To think this is a disgraceful policy from the Lib Dems - "Loans to Rent"

[libdumps]

No...this is not a joke! The Lib Dems idea of making things fairer for tenants and reforming the rental sector is by offering "loans to rent", yes, "loans to rent". This is just so mad and sad and everything that is wrong with politics but I can't believe a party calling themselves "liberal" think people won't think this is anything but predatory capitalism which does the opposite of addressing landlordism/buy-to-let and will just fuel unfairness and higher prices, the money going straight into landlords pockets while the tenant has to get a loan to pay the landlord's mortgage/pension. Once again A LOAN TO RENT! I was going to vote for the Lib Dems but I definitely won't be now! I really despair!

twitter.com/joswinson/status/1197952220844711936

Isn't this called "Help to Rent" not "Loans to Rent"? As I understand it, it's to cover the initial deposit to help people rent homes. Many people struggle to rent as they don't have the cash flow to put up a deposit as well as the first month's rent. I'm failing to understand the outrage tbh. What would you rather renters did?

YANBU

bullshit "schemes" like this are not addressing the root of the problem which is that both renting and buying are too expensive

If someone doesn't have enough for a deposit, surely being able to borrow the deposit is better than having no deposit at all.

The money for a deposit has to come from somewhere.

I also don't understand why this is wrong.

yep. 70 million people and housing and infrastructure for under 50 million. Your solutions please?

This would have helped me so I am not opposed to it in principal

And just to make you aware OP. The money for a deposit on a rental property goes nowhere near the landlords pocket.

All deposits on rentals have to be placed into a deposit protection scheme, which the landlord has no access to during the rental period.

The only way a landlord will have access to the deposit is if there is damaged caused to the property by the renter or the renter defaults on rent payments.

This has to be proved and the final decision is given by the deposit protection scheme.

The whole point is that instead of doing something like building more social housing (with the billions currently spent paying landlords housing benefit), capping rents or heavily taxing second/third properties so that prices fall, the only solution the Lib Dems can come up with is using taxpayers money to subsidise loans for poor renters to pay money to already wealthy landlords. It's insane.

As if lying about not raising tuition fees was not bad enough, now they are presenting this as if they are doing tenants a favour rather than just a sneaky way of keeping rents and house prices high. If a tenant cannot afford to rent, then the landlord would have to drop the price if they got no takers, this just creates another artificial floor for rents.

I wonder if Jo Swinson is a landlord by any chance?

70 million people and housing and infrastructure for under 50 million. Your solutions please?

200,000 invisible new houses ? Certainly what the current government thought would do the trick ...

yep. 70 million people and housing and infrastructure for under 50 million. Your solutions please

Build more social homes, get big business to pay proper wages rather than expecting taxpayers to subsidise poor wages via tax credits and housing benefits. There are loads of solutions only they would reduce the profits of the rich so they are labelled "marxist" or "socialist". Oh noes!

Landlords are not the the devil incarnate. It's a business and provides a necessary product. They are not the reason the property market for renters or buyers is in the state it's in.

But this isn't to address renters who can't afford to rent, it's for those who aren't able to raise the money for a deposit.

I think you are conflating 2 issues OP tbh.

Btw not all landlords are wealthy and not all renters want to buy.

It's not a bad idea, if it was presented alongside measures to overcome the rest of the problems in the private rentals sector - high rents and very low standards. In isolation it's a crap idea and doesn't address the issue at all.

There have been help to buy schemes before so why not a help to rent? I don't understand why it's wrong.

Interest free loans?

No mention of cladding in it either. They just covered the manifestos on the ITV News. Tells you all you need to know.

Massive reduction in immigration, wages the rise would solve many problems. I am not sure if landlords would be keen on people who are handed money by government for their deposit. If far less building for millionaires to buy in London was allowed there might be more affordable property? Also if less flat for foreign student were built the council could build them for locals?

Not a Lib Dem supporter but don’t see what’s wrong with this. Help to get a deposit to rent surely is a good thing for those that need it and it has to be repaid so no cost to tax payers really.

Build more social homes, get big business to pay proper wages rather than expecting taxpayers to subsidise poor wages via tax credits and housing benefits

Businesses do pay wages deemed suitable for the skill/task required. A living wage wouldn’t solve everything as people will still choose to work part time, have a SAHP, have x number of children or live in expensive areas etc.

Not to mention jobs like teachers, doctors etc would all have to increase in salary if NMW jobs paid much higher as nobody would train for them if the wage didn’t reflect the skills, qualifications etc.

YABU. It will at least help people who can't even afford to rent now to pay their deposit. The house shortages are the fault of the Tories. It's a step in the right direction at least.

I doubt this is their only policy related to housing...

It'll at least make sure people can take that first step into living independently without the support of their parents.

Loans for the rental deposit seems a great idea as this is usually the barrier for people who need to rent. One of the few good ideas I have heard if this is indeed the case.

My aunty said that at one point they used to give you a grant for the deposit and 1st months rent if you'd go private but it was still not worth it because the places were usually dumps and if the landlord wanted to sell, you'd be back in the same position and have lost your place on the council list. She was telling my cousin who was saying they should do loans like this because she needs one now.

The deposit would go back to the council if you left the place too so it wasnt like you could get back the cash and use that money yourself. You would have to reapply. All the money moves between council and landlord directly.

I work with a homelessness charity: one of the things we can do is cover deposits, as for many people the huge deposit all at once is a real issue. Whilst I don't disagree the more social housing is needed I also think this is a sensible policy in the current context. I am based in a relatively wealthy area, so a couple of months deposit is a massive sum and a problem for many people, including early career 'professionals' as well as those with low wage. I would also have to say we work with some cracking landlords who take a punt on people who would otherwise really struggle to get a roof over their heads. It's really impacted on my opinion of landlords...

It’s a good short term solution which should be coupled with drastic liberation of development consents and I.e. a restriction to the powers to refuse planning permission to situations where the proposed development would do significant harm to the local area. Removing the CGT exemption to homes would also help to fix the distortion to house prices.

It's not a new thing. A lot of councils already lend people the deposit, but landlords aren't interested