Say "No" To George

If you work in a Local Council Housing Department or Housing Association, then we know you have a pretty tough job!

The bad news is that it’s about to get worse. Maybe a LOT worse.

Elsewhere we talk about the figures the Government have issued in their statement on the proposed change. They believe that only 1 in 5 Landlords will be affected by the proposal and we think this is a ridiculously low figure.

However, if we say that that figure applies to the number of Landlords that are seriously affected and have to sell their properties, then it gives us some scale.

There are 2 million private landlords in this country so 400,000 will therefore be selling up. If we say that on average they only sell 2 properties then it means that 800,000 tenants are going to be moved on. They’ll be looking for a new home in a smaller market.

If we also say that those tenants are, on average, a family of 3 then the best part of a quarter of a million people need to be re-homed.

A lot of them will be knocking on the doors of the local councils but with no surplus stock and slashed budgets there will be few choices.

The Councils have a Duty of Care but we believe that Central Government is putting them in an impossible situation.

And it gets worse because if we apply the 80/20 rule then 20% of Landlords own 80% of properties, and 1 in 5 Landlords is the same as 20%. Now it becomes impossible to really get to grips with the scale of the issue because it's just too big!

If you think that we’re right in what we’ve said and want to stop the proposed tax change on mortgage interest relief please write to your local MP to ask him/her to support you.