The point I was making was that landlords enjoy a tax advantage over would-be owner-occupiers, not that they enjoy a tax advantage over investors in other assets.
Then your point is irrelevant. Throughout every aspect of life there are differences in tax advantages, taxes due, things that are non taxable. Taxes are payable or not depending on a myriad of different things, just as they should be. It is a non issue.
The point of it, is that just because doing something results in a nice benefit for you or your family, doesn't mean that you are justified in doing it.
No, it doesn't, I agree. I think where we disagree though is that you automatically think that all landlords are doing something harmful, whereas I don't. Therefore I think it's fine for someone to do something to benefit their own family as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.
You seemed to be ever so keen on applying this concept to tenants who may stay on until formally evicted by bailiffs in order to protect their families, but oddly unaware that the concept also applies to people who choose to buy and let a home to build financial security for their children.
That would be because of that belief I have that it's fine to do something to benefit your own family as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. Renting out a property doesn't hurt anyone. In some cases, breaking an agreement could have a harmful effect directly on someone else and their family, and that's the difference.
Ding! Wrong question. The right question is, "how much harm should we inflict on others to benefit our own family?".
The question was fine actually. But see above for my answer to the question you choose to ask instead.
I'd love to see you spell out the ineluctable logic behind your bizarre assertion that individual actions aren't the business of anyone else. I'm sure the purveyors of pornography, prostitution, arms, narcotics and terrorist training manuals would love to learn at your feet.
Right, so every purchase you make with your own money is someone else's business? Is that it? Is it my business where you choose to shop for your family's groceries or what utility company you choose to buy electricity from? Is it my colleagues business what car my next door neighbour chooses to buy? I'm talking about renting out a property FFS, not violent criminal acts.
Has it genuinely never occurred to you that the truth might be: the problems of the housing market are partly the fault of landlords?
Yes, it has occurred to me, after reading so much LL hate on here and discussing the issue plenty of times. The problem I have in answering the question comes from the fact that 'landlords' aren't one homogenous group. They range from convenience landlords who rent out their home while they work abroad for a couple of years, to accidental landlords that can't afford to sell, to housing associations, to individuals that almost own entire streets.
Personally, I see the only problem being with the big money landlords that own so many properties that they have some control over the local market, but then you get people on here saying that big professional landlords are better because they can afford to lose money while people who want social housing go down the homelessness route. We can't have it both ways.