Former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone has issued a scathing attack on the private rented sector.
Speaking at an Evening Standard debate on the future of the London property market, Mr Livingstone said that “our private rented sector has become a scam.”[1]
House-building
Mr Livingstone expressed his belief that the United Kingdom would benefit from a long-term housing programme. In his address, Livingstone said: “Over the last four or five years, the Bank of England has printed electronically £375bn which has kept the banking system afloat.”[1]
He went on to say that “if a quarter of that had been diverted to a five-year housing programme, we could have bought 100,000 homes a year and not increased our debt: homes owned by the Bank of England and managed by local authorities.”[1]
At the same conference, the Mayor’s housing chief Richard Blakeway, further expressed his desire for 1.6bn of Stamp Duty cash raised from London house buyers to be put into a secure house-building programme within the city.
[1] http://old.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Private-rented-sector-a-scam-says-Ken-Livingstone