My heart obviously breaks for distressed buy-to-let landlords (Are UK buy-to-let landlords dying out – and should we care?, 5 January) but, if some landlords are feeling the pinch, a policy I have long pestered the government about is, by chance, tailor-made to help them. We need to replenish our decimated social housing stock, and part of the answer is what I call “buy the supply”.
For years, I have called for funding to help councils increase the number of homes they can buy into their housing supply. Whether that is buying back right to buy homes, or snapping up suitable houses that are put on the market, this can achieve immediate, construction-risk-free social homes near existing schools, parks and health services.
We need as many new council homes as possible, and we know we cannot rely solely on the existing sluggish model of finding land and building new apartments, most of which are too small for families. More than 169,000 children live in temporary accommodation in England, harming their whole lives, including their health, happiness and ability to learn.
Expensive private rent has become the dominant tenure in Brighton Pavilion and other urban areas in the years since the introduction of right to buy, and we need urgent action both to reverse this trend and add real family homes to social housing stock. Buying the supply is quite simply a faster, good-value supplement to building, which is ignored by central government. Instead of “gently” hiking up rents, landlords could instead take advantage of a soft landing from a properly funded government programme of council home acquisition. Their newly burdensome cash cow should become someone’s longed-for home.
Siân Berry MP
Green party, Brighton Pavilion
I was surprised by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s warning that government policy squeezing private landlords “risks a steady long-term rise in rents if demand outstrips supply”. They seem to be thinking of rented housing as an isolated market, when in fact many renters are also potential first-time buyers. There will always be a need for a small rental market (and why shouldn’t that be filled by council housing?) but the contraction of the private rental market ultimately means greater housing security and happiness for those of us currently dreaming of hanging up a single picture frame without fear of losing our deposit.
Benjamin McKechnie
Kingsbury, London
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