Conservative Party Conference 2022: Attitudes need to change
NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle was at the Conservative Party Conference this week, where an anti-landlord attitude was clearly in evidence. In this blog Ben explains why now is the time for change.
While absent from the major speeches, there was much discussion about housing at this week’s Conservative Conference.
Many debates, on issues such as the cost-of-living crisis, led back to our sector, with issues such as the diminishing supply of homes to rent directly impacting tenants’ costs.
This works both ways, with welfare, and the decision not to increase benefits in line with inflation, inevitably impacting some tenants’ ability to pay the rent, at a time when utility, food and fuel bills are rising across the board.
A robust private rented sector is vital part of the country’s housing mix. While Labour, at its conference last week, pledged to build more properties in the social sector - something we applaud – the bottom line is that people need affordable homes to live in now.
With that in mind I was disappointed by some of the attitudes toward private landlords in evidence at the Conservative Conference.
Outside individual conversations, the picture painted of the PRS was not a positive one, with a focus instead on the importance of home ownership and built-to-rent.
While build-to-rent does have its place, it is not delivering anywhere near the number of homes this country needs – and those that it does deliver are often at a price point well above the means of the average private renter.
And while home ownership is the aspiration of many, people rent for a variety of reasons, some want the flexibility to move from work, with others not in a financial position to buy their own home. These people still need and deserve somewhere to live.
Changing the dialogue when it comes to landlords and the private rented sector is vital. This is one of the NRLA’s key priorities. We are not the enemy, and we need politicians to understand this if we are to change the anti-landlord rhetoric for good and create a private sector that works for all.
The conference afforded me the opportunity to make this point in a panel discussion with other landlord and tenant representatives and to have conversations with Ministers and civil servants at the highest level to tackle this issue.
I am now arranging follow up meetings one-on-one, to explain the vital role our members play in offering the homes to rent this company so desperately needs, and to lobby for greater support for the sector.’
More information
Watch a video of Ben Beadle and Property Tribes' Vanessa Warwick talk about the panel discussion they took part in, below.
Captions in main picture and image below from left to right:
James Cartlidge, MP, Ben Beadle, NRLA CEO, Tim Patmore, Event host and Conservatives Landlord & Tenant Forum, Councillor David Renard, Swindon Borough Council and LGA member, Tilly - Generation Rent and Vanessa Warwick, co-founder of landlord forum Property Tribes.