Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s rent cap and eviction ban have sent prices for Scottish tenants soaring faster than in London, new data reveals.
The cost of rent in Scotland is rising more rapidly than anywhere else in the UK after the SNP introduced restrictions on landlords’ ability to raise rent and carry out evictions.
Reducing supply does tend to have that effect. But would they listen?
They don’t give a fuck.
By the time the wheels come off of the British state, our Looting Party MPs hope to be safely ensconced in a lucrative sinecure, possibly in the EU when they rejoin.
Not Rishi tho, he’s got his eyes on a plum job in America.
There are so many worked examples of bad policies resulting in poor outcomes that one really has to ask why politicians keep introducing bad policies. It’s almost as if they consider their work done when a law is passed. Perhaps if all laws included a formal review after a couple or years or a sunset clause…
“There are so many worked examples of bad policies resulting in poor outcomes that one really has to ask why politicians keep introducing bad policies.”
I’ve gradually come to the conclusion that they are just incredibly stupid and ignorant. They introduce these bad policies because they think that they will succeed. Their stupidity and ignorance protects them from the reality that they won’t. Of course non of the rest of us would stay in our jobs for ten minutes if we were so completely and utterly useless at it.
DJ @ 1.41, I like the idea of a financial penalty to those politicians – it would surely concentrate their minds when crafting laws, knowing if they fuck it up they would have to pay for it…..
Are they stupid, or playing to their base?
A rent cap is sold as fighting for the oppressed and sticking it to the greedy capitalists.
When the desired affect fails to appear, this is even more proof that, 1) the greedy must be stood up to, and 2) the oppressed masses should vote even harder for their saviours.
They’re not going to admit they were wrong.
The object of the exercise is to demonise landlords and encourage mugs to vote forthe left-of-Scottish Labour-party.
Yes, they listened and, having heard what the consequences would be, acted.
The rise in *average* rents is partly a result of lower-rent properties disappearing from the rental market as landlords sell up or even, in the worst cases, find it cheaperto leave the property empty rather than pay a small fortune to bring it up to EPC level C and re-let it at the old rent.
It’s fun to call Nicola Sturgeon stupid but that is incompatible with her party management over the last decade or so that has yielded a better electoral success than anyone in my lifetims (exceptTony Blair, who did equally well). Sometimes it’s just not reasonable to attribute to stupidity what may be caused by malice.
It’s because politicians simply enact brain farts into legislation. In the business world, the brain fart would proceed to a concept study if enough people liked it. That would carry out a rudimentary assessment of the pros and cons of the idea. Most ideas from politicians would be kicked into the long grass at this point. If the idea appears to have legs, it proceeds to pre-feasibility which has a green more comprehensive look at the costs and benefits. If it is still standing after this stage, a full feasibility study is undertaken which brings the idea to the point of implementation with sufficient information for a decision to be taken as to give it the go ahead or not.
If the government worked liked this, we wouldn’t have Net Zero, HS2, etc.
“I’ve gradually come to the conclusion that they are just incredibly stupid and ignorant. ”
A while back the then Tory Chancellor (possibly Rishi Sunak, not sure without looking it up) abolished most of the exemptions for the use of ‘red’ diesel, ie rebated tax diesel. It used to be that the higher tax rate diesel was for road use, off road use (like farming and construction) could use red. As a total tax grab he abolished most of these exemptions and made construction particularly pay the full tax on their diesel use. Some exemptions continued, farming and forestry in particular, and for some reason golf clubs got a special bye (probably because loads of Tory MPs play golf and didn’t fancy a rise in their memberships). There was also an exemption for ‘Community Amateur Sports Clubs’. As I’m involved with a small cricket club I investigated this exemption, and rapidly realised that a CASC is a formal designation that a sports club can achieve if it registers with HMRC and jumps though lots of bureaucratic hoops. It can then get Gift Aid on donations and other tax exemptions, like business rates. It is really only relevant to larger sports clubs, ones with more formal organisational structures and assets. The average local football or cricket team that consists of 20 odd people who get together to play their favourite sport each week is not going to be a CASC. They struggle to get 11 players out on the pitch every Saturday and someone to mow the grass. Trying to have a formal structure and deal with HMRC is a bit above their level of capability.
So I complained to my local MP about these proposed changes, and pointed out that golf clubs were considerably richer than your average amateur sports club, but the latter were being penalised unless they were a CASC, which most could not become. The response from my MP showed that he had no idea that CASC was a formal designation, and he had just assumed that any community based amateur sports club could qualify for the exemption. When I pointed out this error he stopped replying to me. I’d be pretty sure that most MPs will have thought exactly the same thing (if they even bothered to read it) – we’re voting to allow sports clubs to use red diesel.
This is the quality of the people who rule us.
This is the quality of the people who rule us.
The recent Energy Bill that went through the Commons on third reading, with all the tyrannical quasi-Marxist shite on smart meters and heat performance certificates, sanctions for non-compliance and all the rest.
Pushed entirely by our so-called Conservative Party (the opposition mostly abstained). Are they stupid, evil, or just worthless grifters taking their orders from elsewhere whilst keeping their noses clean?
People who get paid -or claim a lot of luxury tax-free expenses- regardless of their performance invariably perform extremely badly (BBC, NHS, politicians, snivel serpents). The only solution is competition which is why we’ve ended up with the LibLabCon party stuffed full of malicious tossers.
Are they stupid, evil, or just worthless grifters taking their orders from elsewhere whilst keeping their noses clean?
Yes.
@DiscoveredJoys – “one really has to ask why politicians keep introducing bad policies”
Because that’s what keeps getting them re-elected.
Bad economics often makes for good politics is all. These people are not stupid, they are self-serving.
Some (ie very few) of these people are not stupid. After all, their number still includes Diane Abbott and David Lammy.
Oi, BiW, that’s our next Foreign Secretary you’re talking about! {Places head in hands]