As Renters Cry Out For Change, Ministers Bury Their Heads in the Sand

Private renting used to be a stepping stone – a short-term place to stay before moving on, usually to home ownership, often to a social home. But with the number of private renters now reaching 9 million in England, media coverage has in recent years focused in on the problems of insecure, expensive, and poor quality private rented homes for Generation Rent, unable to get a long-term home of their own.  So the investigation of the CLG Select Committee into private renting is welcome. Their report makes a number of sensible and uncontroversial recommendations about improving renting, and fixing what it calls an “immature market”. At Shelter we would put it more strongly –the private renting market is broken. Renters have little ability to shop around for better deals, little redress when their landlord acts illegally or fails to maintain a property, and no choice but to accept end of year rent hikes. We hope the government will waste no time in agreeing to implement the report’s recommendations in full.  Read more on the Shelter website.