Do they think we are stupid?

 Great Yarmouth council plans to re-introduce selective licensing to "improve" the standards of private rental housing. However in 2022 Great Yarmouth council was issued with an improvement order for it's own housing being unsafe and sub-standard. The Regulator of Social Housing concluded that Great Yarmouth Borough Council has breached the Home Standard and, as a result, there was potential for serious detriment to tenants. GYBC council failed to meet statutory requirements for fire, gas, electrical, asbestos and water safety. If they were a private landlord they would have gone to prison for this but no-one from the council was prosecuted. Brent Council has just embarked on a door-to-door inspection of housing to find "criminal landlords".  The irony is that pretty much on the same day the Regulator of Social Housing has issued a damning judgement against the London Borough of Brent, highlighting huge deficiencies in the council’s ability to meet essential saf...

As the Renter Reform Bill edges towards law, the effect of the changes are already having an effect on tenants and driving up rents .  Landlords have had enough and are leaving the sector in droves. 25% of private landlords sold at least one property in 2024 and 2025 forecasts are that 40% of private landlords are expected to sell at least 1 property in 2025 (I already have).  This is resulting in massive drop in supply of available rental properties.  Although Labour is promising a massive increase in social house building with 1.5M homes, after 1 year they have built 59,680 houses. The 1.5M million homes is looking like unicorn dreams in this parliamentary term. In December 2024, there were 4.2million tenant deposits registered by 1.28 million landlords (down from 5.1million in 2021 - the conservatives have been doing their bit to kill-off landlords). So if 40% of landlords sell off 1 property in 2025 that means there will be 512,000 less rental properties. So much...

 The renter Reform Bill isn't even law and it is already  penalising tenants. This story caught my eye https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/cost-living/single-mother-landed-with-rent-increase-calls-for-rent-controls/ Basically a woman in Darlington is demanding rent controls because her landlord increased her rent by 20%. Ok that's a headline. However this biased anti landlord story has another angle. If you read the article her rent increased by £100 per month which equated to 20% So that means her rent before the increase was £500. It says she is a mother so she is renting at least a 2 bedroom house. A quick search on Rightmove shows that the absolute cheapest rent for a 2 bed house in Darlington  is nearly £600. So the landlord has increased her to rent to the absolute lowest market rent.  She may well have a 3 bed hous in which case she has a bargain basement rent  but is complaining about it. The article says she cannot move because the rents are so high - so in...

 Empires rise and fall.   Is it now time for the American empire to come to an end?  Is this Trump's plan or is he unwittingly steering the country into it's demise? Picking a fight with the Chinese is likely to cause pain. At the end of the day the USA has more to lose than China does. Since Trump's Liberation Day and the introduction of tarriffs, shipping bookings from China to the USA are 45% down.  These goods were wanted so presumably this is going to lead to empty shelves somewhere in America, and no domestic producers to take the product places. The pandemic taught us that global supply chains are complex and there can be shortages of unexpected items.  For example plumbing components in the UK became scarce. 40% of all imports into the USA are materials or components for products which will be finished in the USA.  That means these Chinese products will become more expensive with tariffs or potential cease to be available as China decides it's ...

 Having just spent a 2 weeks in France I have returned to the not so pleasant green land of England. I really dont understand why all these immigrants want to come here.   Comparing France to England -  I think I will get on the dinghy and make my way to France. Firstly having driven 800 miles I didnt see any rubbish by the sides of the motorway - I saw more rubbish in the UK in the first mile than the whole of France.  Even driving through Paris there was hardly any rubbish. Dont even get me started on pot holes. I then come back to news that Labour is passing laws and the Sentencing Council will soon give harsher penalties to white, straight men than black transexuals.... Wasnt Britain supposed to be the land of fairness and equality  with the rule of law which is why all the immigrants are flocking here? Being cynical - maybe black transexuals vote Labour and white straight men dont so why not force people like me out. I then see news articles where judg...

 With the governments push towards energy efficiency private landlords are concerned about the cost of achieving an EPC of C. Currently Council housing does not need to meet and EPC of E but the direction of travel for councils is that they will need to achieve an EPC of C at some time in the future. A friend of mine lives in a council house and I was discussing with him the recent assessment of his council property. It was the first time ever the property had been assessed - he has lived there for 30+ years and the council hasnt done anything to the property. The assessor was very negative about the property saying it's unlikely to meet performance standards.  There was very little loft insulation, no cavity wall insulation, the boiler was 40 years old and not energy efficient, many of the light fittings were not LED etc.  So whilst down the pub we looked up his new EPC and we were both very surprised to find it had and EPC of C.  It reports the 40 year old boiler a...