Day: June 3, 2014

Silver bullet syndrome
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As Nationwide confirms that house prices across the country are now rising at a frankly unsustainable 11% per year, solutions to our housing problems are sprouting across newspaper opinion pages.

Aditya Chakrabortty says that “the problem is not primarily property”, but rather London itself. The huge gap opening between London house prices and the rest of the UK is a symptom of an economy dangerously tilted towards its capital. His solution is a national plan to re-balance the economy away … Read more

Helping renters doesn’t have to mean harming landlords
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You often hear people suggest the way to fix the problems with private renting is for renters to simply complain or shop around. But this presumes that renters can easily do either. Unfortunately whilst renters should feel able to complain many are fearful of doing so. Our research has found that 1 in 12 renters avoided asking their landlord to carry out improvements or repairs in the last year, because they were scared of eviction. And arguments telling renters to … Read more