A prominent campaigning letting and sales agent predicts that the Conservatives are likely to put their proposed ban on letting agency fees as a manifesto commitment.
Ajay Jagota - founder of the KIS agency and a campaigner against deposits paid to agents - is also the new chairman of the South Shields Conservative Association.
He says the industry should not kid itself that if a Conservative government is re-elected in the June 8 General Election with a bigger majority that policies unpopular with agents, such as the ban on fees levied on tenants in England, would disappear.
“If anything I’d expect to see that in the Conservative manifesto” he warns.
The government has already announced that it is scrapping workshops for letting agents to discuss the ban - although the formal consultation on the proposal goes on until June 2.
Letting agents who had enrolled for the workshops (the first of which was to be held on April 28 in London) have received an email letter saying:
“As we are now in a pre-election period, we sincerely regret to announce that we are unable to continue with the workshops scheduled between April 28 and May 11 to support the consultation on banning letting agent fees paid by tenants.
“The consultation will remain open until 2 June and we continue to welcome your thoughts in this forum.
“Subject to the new government and the consultation responses, additional workshops discussing the letting agent fee ban may be held later in the year. We will email you with details of any such workshops and the DCLG.gov website will be used to advise of further updates.
“If you would like to contact the Letting Agents team for further information, you can do so by emailing lettingagentsteam@communities.gsi.gov.uk.
“We thank you for your interest in the workshops. Your thoughts on the ban on letting agents’ fees to tenants remain just as important and we do hope that you will continue to engage with the Department through the consultation or via email.
“Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/4/tory-supporting-agent-says-fee-ban-may-be-in-conservative-manifesto
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