Select Committee recognises the need for self-finance to enforce standards in the Private Rented Sector

The Communities and Local Government Select Committee has today published its inquiry into the Private Rented Sector. The report made a number of recommendations about how the sector can be ‘matured’; currently privately renting is the most expensive, the worst in terms of conditions and the most insecure in terms of tenancy contract.

I am incredibly pleased that the Select Committee has

Shelter: The high price of letting fees

Dear Mr Jones, An investigation by Shelter today reveals that renters are being hit by unfair fees of as much as £700 by letting agencies. These charges are having a worrying impact - squeezing disposable incomes and leaving many in debt and financial worry, separate Shelter research has found.

Over 9 million people now rent their homes privately in England, including 1.3 million families with

Electrical Safety Campaign to improve safety in the Private Rented Sector

I have been campaigning for improved electrical safety in the private rented sector. Currently landlords are not required to have electrical safety certificates unlike Gas where they are required to be certificated as safe.

The law does state that 'electrical installations are safe at the beginning of any tenancy' under the 1985 Housing and Tenant Act. 

I have visited numerous properties where

I'm backing the Electrical Safety Council's private rented sector proposals

I am backing the Electrical Safety Council's campaign for better regulations to protect tenants from bad landlords in the private rented sector.

I was horrified to read about the young mother electrocuted t death in her bath in front of her young children. The Thirza Whittle case from 2009 is an example - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198470/

Letting Away with it - 1 in 4 tenants ripped off by letting agents

New research by Shelter has found that almost one in four British people have been ripped off by a letting agent. In a YouGov poll of 5379 adults commissioned by the housing charity, 23% - equivalent to 11 million people - said they had been charged unfair fees by letting agents in England.

We have seen letting agents in Accrington align themselves with landlords whom the Council has had

Selective Licensing of Private Landlords in Hyndburn

It's been a campaign that has lasted 7 long years. Before the ink had dried on the 2004 Housing Act allowing local authorities to selectively licence private landlords, I and residents in Woodnook and Peel began to campaign for change.

To establish some form of system where not just the bad landlords had to conform to some form public justice but where minimum standards were in place to