Letters: Government control needed over rentals

The Government needs to take control of the rental market, says a reader. Photo / File

With reference to the letter from Alf Hoyle (Letters, November 14).

I spent years investigating landlords and I can tell you, in my opinion most of them were not nice.

My argument is simple, there should be no private landlords, all rentals should be overseen by a government agency with regulated rents that people can afford, and with properly enforced standards of property maintenance.

Houses should be priced so that people are able to afford to buy. A house is a home, not a commodity used by people just to make money.

I have spoken to more tenants than you have had hot dinners so I will rest assured that what I state in my letters is correct. (Abridged)

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Support teachers

We have to support the poor old teachers in their agony. I quit the profession after three years of frustration and took several more to pay off my student debt.

NZ should close down the Ministry of Education and purchase Cambridge University's entire curriculum (which is excellent and fit for our purpose).

Why? One of the great problems teachers here have is the scandalous confusion the "new curriculum" has produced and will continue to produce in schools.

Cambridge's product would end the social engineering that currently controls what teachers are obliged to do at work: then we would see some meaningful content and constructive activity at our institutions of learning. (Abridged)

GJ Philip
Taupō