Why do we tolerate these slum landlords?

Like over 20% of households in the UK, I rent my home from a private landlord. Private renting is up a massive 56% from 2004-05, coinciding with a 4% decline in people who own the homes they live in.

We all know the story. Both house prices and private rents are sky high. Since the crash mortgages are harder to come buy, with banks requiring giant deposits. Would-be first time buyers are forced to rent privately while they try to save. A combination of high rent, low interest rates and a general squeeze on living standards, makes it more and more difficult for people to save the money required.

House sales down 40% since the boom in 2007. While eight out of 10 people polled by YouGov said they hoped to own their own, the dream of home ownership for many people seems like just that. A dream. For “Generation Rent”, renting from private landlords “will become a way of life”.

If private renting is the new reality, then regulating the private rental sector needs to be higher up the political agenda.

Imagine my surprise when I tuned in to the BBC’s Secret History of our Streets, to see the man who owns my flat (and half the local high street) bragging about how he flouts the law. This landlord is notorious for his “build first, ask later” approach to planning regulation. His flats in central London are rented at a premium, but often poor quality and in violation of planning codes. “If you have a cow, you milk it” he helpfully explains.

He is not alone. Another local landlord built a five story block of flats without planning permission. His tenants pay astronomical rents for homes that are poorly build and “a nightmare” to live in. Thanks to the local Councillors, in February 2011 it was ruled that the building should be demolished. Enforcement takes time. Despite ruling in early 2011, the building still stands. It is likely to have made way more in rent than it cost to illegally build. The cow continues to be milked.

With the Conservative-Liberal Democrat planning reform deregulation risking an increase in “unsustainable developments”, the situation can only get worse. The situation is further exasperated by Tory-Lib Dem cuts to funding for local authorities, threatening Councils’ ability to take effective enforcement against cow-boys who exploit planning and building laws.

Why do we tolerate these slum landlords? Why do we allow private tenants to be exploited?

London is in the grips of an urgent housing crisis. Why is it that I have heard the Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson praise Bob Diamond, but I haven’t heard his plans to tackle astronomical private rents?

People in privately rented accommodation are sometimes forgotten by politicians. Private tenants can be more transitory, less likely to vote and harder to reach through conventional doorstep campaigning than other groups. But as the number of people who rent privately grows, the cost and quality of private renting becomes a bigger political issue. It is time for Labour to prioritise policies that address these issues.

The next general election could be decided by voters living in private accommodation. Let’s give them something worth voting for.