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Private landlords are the new bankers

New figures, published by lender Kent Reliance, have revealed private landlords will own £1tn worth of property by next year. The figure currently stands at £930.7bn, three-and-a-half times what it was in 2001. 

Through times of austerity this represents extraordinary growth and an immense hoarding of wealth by a small elite, about 2% of the population are private landlords, who do very little to actually earn their money. We are not talking about innovators, researchers, scientists or manufacturers here. Private landlords have ridden one of the few waves to be found in post-recession Britain, the property game, propped up by desperate tenants and government handouts. The boom in the private rented sector is actually being subsidised by the taxpayer - £9bn of housing benefit payments end up in the pockets of private landlords each year

Those of us who have been renters in the years since the crash have seen repairs go undone month after month and rents invariably rising in exchange for less security of tenure and poorer conditions. The sector is a complete mess and taking no action to get its house in order. The Chartered Institute of Housing’s UK Housing Review 2014 found a third of private rented homes in England are failing to meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard (a requirement for social housing). Yet the average landlord has seen a return of 15% over the past 12 months – about £27,475 per property. The sector return was £124bn.

Private landlords are not just getting richer, they are becoming more powerful too. They are now the default provider of housing for some of the poorest families in Britain as social housing dwindles away. They chuck tenants out without recourse, knowing that another occupant can replace them that same afternoon – think Fergus Wilson who evicted 200 tenants for the crime of being in receipt of housing benefits. This was an act of discrimination that should be made illegal, but following a polite period of public head nodding disapproval and tutting nothing changed. The government's response to this slum sector is simply to drive even more vulnerable people into its hands.  

Generation Rent research shows the extent of potential electoral influence renters could wield in the future – renters are on course to outnumber homeowners in over 100 constituencies. Private landlords are the new bankers: under performing, overpaid, under taxed and unaccountable. Their accumulation of power and wealth is feudal - we must challenge this grotesque excess. A windfall tax, with the proceeds being invested into building new social housing and/or driving up the standard of rented homes, would be a good place to start. 

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