NRLA Wales Manifesto 2021

20th December 2020

The National Residential Landlords Association is a recent merger in which our MD, Douglas Haig is the Director for Wales. 

Douglas Haig comments on the recent NRLA Manifesto

“The importance of the private rented sector within Wales is talked about by the Welsh Government but rarely has it delivered changes to genuinely support landlords to provide safe and secure homes in an efficient manner.  This manifesto asks to go some way to help the private rented sector to continue to provide cost-effective housing for Wales.”

Who is the NRLA?

• UK’s largest membership for private residential landlords.
• Represents over 85,000 members across England and Wales.
• Which equates to over half a million properties.
• Providing support and resources for members to successfully manage their properties.

What challenges are being faced by the NRLA?

• Increasing demand for housing and rising property prices have seen an increase in people renting in the private rented sector. 
• This increase in demand comes with an increase in scrutiny, resulting in changes to the way people rent in Wales. 
• Four major pieces of legislation have been introduced in the last six years.
• The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in further challenges within this sector

The NRLA wants to help ease these challenges by commenting on the following in their Manifesto.

1. Streamlining Licensing

The NRLA are asking for local schemes to be abolished as these often duplicate obligations set out in Rent Smart Wales and Fitness of Human Habitation. The cost-saving for the landlords in this area can be re-invested into improving properties.

The NRLA are also calling for clearer accountability on Rent Smart Wales and establishing an independent body accountable to Welsh Ministers.

2. Supporting both landlords and tenants

The NRLA wants to be able to help tackle homelessness and as people turn to the private rented sector, they are asking for the same support as what is given to social housing. This would be by providing help for those with short term issues, funding Landlord Support Officers and adding anti-social behaviour to the mandatory list for repossession.

3. Improving Homes

This includes seeing the Welsh Government commit to boosting energy efficiency in PRS homes and funding larger improvements. The NRLA wants to see Wales matching other nations with the Green Homes Grant. In addition, they also want to remove the second homeland tax premium, introduce interest-free council loans or grants in low value and hard-to-rent areas and introducing a holistic package of Council Tax incentives, recognising the potential behavioural impact of the sanction and reward in the system

4. The introduction of a Welsh Housing Survey

We have commented on this previous see our blog ‘NRLA campaign for a Welsh Housing Survey’

5. Improving justice for landlords and tenants

The NRLA are proposing a dedicated housing court or tribunal to be established for Wales to help landlords legitimately repossess their property.

6. Rejecting rent controls and right-to-rent 

Evidence in other nations shows a lack of success with rent controls, leading to other negative effects such as poor housing conditions, available homes leaving the market and encouraging rent rises. The NRLA wants to encourage the Welsh Government to resist moves to introduce them. In addition, they do not want the Right-to-Rent Scheme to come to Wales as this causes obstruction of the lettings process and may lead to discrimination.

For the full details of the NRLA Welsh Manifesto follow this link.

We work closely with the NRLA as our MD is involved with their policy-making and campaigning which puts us at the forefront of any legislation changes. If you are a landlord looking for further assistance with property management, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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