Congress Introduces Bill to Block Hedge Funds from Buying Single-Family Homes

The proposed legislation aims to help U.S. home buyers who can’t afford to outbid deep-pocketed institutional investors.

www.planetizen.com 

Earlier this month, in response to the growing U.S. housing affordability crisis, Democratic lawmakers from both houses of Congress introduced bills that, if passed, would ban hedge funds from purchasing single-family housing market, reports Chris Clow of HousingWire. They would also be required to sell off all single family homes they own over a decade.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon introduced the “End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023” to the Senate. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington introduced the House version.

Clow’s article also cites a piece from the New York Times that reported that Democratic Reps. Jeff Jackson and Alma Adams of North Carolina introduced a separate bill, the “American Neighborhoods Protection Act,” which would require corporations owning more than 75 single family homes to pay a yearly fee of $10,000 per home into a housing trust fund to be used for down payment assistance.

According to the Urban Institute, as of June 22 institutional investors owned 3 percent of all single-family rentals nationwide, but in more affordable markets, their market shares are considerably higher; the top three are Atlanta (28.6 percent), Jacksonville (24.2 percent), and Charlotte (20.1 percent). More recently, data analytics company CoreLogic reported that despite the anemic housing market, investors have been busy, buying nearly 26 percent of single-family homes that sold in June 2023.

“You have created a situation where ordinary Americans aren’t bidding against other families, they’re bidding against the billionaires of America for these houses,” Sen. Merkley told the New York Times. “And it’s driving up rents and it’s driving up the home prices.”

The lawmakers acknowledge the legislation is unlikely to pass given the current climate in Congress. Still, Congress must start the conversation on this issue,” Rep. Smith said in an interview with the Times.

The number of patients who might not exist but are registered with GPs has risen by almost two-thirds over the last five years, figures suggest.

www.theguardian.com 

‘Ghost patients’ refers to when more people are registered with GP practices than are in the population. GPs are paid for patients on their list, meaning practices could be receiving millions of extra pounds for people who may not be real.

NHS Digital figures analysed by the PA news agency show 62.9 million patients were registered at a GP practice in England on 1 November last year.

This compares with Office for National Statistics estimates of 57.1 million people in England in 2022, meaning about 5.8 million ghost patients were registered with surgeries.

This figure is 61% higher than five years ago – 2018 data suggests there were about 3.6 million ghost patients.

GP surgeries received an average of £164.64 per registered patient in 2022-23, meaning practices could have received about £955m for patients who might not exist.

The Royal College of GPs said surgeries “try hard to keep their patient lists up to date” and are not deliberately profiting by keeping more patients on their lists than actually exist.

It said some patients, including babies, may not be included in the count, while others have left the surgery or moved elsewhere. But the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the public is unfairly subsidising GP practices for patients who may not exist.

It called for lists to be amended if unknown users cannot be found.

In 2019, the NHS Counter Fraud Authority began investigating whether GPs were claiming for nonexistent patients, but this investigation was halted and has not been reopened.

Tom Ryan, a researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “When it comes to GP patients, the numbers simply don’t add up. Taxpayers are subsiding service users who may not even exist.

“Unless these missing patients can be found, funding for GP practices should be amended accordingly.”

Dr Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “GP practices try hard to keep their patient lists as up to date as possible, but this relies on timely and accurate information about the movement of patients so that individuals are not inappropriately removed from a GP list.

“So-called ghost patients are nothing sinister, and are not a case of surgeries deliberately profiting by keeping patients on their lists when they shouldn’t be there – they are a records management issue.

“This known discrepancy between the estimated size of the local population and the number of people registered at GP practices can occur for a number of reasons.

“In addition to list inflation, which incorrectly increases the count of patients, there are also issues associated with under-coverage.”

An NHS England spokesperson said it works with GP surgeries to review and update patient lists “and it is vital that practices do this on a regular basis, so they are as accurate as possible”.

A spokesperson for the NHS Counter Fraud Authority said: “The NHSCFA had planned to undertake an intelligence assessment on the nature and scale of GP capitation fraud in 2019.

“This was to improve our understanding of the risk posed to the NHS by fraud and error in general practice, primarily as regards GP capitation [the money paid to GPs for every registered patient].

“It was effectively halted by difficulties in obtaining core data and our priorities shifted from this position with the NHS response to Covid-19.

“We have not yet revisited the issue as we direct our resources to where the intelligence indicates the most appropriate priorities sit.”

The South West has the highest community pharmacy vacancy rate in England.

Two universities are joining forces to try to tackle the urgent need for more pharmacists, particularly in the south-west of England.

What a good idea!

Did anybody in all the following unaccountable overseeing organisations such as: the Heart of the South West, our Local Enterprise Partnership; or the Great South West reborn as the Great South West Partnership (made up of businesses, universities, LEPs and local authorities, including Dorset Council, BCP Council and Dorset LEP; think of it? Too busy devising strategies?

What part did any of the local NHS overseeing organisations play or were they too busy flicking the beads on their abacus? – Owl

John Ayres www.bbc.co.uk

The University of Bath is working with the University of Plymouth to deliver its well-established MPharm course at both institutions.

Pharmacists are on the government’s national shortage occupations list, especially in the South West, which has the highest community pharmacy vacancy rate in England.

With no pharmacy degree courses west of Bath, course leaders said they hoped students studying in Plymouth would then fill local vacancies when they graduated.

Bespoke teaching facilities

Lyn Canning, director of Practice-based Learning in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bath, said the plan, supported by NHS England, “gives us that opportunity to produce more graduates”.

She added: “The other thing it does is gives us an opportunity to have brand new bespoke pharmacy practice teaching facilities that are then available within the south-west.”

Prof John Curnow, the University of Plymouth’s deputy vice chancellor, said the partnership would see pharmacy students learn “in practice-based and clinical teaching spaces, with consultation rooms and simulation equipment”.

Rhiannon Hardie is a recently qualified pharmacist who studied at Bath and returned to Cornwall, where she grew up.

She said she believed the new scheme would offer an opportunity which was not available when she was training and it would attract others from the county to the career.

“There are loads of opportunities down here,” she said.

“I can definitely spread my wings and, now that I have qualified, there are lots of different things that I could do down here that I liked the idea of.

“Cornwall as a whole can be quite a deprived area … [but students] wouldn’t have to go away and spend all this money to stay at university if it is right on their doorstep.”

The course would be delivered in close collaboration with NHS England and local stakeholders, bosses said.

Changes to pharmacy education will allow pharmacists to prescribe medication on registration from 2026.