Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "The Conservatives caused the housing market crisis | Economics | New Statesman" video.
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In Scotland we have a rent freeze. As an owner of more than one house, and a landlord, the freeze has my full support. I am not renting out as a, “businessman,” with any plans to expand, nor do I really know the tenant, who got the place through an agency. But, I can see that an equal rule which effects all landlords and their tenants equally, reduces panic and competition, meaning that renters are free to stimulate the economy in other ways, while landlords are not put off from buying new properties to rent out (at least, the ones I know have not been) because they know they can still get a fair return on their investment.
Two of our three adult children have already bought their own homes here in Scotland, in the last couple of years. And we have no real worries about the third, who is sharing accommodation with her partner for now, while she finishes her doctorate, so we expect she will be able to get a well paid, secure job, in the future.
Why won’t Westminster follow Scotland’s example here? It certainly seems as though the public wants this? And there have been several large demonstrations about rent prices around the country.
My suspicion is that property owners have too powerful a lobby in England? Indeed, that lobby would include many ministers, probably? Plus, a great deal of England’s prime real estate (much more than people know, as the public outcry would be huge if they did!) is in the hands of foreign oligarchs; or so it seems?
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