Except its not. People in the private sector held private pensions and got a good income through their retirement. There were roughly 2 million privately rented homes and about half of UK shares were owned domestically. Then Gordon Brown decided to tax the pensions. They became worthless. You lost a big chunk of your income and also all the growth from the reinvested dividends. People looked for an alternative. That was in 1997. In 1998 the first buy to let mortgage was launched. By 2015 the number of private rentals had trebled to almost 6 million. UK institutions now own less than 4% of UK companies. He crippled the retirement income for people and they went and found an alternative. Idiotic politicians always cause unintended consequences.
It was amongst the stupidest decisions ever made by a politician (he had a few contenders in that list) and is directly responsible for a lot of the shit we find ourselves in now.
You did say you were asking in good faith after all...
I truly was asking in good faith. That involves openness.
I truly don’t give a damn which Prime Minister or Party did what. Both barrels at all of them. I’m not backing Labour on this.
But there’s no social utility in private landlords. Your numbers speak to that. 6 million homes being purchased for people that have more, by people with less.
Who did it and why simply doesn’t matter. My good faith question was ‘What purpose/role do private landlords provide for society as a whole’. Your response was to justify it by claiming it as a replacement income stream for wealthy people who could pay one mortgage, and get another mortgage to allow a renter to buy it for them.
It’s another area where it gets easily muddled. You DO need a non zero amount of private landlords as people move regions, countries, suburbs routinely. Students find homes after university and don’t want to buy. You obviously need a rental market that’s not under social control.
But the moment that passes the tipping point and you’ve got millions of people unable to buy a house identical to the one they’re renting for £1000 a month, while the mortgage would cost them £800 is evidence of the stupidity of it all.
The transfer of wealth is baked in. Destroys generations. The number of necessary privately rented properties is tiny. That it’s now where it is, and instead of the market bubble bursting, we just add on an Airbnb middle man and offer short term lets with no ID verification and and and. Layers of costs added. It’s utterly depressing.
Very cross at the insanity of it all. Not you. So apologies if I sound confrontational.
