From Tobias Forrest.
IT is right the States address the cost-of-living crisis, but their mini-budget proposals don’t go far enough. They shamefully fall short of any adequate protection for renters.
Encouraging ‘private landlords to avoid inflationary rental increases’ is meaningless and will provide little comfort to those already facing unaffordable hikes in their rent. Many landlords will ignore this and raise rents regardless because Jersey’s poorly controlled rental market is powerless to prevent this.
Jersey is an expensive place to live and a single person looking to rent in the private sector is unlikely to find a one-bedroom flat for less than £1,000pcm. Yet a lot of these properties would only be worth £500pcm or less in parts of the UK. Renters have been forced into paying these extortionate rates simply because they have been left with very little choice but to do so. Additionally, this is a major factor in why so many young Islanders are taking the difficult decision to leave Jersey and, in many cases, leave behind friends and family because they can no longer afford to live in the place where they were born and raised.
We do not have to accept this. It isn’t too late to implement the Housing Crisis Action Plan outlined by Reform Jersey, which sets out several measures designed to afford greater legal protection to renters. These include establishing open-ended tenancies, rent stabilisation and establishing a rent tribunal to adjudicate on rental disputes. Furthermore, it’s vital the States acts to approve the landlord licensing scheme which was rejected by the previous Assembly and would secure basic health-and-safety standards across rental properties, as well as making it more difficult for unscrupulous landlords to exploit the system for their own gains.
Finally, many renters aspire to one day own their own homes and controlling rents would enable them to save more towards their deposits and thus allow them to get a foot on the housing ladder more quickly. Consider that a lot will already be paying more in rents than they would necessarily need to on mortgage repayments.
The States must stop dragging their heels and work quickly to ensure renters are appropriately shielded from unfair, unjust and indefensible rises in rents during the cost-of-living crisis.
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