New Tory Housing Secretary Sajid Javid was Director of his brother’s £11m buy-to-let property firm

Theresa May and the Conservatives have come in for fierce criticism today after it was exposed that the brother of newly appointed Housing Secretary Sajid Javid is the owner of a buy-to-let property company worth an estimated £11m – a firm which the new Housing Secretary Mr Javid was, incredibly, a Director of as recently as 2005.

The revelation, exposed by Private Eye this week, has raised serious concerns about significant potential conflicts of interest within the Tory Cabinet in regards to housing policy.

Added to the fact that he was a Director of his own brother’s multi-million pound property business, the new Housing Secretary, Mr Javid, is also a private landlord himself.

Furthermore, Javid’s voting record on housing shows that he has little interest in supporting the vast majority of the general public’s interests when it comes to providing secure and affordable housing for all.

Javid has previously voted to phase out secure tenancies for the very poorest people – those living in social housing. He was also one of 72 landlord Tory MPs to vote against a bill requiring private landlords such as himself to ensure that their properties were ‘fit for human habitation‘.

With a direct family member of the new Housing Minister having such a sizeable personal interest in house prices remaining high, as well as his own interests as a private landlord, it is utterly incredible that the Tories have been allowed to get away with promoting Javid to a high ranking position with such an obvious conflict of interest.

Not only are over 80 Tory MPs landlords, but the new housing minister (as Private Eye exposes) has rather strong links to a company making millions from Housing. pic.twitter.com/HSgZ4LoC3u

— The Pileus (@thepileus) January 10, 2018

How can the general public possibly expect the new Housing Minister to implement policies that will increase the housing stock, and thus decrease house prices, which would negatively affect both his own rental income and his own brother’s business?

It is truly astounding that in this day and age we continue to allow our own elected representatives to decide policies over things which directly affect their own bank balance.

Being a Member of Parliament should be a monumental honour to anybody lucky enough to be elected, and people who want to go into politics should have the best interests of the country at heart – not their own pocket.

It is clear that over the past 40 years, the entire housing market has been intentionally stacked against younger generations – to the benefit of those who are lucky enough to already own property.

We are now in a position where a couple, both with full time jobs, are unable to afford even a deposit on a moderately sized property. This situation is a world away from how easy it was to afford a house for our parent’s generation.

If you only read one thing today make it this pic.twitter.com/uoJHc6k2SU

— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) September 16, 2017

The current housing situation has been made substantially worse by the fact that the very people we have elected to represent us are clearly protecting their own business interests when they pass legislation.

No elected representative should even have the chance to vote based on their own vested interests. And if potential Members of Parliament are unwilling to give up their own business interests in order to pursue a career in politics, then it surely only proves that they are more concerned about making money than improving the lives of the people of Britain.

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