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edcraw said:
I mean, saying you’re going to become an enemy within of a party you’re trying to join is slightly problematic.

Why had he left in the first place that he needed to rejoin?
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Maybe its my age.

I remember the Blair years. They took almost delight in antagonising Council tenants and middle class anti war Guardian readers. Their core voters. Who as Starmers new number one advisor Mandelson once said had no where else to go but vote Labour.

Lot of people I know just didn't renew subscription to party.

Its not that they left the party its that under Blair the party left them.
 
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edcraw said:
You asked me to take a view on something I really don’t have one on. I read the article and can see why a party wouldn’t want someone to join that wrote critical articles about one of their councillors and said they wanted to be the enemy within. There’s no right to join a party.
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If you can't see the problem with this I don't know what to say.

Says it all about where your coming from.
 
edcraw said:
Now this is a headline!

www.brixtonbuzz.com

Made up Oval Invincibles cricket ‘team’ put out Welsh Fire at packed booze fest at The Oval

Welsh Fire 121-7 (100 balls): Duckett 65 (52); T Curran 3-29 Oval Invincibles 125-4 (93 balls): Billings 40 (34), Evans 28 (17); Neesham 2-23 Oval Invincibles won by six wickets The made up Oval In…
www.brixtonbuzz.com www.brixtonbuzz.com
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....some nice pics of the new Manhattan skyline, Kennington Park estate, the former oval mansions squat, and seemingly closed forever Cricketers pub too
 
edcraw said:
You asked me to take a view on something I really don’t have one on. I read the article and can see why a party wouldn’t want someone to join that wrote critical articles about one of their councillors and said they wanted to be the enemy within. There’s no right to join a party.
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If this board was ran on the same lines - agree with us or you're out on your arse - it would be a lot less busier, interesting and representative.
 
David Clapson said:
Ok, at an individual level there is an ethical solution. You set up a housing coop to buy the property and sell shares to your tenants. They borrow. At first their payments will mostly go on repaying the loan. But as the years go by they get an appreciating asset. Later on they can buy you and each other out if one of them ends up with kids and wants the whole place.
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I don't think the sums add up right now. IMHO the current driver of property inflation/unaffordability is QE. QE is also crucifying conventional savers.
In former times savings were recycled to people who needed mortgages to buy a home to live in - as opposed to a buy to let.

In the last 13 years there has been a combination of totally liberalised property loans - for buy to let, and years of QE to tackle alleged economic crises, from the collapse of Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers to the recent Covid lock-down.

The Bank of England has thrown money at the banks and building societies to the point where the CEO of the Yorkshire Building Society said on TV a couple of weeks ago they don't need savers any more, they can service all their lending from Bank of England advances.

Basically lenders are very keen to have buy to let lending, otherwise their balance sheets would contract and their profits would collapse.
 
You lost me at QE. But people are getting mortgage offers for co-ops. Rare as hen's teeth. Hardly anyone knows they're a possibility. And you do need a group who like each other and want to stay in one place for quite a spell. It doesn't really work if people want to get out after a couple of years.
 
David Clapson said:
You lost me at QE. But people are getting mortgage offers for co-ops. Rare as hen's teeth. Hardly anyone knows they're a possibility. And you do need a group who like each other and want to stay in one place for quite a spell. It doesn't really work if people want to get out after a couple of years.
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Maybe this is what you mean Community-led Housing Mortgages - Ecology Building Society
But this is a small minority pursuit - and it is indeed QE which had led to house price mega inflation.
I think it was the Thatcher government which excluded housing costs from RPI - hence even if housing goes up by a factor of ten times the original cost, inflation is still measured by the cost of carrots in Lidl.

Such is the politics of inflation and housing affordability.
 
That's the one. Here's an example. Sounds like it might not work out though.

www.brixtonbuzz.com

Help save the Rising Sun Housing Co-operative in Peckham

The Rising Sun is an arts hub in Peckham with a significant cultural impact, and they’re fighting to keep their home after the former pub was put on the market. In response, the collective de…
www.brixtonbuzz.com www.brixtonbuzz.com
www.theguardian.com

All in it together: co-operative aims to save a pub and call it home

When the landlord called time on the residents living in The Rising Sun, they decided to try to buy the building
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
nick said:
told you
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Wasn't that bad was it? Obviously, I don't agree with most of the solutions suggested. But there wasn't any personal abuse although my politics are clearly to the right of those of the majority of the contibutors.

Presumably, like me, most of the people on this forum have a love for Brixton. I bought my first house in Brixton in 1972 and, although I haven't lived here continuosly since, I've been back for the last 23 years and intend to end my days here.
 
pave said:
Thank you for your reply. I didn't take umbrage, rather I was continuing your metaphor of the firing squad. I think you would agree that you do express in this forum a general dislike of private landlords and in that context I would like to make a couple of points.

43% of landlords, including myself, have only one property and I would expect have an amicable relationship with their tenants.

The flat in Coldharbour Lane which prompted your comment does not represent an example of exploitation. The flat has been recently been renovated and is also on the market for £315,000. Taking that valuation, a weekly rent of £277 and an allowance of 25% of that rent for expenses such as repairs, estate agent fees and empty periods etc, the return is 3.4% before tax. I don't think that can be considered excessive. Of course there is potential for capital gain, but again this would be taxed.

Finally, I believe further investment in the private sector, particularly by pension funds, would improve the situation with housing.
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Won't anybody think of the private landlords who we expect to have an amicable relationship with their tenants? Perhaps they need a support group.
 
klang said:
why on earth am I (as a tenant) expected to pay for them?
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Thank you for your reply. I wasn't suggesting that tenants have to pay for empty periods. Rather that empty periods have to be taken into account when calculating the investment return.
 
BusLanes said:
Even getting rid of standard one year lease would be an improvement, if just to break the rental agency cycle.
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A big problem is that it's actually going the other way, with suggestions that social housing (including council) leases should only be for 5 years. And that social housing tenants should be grateful for that, because it's better than it would be for a private tenant.

I've lived in private rentals for the last 30 years while rents have gone stratospheric in South London, you just try not to think about the reality that at any given point in your life, you might be given 2 months notice to find a new home, and maybe a new school for your child if you can't find anywhere within travelling distance.

The feeling of insecurity is huge, the feeling that you're being ripped off is huge. (I was in one flat for 9 years - I paid a renewal fee to re-sign the lease every year* with my letting agency, and each year I breathed a sigh of relief that we were safe for the next 12 months. Then the year it actually happened, we got an 8 week notice to quit in the middle of the year & it turned out that overrode the 12 month lease anyway! - I'm actually glad I didn't understand that during the previous 9 years).

*This is no longer legal, I think.
 
edcraw said:
I mean, saying you’re going to become an enemy within of a party you’re trying to join is slightly problematic.

Why had he left in the first place that he needed to rejoin?
Click to expand...

From the article:

"I was previously a member of the party two decades ago and rejoined because I want to campaign for the new leader and for a Labour mayor of London."
He also rejected claims of entryism adding that he was not a member of any rival party or organisation.
"'The enemy within' was just a playful use of words," he added.
"There were many of us who stood up against Thatcherism in the eighties by supporting the miners and that is what they called us, so I am actually proud to be called the enemy within."
"So I absolutely don't regret it. I think it shows a lack of understanding on his part."

It's important to understand what "the enemy within" means within leftwing/socialist circles before judging his tweet - something we should be able to expect from senior Labour Party members, but apparently can't from the current lot. Very sad.
 
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pave said:
Thank you for your reply. I wasn't suggesting that tenants have to pay for empty periods. Rather that empty periods have to be taken into account when calculating the investment return.
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yes you suggested this very thing in your '+25% for repairs, empty periods, agency fees etc' post.
 
Ms Ordinary said:
A big problem is that it's actually going the other way, with suggestions that social housing (including council) leases should only be for 5 years. And that social housing tenants should be grateful for that, because it's better than it would be for a private tenant.

I've lived in private rentals for the last 30 years while rents have gone stratospheric in South London, you just try not to think about the reality that at any given point in your life, you might be given 2 months notice to find a new home, and maybe a new school for your child if you can't find anywhere within travelling distance.

The feeling of insecurity is huge, the feeling that you're being ripped off is huge. (I was in one flat for 9 years - I paid a renewal fee to re-sign the lease every year* with my letting agency, and each year I breathed a sigh of relief that we were safe for the next 12 months. Then the year it actually happened, we got an 8 week notice to quit in the middle of the year & it turned out that overrode the 12 month lease anyway! - I'm actually glad I didn't understand that during the previous 9 years).

*This is no longer legal, I think.
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Yep. Our landlord seems ok, yet he is the stronger in an imbalanced relationship.
There are quite a few repairs to be done in our flat, yet we don't report 'minor' ones as we don't want to get too expensive for our landlord. There is always that feeling that if you are too much of a pain you are out. We'd be fucked.
Yet we are paying for their retirement.
 
I am actually in a fairly ok situation at the moment - my daughter is grown up, I am in more secure employment, my rental situation is both more secure and I am also more comfortable with the idea of it being a temporary situation.

But actually, feeling more secure now has made me realise how badly it was affecting my mental health & my ability to plan for the future during those years. Anyway, feels a bit off-topic but it triggered a nerve.
 
When I was first in London I remember working on a large house. The basement flat had an retired couple in it. The property developer had bought the whole building.

They had been renting the flat for decades. Back when private renters had secure tenancies and rent controls.

The property developer us builders were working for had to buy them flat outside London to get them out. The really old private tenancy y they had was that secure. And he couldn't up the rent to push them out either. I remember talking to them.

The were retired working class couple.

So what I'm saying is instead of shooting landlords bring back rent controls and secure tenancies for private renters.

I've asked this before.

Do any of the landlords posting here oppose going back to the old days with rent controls and secure tenancies for private renters?

The impression I got was that the only way they could have been evicted is non payment of rent. The flat was pretty basic but they were secure in home on affordable rent.

The property developer wasn't happy as it cut down on his profits.
 
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It was Thatcher all you landlords are indebted to.

At least this guy is clear about it:

My personal debt to Margaret Thatcher
Without the revolution in the private rental sector I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to build up a property portfolio that gave me the personal and financial freedom to go off and set up Property Hawk for a start. So whether you loved, or hated her; private residential landlords do have a debt to someone who really did set them free.
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Margaret Thatcher loved landlords, from introducing the assured short hold tenancy she made it clear that the private rented sector needed her support.

Margaret Thatcher loved landlords, from introducing the assured short hold tenancy she made it clear that the private rented sector needed her support.
www.propertyhawk.co.uk www.propertyhawk.co.uk

The Housing Act 1980 & its successor in 1988 introduced the Assured Shorthold Tenancy which meant that tenants & their families no longer had full security of tenure and opportunities to regulated rents. Both of these Labour Party initiatives, whilst popular with tenant voters, had condemned landlords letting out their residential property to uneconomic returns on their rental properties
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This guy I can understand.

What irritates me is the whining on this thread that some posters here are saying unpleasant things about landlords and its not nice.
 
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