This in from Ed Gouge. In his own words, Ed
Stewart Blackmore, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate is promising a new deal for tenants in the private sector on the Isle of Wight after a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors survey predicted yet another above inflation increase in rents this year.
Stewart Blackmore said,
“Although there are many good landlords, I have found from talking to people on the doorstep that private sector tenants, many of them families, are worried about the cost and insecurity of their housing and point to the need for repairs. At present most buy-to-let lenders insist on tenancies of no more than a year and a third of tenants across the country are living in damp housing.
“Labour will ensure that three year secure tenancies with limits on rent increases will become the norm. We will also ban agents from charging tenants for arranging lettings. Poor landlords need to be forced to carry out repairs and I was disgusted that right-wing Conservatives used parliamentary procedures recently to block legislation that would have prevented tenants who complain about the need for repairs from being evicted.
“High rents mean that many private tenants on low incomes depend on housing benefit. Taxpayers are subsidising landlords’ profits.”
The Island has an increasing proportion of households in the private rented sector. The English housing survey 2012-3 showed that the private rented sector is now considerable in parts of the Island with 41% of households in Ryde North-East ward in this sector, 35% in Ryde North-West, 30% in Shanklin South and 29% in Cowes North.
Image: wonderlane under CC BY 2.0
