Thanks for driving a few customers our way. Can you stick bit of cash on top?

From The Independent:

The measures announced in the comprehensive spending review are still being digested, but the Chancellor's decision to cut the social housing budget in England by more than 50 per cent has led to calls from lettings agents, landlords, brokers, lenders and charities for the Government to do more to increase supply and ensure buy-to-let funding is dramatically increased.

The private rental sector is being relied upon to support demand for social housing yet is itself in a far from healthy position. It is already struggling to match existing demand, and the buy-to-let market is virtually unrecognisable from its peak three years ago. In addition, changes to welfare rules could put existing landlords off letting to those receiving housing benefit.

Whether all the vested interests quoted in the article really believe any of this crap is open to debate, but none of it makes sense. For a start, the government is increasing rents for social housing and/or reducing the generosity of Housing Benefit paid to 'private' landlords, in order (ostensibly) to save money. It seems a bit daft to expect the government to start spending more money on exactly the group they just stopped subsidising quite so much.

Or try this analogy: the government decides there are too many unsafe cars on the road, and that each car has to have an MOT test every six months instead of every year. If you run a garage that does MOT tests, would you be rejoicing at all the extra custom, or bleating that you need subsidies from the government to train up more mechanics etc?