So, if housing is a basic and no-one should be allowed to make profit from supplying it, where does it stop?
Water is a basic, so are gas and/or electricity. So are food, transportation, clothing - the list goes on - do people,thing that all these should be supplied on a non-profit basis? And if you think they should, who do,you think is actually going to step up to supply these things when there is nothing in it for them?
Unless we abolish all private ownership of property, and all housing is supplied by the state, we are always going to have private landlords, imo - so we need to make sure that it is a properly regulated service that meets the needs of both tenants and landlords in a fair and equitable fashion.
How you'd do that, I don't know. I can see pitfalls with any option I have thought of.
We definitely need more social housing and Housing Association housing - I was appalled to hear that the government was considering a Right to Buy scheme for HA tenants - all that is going to do is reduce even further the non-private-let housing stock, when it should be increasing.
People need stability and security. They need clean, safe homes they can afford. The state needs to provide a proper safety net for when someone does lose their job, or their circumstances change. I don't think that is going to happen under this government. Decent landlords need to set fair rents and have the right to expect them to be paid. A rent cap sounds like a good idea - I am not sure how it would work in practice, but I am sure better, more experienced minds than mine will be able to answer that.
Slum landlords need to be punished - I suggest a year living in their worst property, without being allowed to make a single improvement - whilst their tenant gets to live in the landlord's house for the year, rent free.
Those tenants who could afford to pay their rent, and whose home is of good quality, and well maintained by the landlord, but who deliberately decide not to pay their rent - not people who lose their jobs, become ill and unable to work, circumstances change dramatically or those who withhold rent because their landlord is not doing repairs or the house is not of decent standard - just those who are, for no good reason, not paying - evicting these people should be easier, and there should be a blacklist so future landlords know to steer clear of them (with all the necessary safeguards so people who genuinely cannot pay or shouldn't pay, due to the standard of the property, don't end up on it).