Government giving in to vested interests

LAST weekend saw the student population leave their rented accommodation.

It was not so large an exodus as usual, due to coronavirus. But it still highlighted a problem that impacts on communities throughout the year – rubbish left on the street in black bags, or no bags, which are not the responsibility of our hardworking refuse teams to collect.

Part of the problem occurs as renters often do not apply themselves to the nuances of bin collection or how to use the recycling system correctly.

Additionally, renters in multiple occupancy lets often have no adequate-sized bin.

My view is landlords and estate agents have some responsibility for this in terms of ensuring tenants are well briefed as to norms and then checking they are applying them. It’s part of their duty to communities.

Rents and letting fees are certainly high enough to give neighbours some consideration.

I have raised this in a friendly way with three different estate agents.

My experience is they smile, say they will sort it, but then do nothing. I conclude if there is no profit in it for them, they don’t act.

We have a government whose ideology is to deregulate – only this week they announced a relaxing of planning laws.

So, we are likely to see even greater carte blanche given to landlords and developers, and more cramming of tenants into properties.

This makes it impossible for our city council to make sure residents are given due consideration in this government-sanctioned free-for-all.

I note many Tory MPs and some from other parties are landlords.

Current housing policy is probably the biggest creator of poverty in our society, yet these politician landlords profit handsomely from the situation.

Vested interests have no motivation to rectify the problem, just as the investors in the slave trade were blind to the suffering that underpinned their income stream.

David Cross, Leicester