Between 2010 and 2019 over half the courts in England and Wales were closed. The government announced investment of £1bn to improve on-line facilities and make the court process more efficient. Have these reforms worked?
This is the first of a series of blogs in which the RLA examine access to justice in the PRS.
This post presents Bank of England data on the volume of residential loans to individuals. It provides an overview of overall volumes and the proportion of advances issued in the Buy-To-Let (BTL) market.
The 2019 Quarter 3 data – published before Christmas – reflect RLA PEARL’s caution on the outlook for the PRS and investment in BTL.
This deep dive into the 2019 Quarter 3 survey reflects on the landlord community’s investment in pushing up the energy efficiency of their properties.
With much more needed to be done, there is a clear case for a mechanism to bring forward investment and move energy efficiency in the PRS still closer to wider government objectives.
The RLA teamed up with the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) to give landlords and letting agents in Scotland a chance to give their views on the recent tenancy and possession reforms introduced by Holyrood.
The system is new, there are concerns but there are clearly elements of the new system which are welcomed.
However there is still much to do before landlords would agree the new system could be considered “a success”.
This is the first full edition of the RLA’s Landlord Confidence Index (LCI).
The LCI provides a snapshot of the actions and likely future response of landlords to the current market environment.
The LCI is drawn from a national (England & Wales) survey of around 2,000 landlords.
Across Western Europe and North America there is continued interest in applying rent controls in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). The RLA has looked at the experience of rent controls in Europe and the USA. Rent control policies where they exist have not slowed down rent growth – indeed the opposite may be true.
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Research from the RLA reports on the impact of Capital Gains Tax. CGT traps landlords into holding property longer than planned, the tax and, in doing so, holds back a functioning property market. The tax reduces property investment as well as the volume of properties available to purchase.
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Whilst the IPHRP – the ONS’s measure of price growth in the PRS continues to grow. The RLA argue price growth is fragile and weaker than in the wider economy.
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This is a full draft version of the forthcoming Landlords’ Confidence Index (LCI). It aims to provide a snapshot of Landlord confidence. It is being produced at a time when landlords face pressure from governments. Tax changes, regulation change and the threat of adverse legal reforms are now threatening the supply of homes in the Private rented Sector.
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The 2019 Q1 State of the PRS report focuses on the roll-out of Universal Credit and the imapct it has had on landlords. The majority of landlords report that Universal Credit claimants do go into arrears, despite claims to the contrary.
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The RLA’s Policy Manager John Stewart reports on what the RLA has been doing to protect members’ rights in the face of government proposals to abolish Section 21. In this article John thanks members for taking time out to respond to surveys and providing the evidence base upon which our campaigning is based.
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On 1 December 2017 the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber took over from the sheriff court in dealing with all private rented sector (PRS) disputes. This in effect created a Housing Court. This paper considers how the new system has fared north of the border.
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