his way successfully to the 1.5m finish line he will deserve a celebratory schnapps (election).

It is also to be hoped he can utilise the non-descript land around our major cities which has virtually no agricultural worth but currently masquerades as ‘green’ belt.

He has correctly dubbed these fields of boredom the ‘grey’ belt. I do like that apt term for one of my pet topics. See here my Modern Mini Manifesto.

S’Keir has further suggested Labour will build New Towns.

This makes total sense and is also something I have written about before in my Fill A Field vs Brand New Towns article.

When the UK consistently has net immigration of over 300,000 per annum, we need multiple New Towns - and quickly!

These stated property ambitions need to be our reality and the Tories should simply steal them.

If they do - they must implement them.

I am no fan of Labour (or the Tories for that matter) and there are huge concerns that Rachel Reeve's proposed tax policies could be a disaster for the competitiveness of this country.

However, at least Labour are going quite hard on their focus on property where the Tories seem to have lost focus. Everything they've done in the last 13 years for property has been a disaster.

If S’Keir (or the Tories) want a couple of quick hits to help improve the horribly over-heated rental market caused by a lack of supply, here are two simple ones:

1) Re-instate the ability of private landlords to offset their mortgage interest against income before tax, thereby allowing them to be profitable - and to stay in the market. 
   2a) Keep the ‘no-fault’ Section 21 Notice system which allows a landlord to gain possession of their property in a non-aggressive fashion. The removal of this is scaring many landlords into selling. 
     b)  All the alternatives for a landlord regaining possession of their property requires reason, blame or fault, creating unnecessary antagonism.
     c) Simply lengthening Section 21 Notices to 6 months will give tenants more time to find alternatives whilst leaving the landlord confident in their ability to control their own asset.

Here’s hoping.

Until next time,

PB

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