Social engineering

IF THE Government goes ahead with its proposal of a minimum three-year tenancy for property rentals, we will have to sell my mother’s house. Like many families, we had planned to rent it to help with her care costs.

Shelter claims three-year rentals will reduce homelessness, but evictions went up sharply after the Government started paying housing benefit directly to tenants instead of landlords. Homeowners have lost faith in their ability to control their properties and get paid. Good tenants as well as bad ones will lose out.

The ideological insistence on social engineering destroyed the rented sector in the Sixties and Seventies.

It took years to recover and only did so via short-term lets, which the Government wants to stop. This will move homes into the hands of developers.

TIM MANNINGLY, Milton Keynes, Bucks.