'The war on landlords will just mean fewer rental homes'

There has been a big drop in rental homes despite huge demand.

That is what you get when you wage war on landlords and introduce ever more stringent rules and punishing tax changes.

For some time a number of landlords have been reducing their portfolios and many would-be private housing providers have decided it is not a sound venture.

They see it is an increasingly risky business that is no longer worth the investment or enormous effort required.

The housing crisis is set to get much worse when new legislation means landlords fear they could never get their property back and rent controls could cripple their financial existence.

Those that think the solution to the housing crisis is ever more regulation and state control are in denial.

If you want people to do something you should make it easy for them, not difficult.

If government (of any colour) wishes individuals or firms to come forward to provide homes for rent they should stop making it an onerous undertaking.

Rather, they should be helping with positive legislation.

That is what happened when the 1985 Housing Act introduced Section 21 Notices.

Under these notices private landlords were given a guarantee that whatever nightmare tenant they might encounter, they could eventually regain possession of their property after an agreed term of rental had expired.

It gave confidence to investors and ushered in a massive new supply of private rentals.

Extinguishing Section 21 will have the opposite effect.

It is not going to help renters.

It is going to hurt them at a time when there needs to be more homes to rent, not less.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayors Walk, York

An antidote to politics

I recently enjoyed the perfect antidote to the current daily dose of waffling, opinionated political claptrap: three days of glorious weather watching a first class game of cricket at Scarborough’s world famous ground surrounded by people equally disillusioned with general election propaganda.

Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby