Hardship tests: "The war on landlords has been brutal"

This is the latest Government example of how to make friends and influence people. Labour is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The only logic behind such a crazy idea as this, at a point in time where we have an escalating housing crisis, is that they want landlords to sell up to line the depleted tax coffers from resulting Capital Gains Tax. Just last week the NRLA found that the private rental sector alone contributed £45bn to the national economy and 390,000 jobs. This type of action will be hugely damaging to an already desperate sector that helps some of the most vulnerable in society.

One way to put a plaster on the housing crisis is to make being a landlord so unattractive that they all sell up. Whilst this might result in more homes becoming available, it will also leave tenants fighting for accommodation, which will drive up rents. If the government wants to help tenants who face financial difficulty, they should put financial aid in place. Landlords should not have to take the hit.

Every government treats landlords like villains, and whilst there are some unscrupulous ones out there, the majority treat their tenants well and maintain their properties. Private landlords are key to the solution of the housing crisis, as many can only afford or choose to rent and by pushing landlords out of the market, rental demand is outstripping supply. Rents are therefore becoming unaffordable as many landlords see the hassle far outweigh the economic gains of continuing. The war on landlords has been brutal.

Labour have made it clear who they favour in the landlord-tenant relationship. However, they must tread carefully given that private landlords fill a vital gap in the private rental sector. Also, with talks of the possibility of capital gains tax being aligned to income tax thresholds, the benefits of being a landlord are diminishing by the day.

Kicking someone when they're down is always viewed as a nasty thing to do. So if the reports of Labour plans to introduce yet more bureaucracy to deter private landlords from shoring up the housing sector in the UK, they should be going back to the drawing boards. Roughly 5% of the UK's population take a very real risk of investing their money directly into property, which directly houses 19% of the population. Introducing a hardship test will likely force many good landlords to flee from the rental sector, leaving the tenant in a position of despair with no future home or higher rents. Unless, of course, Labour intends to pay market rents in housing benefits to landlords, keeping the merry-go-round spinning. Reform is greatly needed to stop spiralling rents, but reform needs to be mutually beneficial if the housing crisis is not to turn into a nightmare. Leaving landlords to pick up the tab to subsidise housing costs is not the answer, but it seems to be exactly that for Labour.