Levelling Up: How will the White Paper affect Landlords?

Is it the end of the road for the casual Buy to Let Landlord?

Michael Gove and his ‘Levelling up White paper’ is on the way. If you’re savvy you’ll also know this was threatened a couple of years ago, so you might take that news with a pinch of salt. However, details leaked include the promises to enforce many parts of the previous document as well as going a little further in a few areas.

Improving housing quality

• Section 21 notices are to be abolished. These notices are relied upon by accidental landlords who require their property back either for their own needs or to sell.
• Poor energy efficiency to be addressed. Following the governments obsession with energy, we’ve all read and heard about the plans to raise minimum ratings to an EPC-C rating. This has been included.
• ‘Minimum standards for rented homes’ This is a referral to a landlord register, already in place in some trial areas going national.
• ‘The Decent Homes Standard’ This is currently in place in social housing and will be reviewed to make fit for the present day. It will also presumably be implemented in the private sector too.

The paper also suggests 'the period a property lies empty before enforcement penalties’ will be halved as the government throws it’s weight and support behind home ownership and first time buyers with a number of additional buying schemes.

The report ends with the statement ‘The full 12 missions outlines in the white paper will become law through the ‘Levelling up and Regeneration Bill’.

From this statement we can tell it’s an outline statement it I’s happening, and given the government majority, it pretty much guarantees things will be passed at some stage in 2022.

So…. Is it the end of the road or not? The answer is not clear cut, for sure, this will contribute to another mass sell off from private landlords, who are now feeling marginalised by the government and media to cash in on the huge house price inflation. Those left in, should experience a sustained period of rent inflation and high demand for their property, as we see a continuation of double the amount of landlords selling rather than buying!

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