Housing Minister Grant Shapps has now confirmed that not only the National Landlord Register is finished as a proposal. Also dead in the water are regulation of letting and managing agents, and compulsory written tenancy agreements.
Councils are ‘urged to use the wide range of powers that they already have at their disposal’ to deal with bad landlords. Quite who is to deal with dodgy letting and managing agents is not clear.
No further regulation of the private rental sector is to be expected.
In other news, cuts of £360 million to Criminal legal aid are confirmed. Civil legal aid shivers at the footstep on the stair…
Well, that’s just barmy. If there’s one thing that just about everybody agrees on, and has agreed on for the last twenty years or so (my living memory), it’s that letting and managing agents should be regulated, self-regulation having manifestly failed (surprise, surprise). Grrr
Yes, this is a retrograde step. Although as it would no doubt cost money to implement, it is not really surprising.
I don’t think anyone is surprised at the demise of the tripadvisor type website though …