York RLA's Response to Article 4 Direction (by Niall S McTurk, Chair York RLA)

The decision made on 1st November by CYC is discriminatory to our student population and will be particularly damaging to young people, the unemployed and those on low incomes who wish to live in York.

From April next year it will serve to increasingly restrict to supply of the cheapest form of rental accommodation across the whole of York which should be of major concern to both employers and citizens alike.

Reduced supply coupled with an ever increasing demand will force rents to rise and take away the incentive that any good landlord has of having to constantly improve their housing standards.

As an alternative to Article 4, York RLA proposed a joint strategy with the Student Unions of both our Universities, aimed at targeting the small number of bad houses, landlords and tenants who occasionally cause concern to their neighbours. In addition we proposed developing and possibly funding a Landlord and/or Property Accreditation Scheme to be run by CYC in order to encourage and promote best practice and, where appropriate, to identify and prosecute bad landlords. This proposal was totally ignored.

We find it quite amazing that CYC can totally ignore the strong arguments against introducing an Article 4 Directive from York's business community, who fear the negative impact it will have on affordable accommodation for their employees, York's largest Employer, the University of York and their 20,000 students who already face increasing financial hardship with higher tuition fees kicking in next year and of course York RLA, whose members provide high quality homes for around 10,000 citizens.

It was noted that CYC's Labour Cabinet did not even debate or discuss any of the valid objections raised and merely proceeded to approve their draconian measures without any regard for the consequences. The very clear impression given to all who attended the meeting was that the decision had already been made prior to the meeting.