The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has launched an initiative to try and head off expected rent controls in Wales.
Its Shadow Wales White Paper sets out how the trade body believes the Welsh private rented sector could be improved, as well as pointing out the defects in the coalition government’s proposed restrictions to rent rises.
These were revealed in November last year but Welsh landlords are still waiting to hear the details of how rent controls would work. This includes whether they would be a rent ‘cap’ or restrictions on rises bound to inflation, the most common types proposed by campaigners.
“The NRLA has long held the view that rent controls of any kind simply do not work and do not have the intended effect of addressing affordability in the private rented sector,” the NRLA document says.
The rent control proposals are an output of the country’s Labour and nationalist party Plaid Cymru coalition, as both parties are keen on rent controls, although recent media coverage points to both sides not seeing eye-to-eye on how they should be implemented.
Longer notice periods
The coalition has also been instrumental in shaping other even more radical measures including new, longer ASTs and longer notice periods, announced earlier this year.
But the NRLA says its own research shows that only 11 per cent of landlords said they planned to increase the number of properties they let out whilst far more, 37 per cent, plan to cut the number they rent out.
“Our White Paper sets out what must be done in Wales to build a fairer, more inclusive PRS for both tenants and landlords and the damage that outmoded notions of rent control could have on the market,” says Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the NRLA.
“Ultimately, with affordability and supply issues continuing to dog the Welsh private rented sector, rent controls would exacerbate these ongoing problems and fail to provide a solution fit for the twenty-first century.”
The social sector is already subject to a rent rise cap, which sets out how much social landlords can increase rents each, subject to an annual review, the most recent of which was published recently.
Credit: Source link
