Private rented housing

Private rented housing is a vital and growing part of the housing market comprising almost 14 per cent of all households, or nearly three million homes in England. The private rented sector offers a flexible form of tenure and meets a wide range of housing needs. It contributes to greater labour market mobility and is increasingly the tenure of choice for young people.

Background

The private rented sector is already governed by a well established legal framework and we will not introduce any further regulations. This will ensure that the sector is free to grow in response to market conditions.

In the past, over-regulation drove landlords out of the rental market. We don't want to introduce any measures which would form a barrier to potential landlords considering renting out their properties. Over-regulation would reduce the number of properties to rent and wouldn't help tenants or landlords.

What we are doing

We are keen to encourage responsible letting through the use of voluntary accreditation schemes for landlords and letting agents. These can offer landlords the benefit of a market advantage and tenants a guaranteed standard of accommodation and service. We are working with the leading industry bodies to examine how to increase the use of voluntary schemes by landlords and agents.

We are also keen to encourage a wider range of investors and an improvement in standards.

Councils have a wide range of powers at their disposal to tackle the minority of rogue landlords who fail in their responsibilities. We are working with them, to ensure that any barriers to prevent them using those powers, are lifted.

Council powers include:

those requiring landlords to take action to rectify hazards in their property
where landlords resist, the ability to carry out improvements and charge the landlord; and
discretionary licensing powers to tackle areas blighted by poorly managed privately rented stock.