Letting agent fees

Kate Eales, National Head of Lettings at Strutt & Parker:

“A cap on letting agent fees has been mooted for some time but we are quite surprised by today’s announcement of a full ban on fees to tenants as soon as possible. This will be welcome news to long-term renters and will go a long way to driving up standards and service in the lettings industry by forcing rogue agencies who exploit tenants by charging very high upfront fees out of the marketplace.

Strutt & Parker is extremely customer focused and we concentrate on offering the best possible experience for our tenants. As an ARLA registered agent the fees we charge our tenants are well-advertised at £185 plus VAT to cover costs incurred setting up a tenancy. These costs have always been well explained to potential tenants from the outset.

This measure seems to be another attempt to curb the growth of Buy-to-Let investors and will fuel the institutional Build-to-Rent (BTR) sector as private landlords come under more and more pressure. We launched a report last week entitled ‘Housing Futures: Urban Renters’ alongside our partners Stanhope and Network Homes, which concluded that the UK is on the brink of a large-scale commercially developed, owned and operated BTR sector.”

Broadband infrastructure boost

Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker:

“We are very much behind the Chancellor’s decision to invest £740million through the National Productivity Investment Fund in digital infrastructure and deliver a new programme of world-leading trials for 5G. The importance of our mobile connectivity and delivering cutting edge, superfast broadband across the UK cannot be underestimated. 5G is expected to be up to 100 times faster than 4G connections, more reliable and available from 2020.

Currently only 2% of UK addresses have full-fibre broadband connections, which is one of Europe’s lowest rates. Our main concern is that these funds are not only concentrated on urban areas but rural areas benefit too.

Our Housing Futures research shows that broadband has become integral to not just the service sector, retailers and manufacturing in the UK, but also the rural economy including farmers but also those with new start-up businesses based in the countryside, a tribe we call the ‘Rusticarians’ or rural entrepreneurs. Rapid action to improve broadband speeds in more remote communities needs to take place for the benefit of the whole of the UK.

Strutt & Parker’s latest Housing Futures survey revealed that nearly half of respondents would consider moving homes if it meant they would have access to a considerable boost in broadband connectivity in their new property.”

Housebuilding

Conrad Payne, Partner in National Development at Strutt & Parker:

“Whilst it is clear that the Government has good intentions for delivering housing solutions across all tenures, the reality is that most of these initiatives will only deliver marginal gains without a fundamental retooling of planning departments within local authorities.

“There is more than ample capital looking to find a home in the UK housing market, either through direct investment or lending to investors or homeowners, however the reality is that without a significant expansion of human and technological resources within local authority planning departments no amount of carrot or stick will facilitate the levels of delivery that the Government desires.”

Oxford/Cambridge growth corridor

Giles Lawton, Head of Strutt & Parker Oxford:

“A fast and efficient rail link between two world leading University cities would undoubtedly forge even closer links. This would be especially important to the burgeoning commercial partnerships that both institutions are developing. The highly competitive world of scientific research is increasingly allied to Universities and this rail link may be key to the UK competing with the US and Far East. There would also be the commercial benefit for tourists being able to travel much more efficiently between the centres, currently an approximate five hour coach journey or a three hour train ride.