10th
Oct 2022
A senior policy adviser of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has told a Tory party fringe meeting, that both the government and UK should not be held to ransom by landlords threatening to leave the PRS because of the new stringent EPC’s regulations coming into force.
The foundation’s policy adviser, Darren Baxter, told attendees that although funding is needed for retrofitting old properties, the government has to move far quicker in legislating the move to the EPC C minimum.
He said: “If landlords do sell up, I don’t think we should be worried, as landlords sell properties to other landlords or home buyers – you recalibrate supply and demand.”
However former pensions manager, Guy Opperman, disagreed with Baxter saying that the government’s net zero ‘hopes’ should be dropped in respect of some older homes.
He explained to the delegates that “Landlords will say ‘I have to spend £10-20,000 on a property that brings me £500 a year – I’ll just sell it.
“Civil servants are utterly misguided. Shortages will get worse and you’ll get proper poverty in rural communities because people will not even be able to have a rental to start out with. If you exempt all older properties, then landlords won’t have to sell.”
Opperman told the meeting he believes that the Conservative party could rebalance the housing market for buyers and tenants by encouraging more investors with tax breaks to encourage new builds of domestic and rental homes.
He also said he would like to see pension funds being given the ‘green light’ to build more housing, and added: “We want policy changes – currently councils tend to sell land to the highest bidder so you get poor builds, not long term, or quality housing.”
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