How to mend the UK’s broken housing market

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/24/how-to-mend-the-uks-broken-housing-market

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There are two reasons why the idea of “generation rent” (The housing ladder starts to collapse for the under 40s, 22 July) may not be particularly useful for understanding the problems young people face in the increasingly dysfunctional world of British housing. The first is that a focus on renting overlooks living arrangements. Yes, more young households are renting privately, but many young people are also unable to form households in the first place as they cannot leave the parental home. Others, meanwhile, can only live independently by leasing a room or sharing with others. These trends have the greatest impact on the least affluent and these patterns are likely to strengthen as a result of recent changes to housing benefit.

Second, long-term tenure trends suggest that we should view recent cohorts as an exceptional “generation own”, whose housing experiences cannot and perhaps should not be repeated. Instead of obsessing about home ownership, we need to focus on dramatically improving the quality, affordability and security of renting. This will require far greater discussion of the implications and wisdom of shifting from social to private landlords. Viewing generation own as the historical anomaly should also prompt action to revive a welfare state that is capable of supporting everyone in later life regardless of their housing wealth.Rory CoulterCambridge

The mayor does not have the legal powers to ensure that landlords and letting agents join the London Rental Standard

• If this government really wants to prevent the housing ladder from collapsing, why doesn’t it extend the right-to-buy policy to the private sector? After all, why should tenants be discriminated against simply because they rent from private landlords rather than from local councils or housing associations? Such an extension would be of enormous help to those on low and middle incomes, and might even deter some of the property speculators who have done so much to make housing unaffordable for so many people. Housing developers and landlords would still get their money back, but not at prohibitive rates. Surely a win-win policy?Helen SimpsonLondon

• The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) believes the London Rental Standard (LRS) is a bold initiative designed to raise professional standards in the capital’s private rented sector by providing a consistent benchmark of accreditation for consumers. In response to Hilary Osborne’s article (Boris Johnson’s good landlord scheme branded a flop, 20 July), it is clear that more landlords and letting agents need to sign up but, unfortunately, the mayor does not have the legal powers required to ensure that landlords and letting agents join the LRS. Nonetheless, it has been adopted by 10 of the biggest names in the lettings industry and is supported by many hundreds of agencies. As an LRS accreditation provider, we’ve encouraged all ARLA licenced members operating in London to join and, as a result, our members manage almost 90% of the properties accredited to the scheme.

ARLA has long campaigned for greater regulation of the private rented sector and we believe the LRS is an important step in the right direction which should be supported. ARLA is calling on government to impose a mandatory scheme, based on the LRS, in order to ensure professional management of England’s 4m tenancies.David CoxManaging director, ARLA

• I have lived in the same flat since 1986 and grew up there with my mother until taking it over and succeeding it in 2006. I now have two children of my own and managed to qualify as a nurse in 2008, after spending years in minimum-wage jobs and as an eventual healthcare assistant. My partner qualified as a midwife in 2012. This now puts us in the bracket of “high earners” with a combined income before tax of about £50,000 in London. My current rent is £600 a month, but market rents in my area are approximately £1,400 for a similar property. This leaves us in a position of deciding whether an £800 rent increase is viable, or whether we leave London. I am sure London will survive without me, but

I cannot help but feel punished for educating myself and therefore being pushed and priced out of my birth city

I cannot help but feel punished for educating myself and therefore being pushed and priced out of my birth city. I have no savings and I am not in a position to get a mortgage of £250,000, which is the total the council values the property at with the £100,000 discount (valued at £350,000). I am able to survive and find a job anywhere, but I cannot help but feel London will soon be a very different city. How midwifes, nurses and even doctors are going to survive in London over the coming years without inheritance money or a lottery win baffles me.David McDowellLondon

• Although mortgage income tax relief at source (Miras) was ended by Gordon Brown in 2000, he allowed it to continue for buy-to-let landlords, thus subsidising landlords to the disadvantage of home owners. The effect has been to allow those investing in property for rent to outbid first-time buyers. I’m not against governments intervening in markets where there is a clear dysfunction which disadvantages the consumer – but Brown’s tax changes in this area clearly disadvantaged consumers. In his recent budget George Osborne announced that this government (and therefore taxpayers’) subsidy will be reduced from 2017. Good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. There is no justification for this tax subsidy at all.Colin DunnStockport, Cheshire

• Thank you for reporting on the hideously opulent Aykon Tower development (Report, 23 July). I’m sure many of your readers quailed at what awaits, none more than we residents of Vauxhall. Contrary to your description, Vauxhall is more than a “down-at-heel train and bus junction”. It’s actually a rather diverse, idiosyncratic and creative community. Not the sort of place for the new plutocratic London you describe.Liz FullerLondon