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Monday, March 21, 2016

Council letting agency has 1 property

Without trying to sound too 'Dragon's Den', but this bit of BBC research into Haringey Council's not-for-profit letting agency hasn't come as too great a shock to my business radar.

Why would a council think they could enter, what is just about the UK's most competitive industry and bring down costs?

It's a completely insane idea, ( listen in London Mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan )

The BBC have done some sniffing around at Haringey Council's letting agency, Move51⁰ North.

The agency, started in October, claimed it would 'offer homes at a fair rent to locals'.

Maybe they should change that to 'offer a home at a fair rent to locals'

Sadly, BBC has revealed that the agency currently only has one house on its books.

That's right, one house!

This would be funny, if it wasn't for the ridiculous cost to taxpayers, of money that could be far better spent doing something worthwhile.

The Beeb claim the council has already spent £200,000 on setting up their agency, and say the council forecasts another £1.37m will be required to fully establish it.

On the books,  a director, a junior consultant and a property manager with salaries of £30,000 plus.

You can imagine the talk in the office, - "Can I take this viewing?", "No can I?" "Please let me!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What landlord in their right mind would choose a City Council as their letting agent.

Councils spend more time bullying and abusing landlords, and also failing to fulfill their obligations to prosecute freeholders who break the law than they do to help tenants. They encourage tenants to breach tenancy agreements, force landlords to take tenants to court .....