Need Questions About Renting For Mr Shapps

[Superted187]

I'm potentially going to be able to put some questions to Grant Shapps tomorrow morning on Radio 5 at around 8.10 am.

My case study is primarily around rising rents. I should hopefully be able to ask him a few questions.

I've got a few, but would love your input for some meatier ones, perhaps on buy to let.

Some questions I've got so far:

Do you acknowledge that housing in the UK is massively overpriced? If no, why, if yes, what do you plan do about it?

Do you plan on relying on part buy part rent schemes in the long term as a solution for those starting out to get into home ownership?

I feel that renting is disliked by so many Britons because it is essentially a mugs game where you are at the peril of a landlord. Can we expect any legislation to encourage longer term leases and give tenants more rights?

[Jimmer]

I'm potentially going to be able to put some questions to Grant Shapps tomorrow morning on Radio 5 at around 8.10 am.

My case study is primarily around rising rents. I should hopefully be able to ask him a few questions.

I've got a few, but would love your input for some meatier ones, perhaps on buy to let.

Some questions I've got so far:

Do you acknowledge that housing in the UK is massively overpriced? If no, why, if yes, what do you plan do about it?

Do you plan on relying on part buy part rent schemes in the long term as a solution for those starting out to get into home ownership?

I feel that renting is disliked by so many Britons because it is essentially a mugs game where you are at the peril of a landlord. Can we expect any legislation to encourage longer term leases and give tenants more rights?

Are there any plans to PROPERLY regulate letting agents who charge both tenant and landlord massive (and generally spurious) fees for the same 'services' ?

[Keep Walking]

Estate agents. a common feature in housing, appear to have little to no regulation despite describing themselves as a profession. How is this appropriate?

Further as you can understand, that it is not appropriate, what is taking place to cover this legislative shortfall?

[Superted187]

Two fantastic questions - cheers guys, please keep em coming!

Edit:

Are there any plans to PROPERLY regulate letting agents who charge both tenant and landlord massive (and generally spurious) fees for the same 'services' ?

Our LA wanted us to pay £90, and the landlord to pay £90, for renewing our AST for another year. We didn't and we've been rolling since!

Edited September 15, 2011 by Superted187

[plummet expert]

I'm potentially going to be able to put some questions to Grant Shapps tomorrow morning on Radio 5 at around 8.10 am.

My case study is primarily around rising rents. I should hopefully be able to ask him a few questions.

I've got a few, but would love your input for some meatier ones, perhaps on buy to let.

Some questions I've got so far:

Do you acknowledge that housing in the UK is massively overpriced? If no, why, if yes, what do you plan do about it?

Do you plan on relying on part buy part rent schemes in the long term as a solution for those starting out to get into home ownership?

I feel that renting is disliked by so many Britons because it is essentially a mugs game where you are at the peril of a landlord. Can we expect any legislation to encourage longer term leases and give tenants more rights?

Rents are high because prices have lost the link with earnings. Do you see that the only way to restore this is to enforce by law any lending in strict sensible multiples such as 2.25 x an income? That way all normal non investment housing will adopt an affordable value.

Do you see the link between high housing values and lack of investment in productive industry? If property rises rapidly people stop investing in the productive economy and go for the easy option of a pile of bricks jumping up and making them paper money.

Can you see that the cost of housing benefit would be massiveley reduced if the property market assumed sensible values along wirth rents? Would this not help the govt finances in the long run? BTL would lose its appeal if people could actually afford a home in the first place. Finance for BTL should be made more stringent to avoid BTL interfering with the market and shutting out FTB's as it has. 60% LTV Max

Would it not help wage pressure and therefore inflation to remain stable in the longer run if house prices broadly followed wage inflation? Would it not enbale investment to be more likely in the manufacturing and exportin part of the economy?

In fact, high and incongruous to wage inflation house price increases actually damage the economy. They have gradually eroded our competitiveness. Can you see successive govt failure to control them has dented our place ion the world economy, allowed more manufacturing jobs to disappear than ever necessary, caused us to become a high wage, balmy property priced and therefore low living standard economy?

To put this all to rights, would you agree a new base rate just for house buying/lending should be introduced immediately to make the market adjust to sensible levels? If you want to help first time buyers, the best thing would to have prices adjust to an affordable level and forget about subsidising property purchase and stepped purchase.

The Victorians would be amazed to see all their homes converted into flats when very often they had one family occuping them in 1860.

Long term low wage renters should be able to get small homes/flats through investment companies for the purpose and a strategic review of this needs dealing with urgently and used to have builders building while the recession continues as part of public works.

Stupidly low interest rates will come to haunt us in the end and represents theft from the thrifty savers. They should be receiving interest and able to spend it as income. The change to rates would not be the catastrophe it is claimed except that the pain felt by some inpushing prices down would be the relief the skewed market needs to function properly. After all we survived years of 7-11% rates over decades.

[Democorruptcy]

Why should renters see their income tax pay the mortgage interest of BTL landlords?

Why should people renting see their council tax go towards deposits for FTBs?

Why should renters who pay full council tax, subsidise a reduced council tax for second home owners?

In the interests of transparency, can the government please publish a quarterly list of the MPs who receive rental income, detailing how much and from how many properties?

In November you described possible FSA mortgage restrictions as "Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted". Currently the FSA's own figures show that 29% are still non income verified. Are you happy that the blame for the next financial crisis will be placed at your door?

[ccc]

Governments seem to do everything they can to keep people 'In their home'. Why does this same logic not apply to renters ? A family can be turfed out of a home they may have lived in for 5 years and paid a huge amount of rent - with only 2 months notice.

[SleepyHead]

Whatever question you try, be sure to use the phrase "High Housing Costs" not "high house prices"... it does tend to force some reality on the listener.

Here's my attempt.

High housing costs have massively increased the cost of living for UK workers, forcing them to demand higher salaries. Therefore low housing cost economies (such as China etc) had a competitive advantage over us, forcing our productive jobs to be outsourced abroad. How can we recover while high living costs "price out" the UK worker?

and the follow up question...

Why then is government trying to prop up high housing costs? It's the reason why the jobs have gone, and you're relying on casino bank tax revenue!!!!

Good luck!

Edited September 15, 2011 by worst time buyer

[Democorruptcy]

If profit margins were lower house builders would have to build more houses to maintain profits. All the major housebuilders recently reported increased profits on low building volumes. Why do you persist in schemes like shared equity that price renters out of the housing market and divert income tax to house builders by enabling them to have a larger profit margin per house sold so they can build less houses?

[Killer Bunny]

Why aren;t there long tenancies in UK like Germany and France etc Why 3 yrs max under AST? Why 1 year if there's a mortgage?

[bmf]

I'm potentially going to be able to put some questions to Grant Shapps tomorrow morning on Radio 5 at around 8.10 am.

My case study is primarily around rising rents. I should hopefully be able to ask him a few questions.

I've got a few, but would love your input for some meatier ones, perhaps on buy to let.

Some questions I've got so far:

Do you acknowledge that housing in the UK is massively overpriced? If no, why, if yes, what do you plan do about it?

Do you plan on relying on part buy part rent schemes in the long term as a solution for those starting out to get into home ownership?

I feel that renting is disliked by so many Britons because it is essentially a mugs game where you are at the peril of a landlord. Can we expect any legislation to encourage longer term leases and give tenants more rights?

Why is the average house price now 8 times the average wage?

Given that housing is now so much more expensive, why are we all working so hard to pay off interest to banks when we could just lower prices and have a better life? More time at home with the kids etc?

Why are house prices so removed from the cost to build?

Are you going to tax second home ownership in order to reduce supply issues?

Do you plan to force companies sitting on land with planning permission to "shit or get off the pot" and build houses quickly rather than drip feeding to maintain an artificially high price?

Can we get back to self-build where we don't have to pay the council a massive bung to build on land we own in our own country?

Can you not see that everyone in the UK paying into a pointless pot (of which banks take half) is a total waste of all our lives?

[NEO72]

Keep it short, simple, difficult to wriggle out of, and backed up by fact.

"Given that according to the CML there are approximately 1.3 million buy-to-let mortgages, representing at least five years supply of housing stock, do you think it fair that first-time buyers, priced out by BTL landlords should also subsidise them via tax relief on their mortgage interest payments?" "If not, what will you be doing about it?"

[Jimmer]

Do you intend to restrict housing and council tax benefit which, since there is very little available social housing, keeps private rents artificially high and, since it is funded by council tax, results in working folk who are struggling to pay private rents, subsidising landlords (who are not taxed sufficiently on rental income) and claimants (who do not pay tax at all) ?

A bit wordy, can anyone succinctify it?

[Superted187]

Thanks so much guys, the more the merrier. Some fantastic questions here and I'll deliver them as clearly and as eloquently as I can.

[SleepyHead]

Why should a young person go out to work, when he knows no matter what wage he's likely to earn, he can't afford a home with it?

Getting your own place was always the biggest incentive and the biggest reward for working. The young know they have no chance, so they're attempting to starve the ponzi scheme instead.

[Jimmer]

CAB Report May 2009

"Private tenants are being badly let down by a system that allows letting agents to operate completely unchecked, routinely ripping off tenants by imposing unjustified and excessive charges and providing a poor or non-existent service, a new report from Citizens Advice says today.

The national charity is calling on the government to extend recently-announced plans to regulate letting agents,** saying these must include a ban on the additional charges tenants often have to pay letting agents on top of their rent, usually for carrying out tasks that are no more than the routine business of letting and managing a property..."

etc

Mr Shapps, does this report concern you? Does it concern you further that it was published two and a half years ago, and absolutely buttkiss has been done about it since? Will you now act on its recommendations?

Good luck Superted 187, I shall be listening in.

[Jimmer]

Why should a young person go out to work, when he knows no matter what wage he's likely to earn, he can't afford a home with it?

+1, very incisive question

[Small Potatoes]

Why aren;t there long tenancies in UK like Germany and France etc Why 3 yrs max under AST? Why 1 year if there's a mortgage?

Is this true? We're six months into a two year AST and the landlord has a mortgage.

[(Blizzard)]

If landlords are providing nothing more than a basic maintenance service, where does their profit come from?

Don't ask that, it's like asking a blind man about the colour of the sky.

How about - What is the moral difference between 'no kids, no pets' and 'no Blacks, no Irish'.

Are foreign investors a higher priority for housing than our own children?

When did the Conservative party abandon home ownership as a goal for the typical English worker?

If I met Grant Schapps, I'd also want to know how he sleeps at night.

Edited September 15, 2011 by (Blizzard)

[Bear Goggles]

The question I'd like him to answer is:

"Why do businesses have so much more security than individuals and families in tenancy law?"

I rent an office for my business and a house for my family an I am astonished by the difference in the rights my family has compared to my business.

I have actually written to Shapps to ask him this. Needless to say he didn't answer it. He answered another question (which I did not ask) seemingly about the merits of a flexible private rental market. Flexible, that is for landlords.

[(Blizzard)]

Why should a young person go out to work, when he knows no matter what wage he's likely to earn, he can't afford a home with it?

Getting your own place was always the biggest incentive and the biggest reward for working. The young know they have no chance, so they're attempting to starve the ponzi scheme instead.

This has to be the first question, it's the main issue. Maybe change it to a young couple.

'Why should young people look for work, when they know that - even with both partners working, and no matter what wage they earn - they won't be able to afford a home for their family?'

The second issue is why people should profiteer from this.

The third issue is the government intervention funded by the victims themselves.

For maximum impact, focus on 'young families', 'foreign investors' and the conservative party's belief in a 'home-owning democracy' in contrast to tenant-landlord subservience.

Edited September 15, 2011 by (Blizzard)

[scottbeard]

Before "right to buy", renting from the council was widespread and widely liked.

Only in recent years has resentment steadily grown about BTL empires, high rents and poor AST terms.

When is the government going to buy/build significant council housing?

[guitarman001]

Why is the average house price now 8 times the average wage?

Given that housing is now so much more expensive, why are we all working so hard to pay off interest to banks when we could just lower prices and have a better life? More time at home with the kids etc?

Why are house prices so removed from the cost to build?

Are you going to tax second home ownership in order to reduce supply issues?

Do you plan to force companies sitting on land with planning permission to "shit or get off the pot" and build houses quickly rather than drip feeding to maintain an artificially high price?

Can we get back to self-build where we don't have to pay the council a massive bung to build on land we own in our own country?

Can you not see that everyone in the UK paying into a pointless pot (of which banks take half) is a total waste of all our lives?

+1, simple and straight to the point.

Don't ask Shapps what he is going to do about it... give him YOUR solution and ask what HE thinks about that! Otherwise he'll bang on about shared ownership and stupid schemes.

Remember: high house prices due to lax lending, not supply and demand.

Good question from worst time buyer, also.

Really got to nail this, don't let the worm squirm and give half-cocked answers lasting 5 mins each so that he has to answer less questions..

[Milton]

Q.] Was there ever any political will to enable the average person earning average wage to be able to afford an average house in a rising unregulated market, under a secret expenses system, whilst MP's were all flipping houses, making hundreds of thousands in personal profits?

Q.] If politicians are no longer allowed to make personal profits, from taxpayer funds, should they repay all profits on second homes? Backdated to the beginning of their tenure. Isnt that merely fair? And simply the right thing to do?

Q.] If politicians like yourself, used our money to profit, and paid no tax on the gains, it is also true to say that you created a dangerous conflict of interest that meant that voting for policies which fed the house price bubble, for so many years, such as keeping IR too low for too long, lowering CGT, also generated personal profits for you, in secret?

In any other profession this would be a criminal offence. Wouldnt it? [it is market manipulation. Far worse than insider trading. Isnt it?]

Q.] House prices were purposefully manipulated to rise year after year, a direct result of Government sponsored bank fraud and theft. Ive been forced to waste tens upon tens of thousands in rent to a liar loan landlord. Why isnt anyone in prison?

Q.] Is it fair, or democratic, for the government to steal my money to pay to keep the banks assets, or other peoples houses massively overinflated against all historic measures of affordability, ensuring I can never afford mine own?

Should I work as a slave, for nothing, no capital, for another ten years?

Q.] Are the Tories worried that by supporting this inter-generational land grab, you could lose the votes of 2-3 million people priced out of housing because of Government sponsored bank theft and unpunished fraud?

Q.] Do you realise the cats out of the bag, and anyone with a PC knows what you are up to?

Edited September 15, 2011 by Milton

[firesale]

High rents are due to excessively high house prices and transference of housing demand to a poorly regulated rental stocks.

What will the government do to limit mortgages to sensible income multiples, properly regulate the rental market with proper controls and protection for tenants’ and landlords. HPI and rental levels will self adjust to more sustainable levels.

IMO, the economy would benefit as people will have more disposable income, higher pension contributions and savings rates, increased sustainable consumption, growth and higher job creation.

Housing is primarily there for living, not as a financial investment product.