Housing benefit and rent caps....

[wiseajak]

Ok so i was thinking i dont if this is the correct place to post this but needed opinions and thoughts on this:

 

So the government bang on about saving the benefit bill and housing well its probably been thought of already but what if they introduced a rent cap where rents are set to be no more then £x amount depending on how many bedrooms it has vs its banding,

 

By this i mean a house in an area given a grade, so band 1 band 2 and band 3,

 

So a 2 bed house in a band 3 area can only be £x per week and no more

 

 

Band 1 -being low grade ( not so good area)

Band 2 -ok area

Band 3 highest band( sought after area)

 

So i mean would they not save money buy forcing landlords by creating a law that says you cannot charge no more then £100 a week for a Band 3 2 bed house? For example.

 

And vise versa. I hope that makes sense... Opinions and thoughts would be nice as i would even consider writing to David cameron about it. Not that it would achieve much but hey one could only try.

[citizenB]

I had to work really hard to understand what you are saying.. but I think I have the gist.

 

Are you suggesting that for example.. Fulham has one rent value and Gravesend has another ?

 

IMHO, whilst Housing Benefit continues to be paid out, then landlords will set rents in excess of that. If Housing benefit had never been introduced, I think we would see rents a darn sight cheaper than they are now.

[id6052]

Inflated rents lead to inflated house prices lead to inflated rents, etc. The housing market in UK is totally toxic as prices are totally unrelated to value.

 

Charities, advice agencies and some Councils have attempted to lobby government to introduce rent caps for decades.

Landlords, banks, property owners/developers/builders campaign against.

 

You do realise that rent caps would have to apply to all properties, not just those where HB is payable.

 

Successive UK governments (of all colours) have rejected calls for rent caps for decades. Free market economy and all.

[abc123def]

wisejak, I get what you are saying but while I think the idea is nice, lenders would be far less likely to lend and pay out the buy to let mortgages if they didn't think their 'investments' would rise in value and profits weren't high enough. Bearing in mind that lenders already take on an element of risk, a significant amount of mortgage debt is written off but this is a small proportion of the current profits overall and can be currently swallowed.

[wiseajak]

Ah well was just an idea. I see what u mean abc, not that the prime minister would listen away hes a w*nker and listens to no one but never mind