Why are housing associations ripping up carpets between tenants? - Sarah Todd

How shocking to see on the news this week that as a rule of thumb housing associations tear up carpets between tenants and leave many with bare concrete floors.

Most landlords rip up flooring of all kinds - even laminate - when a tenant moves out leaving 1.2 million people in the UK with no carpet or flooring in their bedrooms and living areas, a survey suggests.

Of course, this makes it difficult to keep a home warm and while the law states landlords have to put flooring in kitchens and bathrooms this can take a long time to happen and other rooms never get sorted because they are the tenant’s responsibility - and they can’t afford it.

This week’s BBC news report on the subject highlighted the good work of a charity giving out ex-office carpet tiles to help tenants.

Of course, some of these homes will have been trashed by previous tenants and the only sensible solution is to take out any carpeting. But blanket skipping of carpets and flooring that could easily be cleaned is something all landlords should be ashamed of. Also the tenants. If they are getting a house it’s a bit much to expect everything to be brand spanking new. Clean, yes. But new? What about rolling up their sleeves and using a bit of elbow grease?

Understanding a council tax bill is beyond this writer but if any of the extortionate amount goes towards social housing and the ripping up rather than cleaning of carpets then it’s an outrage.

Just this week we’ve got a new-to-us dishwasher for £50. Ours broke and some friends had one spare in their garage after moving into a house with an integrated one already in situ. In this instance, to buy new when there was a perfectly good replacement on offer would have been a bit daft.

Everybody wants new. New phones, new furniture, new cars. All bought on the ‘never never’ as the older generation would have called credit.

We probably all feel a bit saturated with Royal news in the aftermath of the Coronation, but it seems somehow wrong not to make mention of our new Princess of Wales performing a piece on the piano for the Eurovision Song Contest to show solidarity with war-torn Ukraine.

What a woman. Miserable so-and-sos will point out that she had a wonderful private education and married a prince, but that’s missing the point. Here is a busy working mother who the other week was abseiling down a cliff face to promote the work of the mountain rescue and then, a few days later, putting on a performance that a concert pianist would have been proud of.

Anyone with daughters or granddaughters would do well to point out Her Royal Highness to them. Inspiring female role models are hard to come by in a world where social media influencers and reality television stars seem to rule the roost with their stupid pumped-up lips, false body parts and inane personalities.

Our 22 year-old daughter genuinely admires Princess Catherine. Perhaps that’s because as a little girl, she was encouraged to find heroes among women who were actually achieving something.

Her accomplishments aside, the other thing that’s great about the Princess is her humble beginnings. Her parents started married life in a very modest way and have worked incredibly hard to give their three children a better standard of living than they could ever have dreamed of.

Finally, having seen Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speak to young farmers’ club members in the uncarpeted setting of Thirsk Livestock Market when he was a mere junior minister there is no doubt he has an understanding of the agricultural sector. Nobody could be MP of a constituency like Richmond and not start to realise what makes farmers tick - and what ticks them off.

Regular readers would expect a comment on yesterday’s Farm to Fork Summit that the PM hosted in Downing Street to show support to British farmers. Pledging to commit to farmers’ interests in future trade deals is all well and good, but this Government has been promising that for years. A Defra Secretary that the industry actually respects instead of Therese Coffey - who has succeeded only in being booed by farmers - would be a start.