Landlords Don't Create Homes in Cheltenham: Debunking the Myth

The narrative that private landlords are the benevolent "creators" or "providers" of housing is a persistent myth, particularly damaging in a town like Cheltenham. Here, where a staggering 35% of homes are rented – significantly above the national average – this misconception fosters a dangerous complacency, suggesting that the departure of landlords from the market would somehow diminish the total number of available dwellings. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Cheltenham's Unique Rental Landscape: A Deeper Dive

To understand why this myth is so detrimental in Cheltenham, we need to examine the town's specific housing peculiarities:

• A Renter's Town: The fact that over a third of Cheltenham's households are in the private rented sector underscores the immense reliance on this tenure. This isn't because landlords are building new homes at an exceptional rate; it's because a large proportion of existing properties are being converted or retained for rental, rather than being accessible for ownership.
• The Airbnb Effect: Unregulated and Unchecked: Cheltenham's vibrant festival scene and proximity to the Cotswolds make it a prime target for short-term holiday lets. The town grapples with a largely unregulated Airbnb market. This means properties that could otherwise house local families or individuals are being siphoned off for transient tourist accommodation, often yielding higher profits for owners than long-term rentals. Crucially, this doesn't create new housing; it removes existing homes from the long-term rental or owner-occupier market.
• Council Inertia: Regulation Without Enforcement: While some regulations may exist to mitigate housing issues, a significant problem in Cheltenham is the lack of proactive enforcement by the Borough Council. This means that even where policies are in place to address issues like rogue landlords or the proliferation of short-term lets, their impact is limited by a failure to actively monitor and enforce them. This inaction leaves tenants vulnerable and allows market distortions to persist unchecked.

Landlords: Controllers of Access, Not Creators of Supply

Let's be clear: private landlords, whether in Cheltenham or elsewhere, are generally not in the business of constructing new properties. They acquire existing homes – often from the owner-occupier market – and then offer them for rent. When a landlord buys a property in Charlton Kings or Pittville, they are not adding a new brick to the town's housing stock. They are simply changing the terms of its occupation. The house was there before, and it will be there after.

Therefore, the "provision" that landlords offer is not the fundamental creation of a dwelling, but rather the control of access to that dwelling for a fee. They hold the keys, dictate the terms, and extract rent, acting as gatekeepers to an essential human need.

When Landlords Exit: A Market Re-shuffled, Not Diminished

The notion that landlords exiting the rental market in Cheltenham somehow "reduces homes for people to live in" is a fallacy. When a landlord sells a property, that property doesn't vanish into thin air. It simply re-enters the broader housing market.

In Cheltenham, this often plays out in two ways:

1. Sale to Another Landlord: The property remains in the rental sector, simply changing hands between investors. The number of rental properties available in Cheltenham's overheated market doesn't change.
2. Sale to an Owner-Occupier: This is the critical point often overlooked. A home previously rented out now becomes available for purchase by an individual or family looking to own. Far from reducing the number of available homes, this actually increases the stock of properties accessible to those aspiring to homeownership in Cheltenham. In a town with high house prices and significant affordability pressures, this can be a small but meaningful rebalancing of the market.

The Cheltenham Tenant Union: Highlighting the Real Issues

Organisations like the Cheltenham Tenant Union are crucial in exposing these myths and advocating for real solutions. They understand that the problem isn't a lack of landlords, but systemic issues that inflate rents and limit access to genuinely affordable homes. The Tenant Union's mission to push for lower rents pegged to income, to end unfair evictions, and to lobby Cheltenham Borough Council for proactive enforcement directly tackles the root causes of the housing crisis in our town. They recognise the impact of:

• Student housing: The significant student population, while contributing to the town's vibrancy, also places additional demand on the private rental sector.
• Short-term lets: As highlighted, the unregulated explosion of Airbnbs further constricts the long-term rental supply, driving up prices for permanent residents.

Their efforts to build a unified voice for Cheltenham's 40,000+ renters underscore that the issue is one of power and equitable access, not a shortage of entrepreneurial landlords.

Beyond the Myth: Real Solutions for Cheltenham's Housing Crisis

To truly address Cheltenham's housing challenges, we must abandon the myth of the landlord as housing creator. Instead, we must:

• Increase Genuine Housing Supply: The focus needs to be on building more genuinely affordable homes, particularly social housing, and ensuring a diverse range of housing types to meet local needs.
• Robust Regulation of Short-Term Lets: Cheltenham Borough Council must implement and proactively enforce stricter regulations on short-term holiday lets to bring properties back into the long-term rental market and prevent further erosion of housing stock.
• Empower Local Authorities: The Council needs greater powers and resources to intervene in the market, including the ability to acquire properties for social housing and to effectively regulate the private rented sector.
• Support Tenant Rights: Strengthening tenant protections and amplifying the voices of groups like the Cheltenham Tenant Union is vital to ensure fair rents, secure tenancies, and decent living conditions for all.

When a landlord in Cheltenham decides to sell, a home does not disappear. It simply changes hands. The true challenge lies in ensuring that these existing homes, and any new ones built, serve the needs of the community, rather than being treated purely as speculative investments that inflate prices and exacerbate an already critical housing situation.

We're up against some well funded vested interests. Some of whom make large donations to the Cheltenham Liberal Democrat party who lead and dominate the local council. The same council that has powers to influence the rental market for the benefit of council taxpaying tenants.

Help us level the playing field by subscribing to the newsletter and or making a one off donation. https://buymeacoffee.com/cheltenhamtenantunion

We use the money to print and deliver leaflets to spread our message direct to the letter boxes of Cheltenham's rental population. The goal is to increase our lobbying strength by growing our numbers. The leaflets are simple and cheap but 5 000 cost £500 to print and deliver. We need 20 000 to reach every rented letterbox.