Tenants need to know their rights so they ensure they’re respected

GREAT to see the Post taking up the cause of fair renting. We need to enforce our renting legislation much more, so that tenants are not exploited by landlords who abuse their power.

There are good landlords and bad landlords – and tenants need to know their rights so they can ensure they are respected.

In terms of the bigger picture, we need to increase the supply of new homes we build (and preferably greener, energy efficient ones) – that means using modern methods of construction as one means of building more homes.

Nationally, we probably have a shortfall of around two to three million homes, and we have not built enough homes here in Bristol either.

So if we can build more, then more younger people will have a realistic chance of getting on the housing market to buy a home, and some can be for shared ownership (part-owned, part-rented), some can be for social renting (housing associations and the council housing body) and some, yes, can be for renting in the private sector. Then renters will have a proper, decent choice.

Looking to the future, social tenants are already living in a robotbuilt home (yes!) in Eindhoven in The Netherlands, which was made by 3D robots in a factory and then transported to the site. New ways of building homes are emerging and Bristol with its Housing Festival can hopefully be at the vanguard of this.

In a decade it may be commonplace and normal to have homes built in factories and then moved to the site – this is already happening with BoKlok on the Brook in south Bristol.

Land is key. We need to release more land for private and public sector housebuilding in Bristol, within the current planning system, whatever the technology of building to be used. And we need to embrace modern methods of construction which offer the potential of building more homes more quickly and at lower cost. Only then can we hope to bring our housing market into fair equilibrium. A revolution in housebuilding will help renters and buyers alike! And the rest of us.

Alan Lipton

Bristol