Letter: Tenants at sharp end of political meddling
However hard they try, politicians of all parties seem fated to upset as many voters as they please.
Labour, for instance, who have waxed lyrical over the iniquities of the "bedroom tax" for social housing tenants, were the party who introduced it for tenants of private accommodation.
There were, of course, good reasons for this as a scam was rapidly developing in certain parts of the country where landlords were buying property to let at exorbitant rents to family members who could get welfare to pay for it. In order to avoid any suggestions of racism the limitation had to be applied to everybody in receipt of welfare support.
Similarly the Tories, both under Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron, have offered to sell social housing at a large discount to sitting tenants.
Imagine the howls of outrage from those who have bought to let if a discount on similar terms were to be compulsorily offered to sitting tenants of privately-owned property. House prices would plunge, and nearly everybody who had taken out a mortgage in the last 10 years would suddenly find themselves in negative equity.
As things stand, therefore, private tenants, most of whom had no choice in whom they rented their accommodation from, are being discriminated against by both major parties.
David Burton, Wellington
