The end of landlords: the surprisingly simple solution to the UK housing crisis
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We now find ourselves in a situation where one in every 21 adults in the UK is a landlord. We have four times as many landlords as teachers. As a consequence, virtually everyone struggles to afford a home that meets their needs despite a net gain in housing stock.
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Where Adam Smith and Karl Marx found common ground was in the idea that everyone’s interests are aligned against landlords: they are an economic deadweight. Even if we leave aside the appalling conditions and precarity that private renters face, anyone with an interest in lower taxes, lower wage bills and increasing the number of first-time buyers must equally be interested in smashing the private rented sector to bits.
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This is my peace offering to Lightspeed - something I think we can both agree on. Landlords - at least in the form they take today [leverage equity to outbid FHBs and hold rents high] - are parasites and society would be better off without them. Until we solve the housing affordability problem, nothing will be fixed.