Westministenders: A Year of Johnson

[RedToothBrush]

So having given the benefit of the doubt...

... whats your reflections?

Good (and yes do have some thoughts on the positive - challenge yourself on this one as its important) and the bad (and yes this is the easy bit but keep it within reason)?

He's said as much but i note that's not the quote used.

I haven't seen any other comments from Andy Burnham - also from the link;

"So, today, I [Hancock] held a meeting of the Government's Gold Committee and working with local leaders, including, for instance, Andy Burnham the mayor of Greater Manchester, we've decided that we need to take action across Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire."^

In Canterbury 1 in 5 people is a student, so presumably we will be one to watch. I think the landlords are going to have a tough time here in the future as they have bought up family homes, split them into flats and got away with charging £800pm+ for one room in shared houses. New blocks of student flats are built here bi-yearly too while affordable housing is like gold dust. I sense a crash coming. The City Council keeps on doing fb marketing "Canterbury named as best city for new businesses!" which only serve to attract hundreds of amazed locals citing successful companies who were forced to go under by the high rates from the diocese which rise yearly with seemingly no cap...

@mrslaughan Interesting that your son is doing better at home - I keep hearing that with SEN kids who are getting real provisions (online teaching). Thankfully dd's "new" teacher was doing recorded lessons for her old year group last term, so we will have a teacher who is more clued up in Sept - apparently we got a dud teacher compared to other year groups as most were doing videos more often. I'm preparing for more home schooling tbh, because not to would be assuming the govt will stamp out the coming wave...

I think the landlords are going to have a tough time here in the future

and what with Amazon being out of tiny violins too ....

I watched Andy Burnham on BBC Breakfast and again just now on Sky News and while he says he agrees with the action taken, he is pointing out that he is not in control of the actual guidance and criticising saying that the Government should have a clear message and not disseminate mixed or confusing messages (Hancock has given conflicting advice since the announcement).

Yes I think most people here are sick of the student let landlords, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out with so many of them supporting the Tories...

Bigchoc
Yes, I will keep going to the gym even if I have to climb over the fence and take the pool covers off myself.

@JeSuisPoulet

Yes I think most people here are sick of the student let landlords, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out with so many of them supporting the Tories...

"Landlords" ? - do me a favour. Do you mean the arsewipes that we see posting on here for "advice" about how to stitch their tenants up, and who think that s21s third album was probably the best ?

"Landlords" ? - do me a favour. Calling them landlords is an insult to the precious few who actually take the business of renting out a home to people seriously.

If Covid does deliver a short sharp shock to these bloodsucking parasites, I may start going to church, as God has clearly started cleaning up.

It would probably be more accurate to describe a lot of these "landlords" as astronauts. They'd have the same knowledge of both jobs. In fact they're probably better described as astronauts, what with their knowledge of the astronomical. Or, by the same token, miners ?

This isn't new, by the way. Last year at Uni - 1987 - I looked at houses with friends and even then the pond life had taken over.

"£180 a week for the house."
"And that's between four ?"
"Four, five. You can put a curtain up in here [lounge] and have six, seven ..."

was one discussion we had.

Interesting point about why
communicating lockdown has been such a failure

Local authorities are required by law to produce public information leaflets in the language of every resident
so in my city that is 57 languages

COVID messaging was done in English only.
because Central Government have not applied the
make sure everybody understands
rule to themselves

@ListeningQuietly exactly, the govt still refusing to use experts so this will be half arsed as per

@DGR I know, I am a landlady with one property which is my own. As such I keep it in good nick, pay attention when my lovely tenants tell me something needs doing and do my best to be flexible in this current situation as they are both small business entrepreneurs. It always amazes me how landlords can treat tenants and it seems to get worse the more properties they own! My rental house isn't local to me but the council there are doing landlord licences, which are a brilliant idea. Obviously I had to pay for one but if it stops slum landlords I'm all for it. I think it should be national.

We did a whole module on communication, another on social aspects of health, another on health campaigns, another on health psychology, ethics and law...obviously doing PPE at Oxford and caring more about big data doesn't help with this. And they'll wonder why it doesn't magically work. Can see them slapping each other on the back "how hard can it be" guffaw.

It always amazes me how landlords can treat tenants and it seems to get worse the more properties they own!

Remember:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/a3971381-Vendor-s-tenants-refusing-to-leave

?

It's flared into life again on my watchlist.

You should need a certificate to be a landlord. That can be withdrawn if you are a crap landlord and without which it is illegal to let property.

There - one policy that might win a few votes. You could even charge for an annual renewal to make the system self-financing, and to tax landlords directly. Tenants would be provided with the certificate at the beginning of a tenancy and the renewed one annually.

Because right now we spend more time and money licensing taxi drivers or charity workers than we do landlords who are supposed to be providing peoples homes.

DGR that is pretty much what the licence is, if the tenant has an issue they can complain directly to the council. Landlord has to show they are doing all they can to resolve the problem, if not they blacklist you and fine you.

@JeSuisPoulet

DGR that is pretty much what the licence is, if the tenant has an issue they can complain directly to the council. Landlord has to show they are doing all they can to resolve the problem, if not they blacklist you and fine you.

And is it working ?

The reaction on my facebook has overwhelmingly been that they don't have a problem with the idea of another lockdown.

What they are pissed off at is the manner in which it was done and the conflicting guidance that makes no sense.

In terms of public confidence and public support there is a huge own goal which was unnecessary over this.

From their website:

What are the penalties for failing to apply for a licence?
If you own or manage a property that requires licensing, it is your responsibility to ensure that you apply for a licence. Failure to do so is an offence under the Housing Act 2004, and a person committing such an offence is liable to prosecution and an unlimited fine, or a civil penalty of up to £30,000.

Rent repayment orders
The Council may also apply for a rent repayment order in respect of unlicensed properties, requiring you to repay benefits paid in respect of tenancies. In certain cases your tenants also have the right to apply for backdated rent to be repaid to them, if you fail to apply for a licence.

Restriction on termination of tenancies
Section 21 'notice to quit' cannot be served on any tenant who is occupying all or part of a property that requires licensing, but where a licence has not been applied for.

DGR from what I hear yes, it does seem to be making an impact in the areas known for this. Of course my property isn't in that kind of area so it is hard to know for sure, but the 30k fine threat catches the eye rather well I feel.

JeSuisPoulet

respectfully, that wasn't what I asked ... if I wanted something cut an pasted, I know exactly who to ask ...

Not being a renter, and with DS (hopefully) having a decent landlord, I can only go by what I read. Which suggests the system isn't working.

Is it ? For renters *and& landlords ?

Im trying to figure out why Traffords numbers might have jumped so much too, when the same isnt true in neighbouring counties. The figures for both Warrington and Cheshire East are down. Why? Its not go a high Asian population unlike a lot of other places high on the list

I'd say Old Trafford and Stretford have a fairly high Asian population?

mosques.muslimsinbritain.org/maps.php#/county/Greater%20Manchester

Actually re Douglas Ross, I've checked and although I thought they'd stopped allowing it, MSPs are allowed also to be an MP, so he would be able to stay with the dual mandate and not trigger a by-election.

There's talk of Ruth Davidson stepping up on an interim basis to take the lead in responding to FMQs. Given that the Scottish Conservatives have two deputy leaders, it doesn't say much about the party's confidence in both their abilities if they were to do that

DGR my point was that these licences don't happen in many councils - I think it is a good idea and should be national, exactly for people like your DS.

My post above was on the wrong thread

Quick google on the BC website and the outcomes after 2 yrs seem to be:

Reduction in anti-social behaviour
Improvements in housing conditions for private tenants
Improved management standards
Reduction of empty homes

They only did certain areas and plan to extend these to cover more properties, as the PRS has more than doubled in the last 20yrs.

"Considerable enforcement action including prosecution and the issue of financial penalties has taken place with regard to landlords who have not come forward to license their properties. This has helped maintain the profile of the scheme. However, when the scheme ends there could be over 2,000 PRS dwellings without a Selective Licence. "

I can't see how it is particularly for the landlords.

Lewis McKenzie @lewismckenzie94
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warns that the UK has potentially reached a limit for how much of society can be opened up.

He said: "The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong.”

Alarms should be going off now about schools...

Rob Powell @robpowellnews
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty - "the idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong... we are the outer edge of what we can do".

Sophy Ridge @sophyridgesky
Does this mean we’ll see tightening elsewhere when schools reopen in September?