[Eafield]

Originally Posted by g jones

I received a letter from the minister in the middle of January saying approval.

I believe what I am supporting is right and I am not for turning. If landlords want to jack up prices then a Labour Council will act to bring prices down.

We are more than aware of the matrix of issues and intend not to be a sit back council or one frightened of lobby groups

I am not against you on this concept! We need to improve standards of many things in today’s society, but are we right to say that all landlords are responsible for the state of our housing problems in Accrington.

Poor housing is an issue and needs to be dealt with, however the current plan is not even-handed?

What will happen Oct 2010 onwards?

Bad landlords will dodge the scheme or simply dispose of the assets they are unable to let, these "people" will then simply move on to other areas, that have not been encompassed by your scheme. More rented in other areas, those areas will quickly worsen, particularly the ones that should already be included in the scheme.

This current scheme stinks of "NIMBY". Does it not make sense that we target the bad landlords and thus prevent them from simply moving the problem from one street to another.

Your current scheme requires a landlord to ensure poor quality tenants are dealt with and removed if necessary, where exactly do you think they will then go?

We should also be considering the fact that “truly good landlords" can be unfortunate enough to have bad tenants from time to time. Nice couple moves in two years no problems, girlfriend leaves partner, partner goes of the rails and falls in with the wrong crowd and becomes a bad tenant. Who’s fault is this? The Landlords, apparently.

We are trying to make landlords responsibly for the shortcomings of some elements of society, should there not be some form of combined and targeted effort to improve bad landlords and bad tenants alike.

Should we will be sending all speeding tickets to Audi for building the R4!

Isn’t it embarrassing that as a country we do not have the ability to apply a little more common sense to things.

On the subject of a labour council reducing rents, perhaps you could elaborate how in a free democratic market you intend to do this.

You have previously quoted HBC as charging £63 and doing a better job than the private sector. This a somewhat arrogant statement, considering you are not privy to the conduct of the entire private sector, however you could perhaps elaborate on how well HBC would do without the private sector considering there are currently just 4 properties available to let vie the HBC website ( 2 of which are 1 bed flats).

I should very much like to discuss the matter further, I did try to call you although you advised you were not able to speak with me for the next three weeks.

Selective licensing should most certainly be introduced, but can you not concur that the current scheme will not be effective and that it would take little effort to take further consultation on the way in which this scheme is introduced.