I have just received a very upbeat news bulletin from the Welsh Government.
Obviously they are keen to get the news out that THEY take housing seriously.
As opposed to the English Government who mainly seem to be concerned with driving poor families into the ground.
You can read the full report from Wales here but news items include
- More affordable homes being built in Wales – they are on track to exceed their target
- Over 7,500 empty houses turned into homes
- A report on the future housing needs in Wales which shows that even more building is needed
- A £100,000 regeneration scheme
- A pact with the House Builders Federation to increase housing supply
- Statistics for social housing Welsh Quality Standards which show that all social landlords are on track to meet targets, and
- News of the new legislation
Introduction of licensing – 23 November 2015
The new Welsh licensing scheme is due to open on 23 November after which time landlords and agents will have one year to register and apply for a license.
The place to do this is the Rent Smart Wales website. This will go live on that date along with the telephone helpline.
David Cox of ARLA has expressed concerns that the resources will not be sufficient to meet demand. I hope he is wrong as it would be nice to see this scheme succeed.
However, if you are a Welsh landlord be prepared for glitches while the system gets underway.
If you are a landlord or agent in Wales …
What Welsh landlords will need to consider over the next 12 months however, is whether they will become accredited and manage their properties themselves or whether they will instead use an accredited letting agent.
If you are a Welsh letting agent though, you have no choice – you MUST become accredited if you want to stay in business.
I wish all the staff at Cardiff Council all the best for their new venture. It will be interesting to see how the Welsh scheme goes – as it may turn out to be the template for something similar in England.
If, that is, we get a government who decides to take housing a bit more seriously.
Several things really annoy me about their approach:
1) They have been taking every opportunity to drive landlords and agents towards their own training scheme well before anyone one else could even apply to have their training schemes approved.
2) The requirement as an agent to update the scheme with the name and DOB for every member of staff and remembering to keep it up to date.
3) The fee for agents is ridiculously high at £3,728.00 (plus training on top for EVERY member of staff).
4) Only 21% of the population speak Welsh and even fewer can read it, yet they insist on sending their emails out in Welsh with English at the bottom. And I’m Welsh.
The high fees were a real shock to everyone. I understand that David Cox of ARLA has put in a freedom of information request about it http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/arla-slaps-in-freedom-of-information-requests-after-not-being-consulted-on-wales-charges/
I find the ‘Welsh on top’ irritating too – but I’m not Welsh so I would do. Most people aren’t Welsh so presumably they are annoying more people than they are pleasing with this.