A fairer deal for renters

The proposals discussed in the survey are a good start, but they do nothing to address the problem of letting fees (which should be abolished entirely), of high deposits (which should be capped at 3 weeks' rent) and of the general powerlessness of tenants vis a vis landlords.

Also, can we start an awareness campaign on the regulations on housing standards aimed at tenants and landlords alike - so that both parties know the landlord MUST ACT (and must act FAST) when, say, the boiler breaks down, there is one bathroom for 11 housemates and mice start a colony in your attic?

More importantly, can we give greater and swifter intervention powers to Council when subnormal housing conditions are reported by desperate tenants? Box rooms (closet-sized rooms, often with no window) for rent are tecnichally against the law, yet box room ads proliferate on Gumtree.

And finally, let us start considering capping rent. If a single room in Canning Town at a 20-minute walk away from the Tube can now go for £500 a month, then there really is no value for money anymore.

P.S. can we also make it mandatory for landlords of HMOs to provide wi-fi to their tenants (who can they pay the internet bills) and to be responsible for its continuous availability? Just a thought, but it is 2019 after all...

Not a very well structured questionnaire - looks like you already know what you want to do and are just looking for some justification.  The only long term solution to London housing (owned and rented) is to set up incentives to encourage a lot more building - relax planning constraints, build on parts of the green-belt, tax unbuilt development land, let local authorities borrow more at current low interest rates to fund public or public/private developments...  It would also be a good idea to increase taxes on usage (council tax) but cut transaction taxes which discourage mobility (stamp duty).

People with no connection to this country buy such a large number of properies! This drives housing prices up more than anything!

I can understand temporarily going elsewhere and letting your house, or buying property as an investment for your retirement, but investing in London property when you are a rich person from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Russia or China, only makes things worse for everyone here, as you are never physically here, are not part of the community, and only care about pushing the rents up!

Homes are more than a balance sheet on your portfolio!

The way rents are raised and charged is unfair because the rent is not simply for the building it is also based on site values. In fact most of the rent comes from that of the value of the site. Yet these sites are natural resources which value is mostly due to the degree of infrastructure and population density in that region.

Adam Smith (“Wealth of Nations”, 1776) says that land is one of the 3 factors of production (the other 2 being labor and durable capital goods). The usefulness of land is in the price that tenants pay as rent, for access rights to the particular site in question. Land is often considered as being a form of capital, since it is traded similarly to other durable capital goods items. However it is not actually man-made, so rightly it does not fall within this category. But its site-value greatly depends on location and is related to the community density in that region, as well as the natural resources. Consequently, most of the land value is created by man within his society and therefore its advantage should logically and ethically be returned to the community for its general use.

Regarding taxation and local community spending, municipal taxes are partly used for improving the infrastructure. This means that the land becomes more valuable without the landlord doing anything. This also applies when the status of unused land is upgraded and it becomes fit for community development. When this news is leaked, speculation in land values is rife. There are many advantages if the land values were taxed instead of the other kinds of production-based activities such as earnings, purchases, capital gains, home investments, etc. The only people due to lose from this are those who exploit the growing values of the land, when “mere” land ownership confers a financial benefit, without the owner doing a scrap of work. Consequently, for a truly socially just kind of taxation to apply there can only be one method Land-Value Taxation.

This is not really an issue that should be being touted in this manner, it is a lot more complex and country wide NOT a London problem. 'Good for tenants' and 'Good for landlords' simplistically as these questions is not the answer. Landlords are reluctant to agree long term lets due to the Tenants having more power when it comes to getting the property back when in dispute, I know many landlords who have lost 10's of thousands in rent whilst getting tenants out who are not paying their rent, until courts back landlords like any other business owed money landlords will not allow long term and flexible lets of the type proposed. Rent rise capping is an important proposal that needs implementing immediately, along with maximum rental rates based upon location accross the country. These items and requirement for landlords to be registered so that the unscrupulous ones can be banned or sanctioned if properties are not up to standards required.

I'm German and let out porperty in Germany, which has a imbalanced protection for tenants, and although I am a strong supporter of  open-ended tenancies with agreed notice period, e.g. 3 months, which are flexible and facilitate that the rental market accommundates working people, I am against the creation of the imbalance against landlords, who should have the same right to end the contract as their tenant. I agree that properties for rent in London often would not be considered inhabiltable in other European countries, but this should be regulated by health and safety requirements for landlords. If a landlord cannot give notice to a tenant they will always "force" the tenant to leave by for e.g. blocking facilities, starting noisy and dirty constrution work or neglecting the property just to get tenants to leave.

Please allow a balanced contract execution and termination, so that people can bargain their business / needs on equal terms.  

I understand that a good proportion of MPs have homes they rent out and yet they vote on legislation which affects renters (I've seen figures such as 'one third of all MPs: I don't know how true this is). I know they register their interest. However I think this is a confict of interest that is not managed well in our parliamentary system and leads to a balance in favour of the landlord in most cases. Therefore anything that the London Mayor and his team can do to counteract this is to be welcomed. I feel very sorry for all types of renters and find people like me (own home, no mortgage) who seek personal gain by becoming renters quite difficult to deal with.

That's pretty half hearted.

Why don't you start by looking at a country where most people rent - Germany.

In Germany there is no Government engineered shortage of properties to keep prices rising to attract investment purchases from rich foreigners who feel insecure in their own counties and want a bolt-hole and a nest egg in London . . .

In Germany a good tenant raises the value of a rental property. In the UK we are seen as vermin by rich capitalists.

In Germany, you can stay in a rented property as long as you want ( excepting a few reasons )

In Germany they don't have near-zero interest rates - as Government policy - which allow property owners to re-morgage in the faked rising market - housing supply being throttled as Government policy - to fund deposit for new properies and out-price first time buyers

In Germany there is no faked housing market providing a return which is much higher than from running real a wealth creating business, so the German market doesn't attract more than its share of investment - pushing prces even higher. Instead the Germans run a real economy with real welth creation . .

The problems in Britain are ALL caused by British Politicians.

These tweaks by city hall are just more opiate for the masses.

A real fix - buy up all the old Victorian Terrace houses in London and build a million nice large flats - a large order will command a cheap price.

8 large flats instead of one old house should be saleable at a profit - even for a politician.

Instead we will get "affordable" housing - affordable at the prices of a faked-up housing market - so being a dog-kennel size property unsaleable in a normal supply and demand housing market ( like in Germany ) - thereby breaking London housing for ever . . .

We need a "none of these candidates" option on all ballot papers so we don't have Hobsons choice all the time

Rent control is urgently needed. I've seen a room which can't even fit in a single mattress asking for £400 a month. There's no furniture apart from a light bulb from the ceiling. The size of the room is barely bigger than a desk. How ridiculous London's rent has risen.

Not allowing landlords to evict tenants FOR ANY REASON after the agreed notice period ends is a terrible idea, and will send London back to the dark ages of real estate

Take a look at San Francisco or Bombay (Mumbai) to see what happens once the landlords lose discretionary rights over eviction. That said, by no means should any landlord be allowed to force a tenant out sooner than the agreed notice period, even if it is as long as 3-6 months.

There should be no such thing as private landlords only renting from councils but unfortunately we are a long way from that.  So the least a council/the mayor can do is establish the fair rent for a property and then cap rates and rate increases with the long term aim of eliminating privately rented properties.

I'm sorry to say, but this is absolutely not solving any of the problems with renting in London.

The prices are way too high. There is high demand to live here, however the supply is not here. People have to go further and further out to afford living here.

Plus, the properties are most of the time worn out, dated, etc.. and landlords most of the time gets away with it because there is no regulations and because people want to live here.

Also, there is now access to ownership seeing the price of the properties here. 

More than half the new buildings built are empty because bought by rich people abroad for speculation. it shouldn't be like that! 

Something needs to be done & the open end thing is not a solution