Labour
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Latest property news
Indefinite tenancies show Labour’s ‘fundamental misunderstanding’ of PRS, say landlords
NLA has savaged Shadow Housing Minister John Healey's German-style proposals to give tenants greater security.
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Latest property news
Labour reveals three radical housing proposals at Liverpool conference
Labour's shadow housing minister John Healey has revealed three new and radical housig policies at the party's Liverpool national conference.
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Latest property news
Fit for human habitation legislation passes second hurdle in Parliament
A bill requiring landlords and agents to ensure rental properties are fit for human habitation and enabling tenants to chase them for compensation when they don’t maintain them took its second step through the House of Commons on Friday. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill passed its second reading in Parliament during an hour-and-a-half long debate lead by the bill’s sponsor Karen Buck, MP for Westminster North (pictured, above). Her bill, for the first time, frames what ‘fit for human habitation’ means and outlines the new regulations that agents will have to ensure properties stick to. Landlords and agents already have to ensure properties are not kept in a state of ‘disrepair’ but now ‘unfit’ will cover issues such as fire safety, inadequate heating, poor ventilation, condensation and mould. At the moment landlords and agents are only obliged to repair the structure of a property when it’s broken or damaged, but when the bill becomes law most likely later this year, they will have wider responsibilities for the condition of the property. Fit for human habitation The debate included contributions from Clive Betts MP (pictured, right), who also chairs the Ministry of Housing, Communities…
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Latest property news
Labour appoints new Shadow Housing Minister
Roberta Blackman-Woods (right), the MP for the City of Durham, has been named as the new Shadow Housing Minister, the Labour Party has confirmed. Professor Blackman-Woods, a sociologist with expertise in housing, is originally from Northern Ireland and pursued a career in academia before becoming an MP in 2005. The Durham MP has replaced Emma Reynolds (left), who was promoted to Shadow Communities Secretary in last week’s reshuffle following the result of the General Election, and becomes the fourth Labour politician to hold the post in the past five years. She will be responsible for both housing and planning, which Labour had previously divided. Her last role in Parliament was as Shadow Planning Minister. The new Shadow Housing Minister will now have to take a long hard look at Labour’s recent housing policies, including proposals to introduce a mansion tax, cap rents, ban letting agent fees,make three year tenancies the norm and restrict tax reliefs for landlords who do not keep properties to basic standards. She will also decide which policies to keep and which were ill-thought-out and, possibly,contributed towards Labour losing the recent General Election. Only then can she begin to challenge the Conservative Party and Brandon Lewis (right),…
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