A quarter of the borough’s councillors are private landlords

A quarter of Swindon Borough councillors are private landlords, letting out properties.

At a recent full meeting of the council, where a motion about private rental properties was to be debated, at least  14 members present declared an interest as they are a private landlord, but none said it was an interest that would prevent them from contributions to the debate or voting on the motion.

That’s  24.5 per cent of the full complement of 27 councillors – but there may be more.

There were eight Labour group members who declared an interest: Councillors Junab Ali, Rahjia Ali, Repi Begum, Jane Milner-Barry, deputy Mayor Neil Hopkins and the cabinet members Kevin Small, Marina Strinkovsky and Ray Ballman.

For the Conservatives, Councillors Vijay Manro, Kevin Parry, Barbara Parry, Sudha Sri Nukana, Suresh Gattapur and the group leader Gary Sumner  declared that they were also landlords.

Councillors are required to list their property holdings and those of their spouse or domestic partner in the register of interests they all have to fill in, and those who own their own homes tend to include that property.

Councillor John Ballman declares an interest in the same two properties, his wife, Cllr Ray Ballman lists, and Councillor Dale Heenan declares that his partner owns a property in Didcot, outside the borough.