• JONNY Bucknell is right when he says that “No one has to be a landlord”, but the reason why people become one is to make money from property asset or assets they own, (It’s time the government backed off and stopped bashing landlords, July 19).

Despite what he says, these are very good times to be a private landlord in Camden given the rents now being charged. And if elderly landlords are selling up, as he claims, they will get far more money for the property than they will have paid for it.

Like many landlords he thinks this government is waging a war on landlords, hence his references to “bashing” and beating, but all that is happening is that, after years of ignoring the private rented sector, politicians are having to pay far more attention to it owing to the pressure being put on them by renters, renter groups, and other organisations.

Over the years we have sat in many meetings with landlord organisations while everybody else present talks about the change that is needed to make the private rented sector “fit for purpose”.

Their consistent view is that nothing should change, and is why they, and many of their members, will be opposing something as perfectly reasonable as longer tenancies that the government is currently consulting on.

We urge as many renters as possible to have their say and respond to it at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/overcoming-the-barriers-to-longer-tenancies-in-the-private-rented-sector.

ROBERT TAYLOR
Camden Federation of Private Tenants
www.cfpt.org.uk