It drives me mad, seeing young families and working people priced out of decent housing in their own communities. My parents worked their fingers to the bone, and even then, owning a home felt like an impossible dream. Now, thanks to endless waves of buy-to-let landlords treating housing as a mere commodity, it’s even worse. We’ve got properties sitting empty while people are crammed into temporary accommodation or paying fortunes in rent with nothing to show for it. It’s fundamentally unfair and it’s crippling our society, making it impossible for people to get a stable footing.
What we need is a radical shift. First, we need to seriously curb the power of private landlords. That means implementing robust rent controls linked to inflation, not the wild market whims that see rents go up by 20% overnight.
Discussion (4)
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →
I see it in the shop. We get people in, young lads, want to get on the ladder, maybe start a small business. They can’t afford a mortgage, fine. But they also can’t get a decent rental because landlords are getting squeezed by all these rules. So they’re stuck, living at home longer. It's not fair on them, and it’s not fair on us taxpayers footing the bill for endless housing support. We need more homes, not more red tape.
Every new regulation from the council or government just adds time and cost, which eventually gets passed on. If they start messing with landlords too much, they'll just stop renting properties out or put the prices up even higher to cover it. It’s not rocket science.