The growing risk for families living in privately rented homes has prompted the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) to call on the Government to reform the way rented housing is taxed to support and encourage the supply of new, quality homes on the market.
Analysis by NRLA of Government data for the periods of April to June 2024 and October to December 2023 found that the number of privately renting households in England qualifying for council support to prevent homelessness after their landlord decided to sell rose from 5,400 to 7,130.
This, said NRLA, highlighted the need to encourage responsible landlords to remain in the sector.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will increase the time before a landlord can sell a property, but NRLA argues that more needs to be done to encourage responsible landlords to keep rental properties in the first place.
According to NRLA, Government data shows that a third of landlords are planning to sell properties they rent out in the next two years, up from 22%. Meanwhile, 7% say they are planning to provide new homes to rent in the next two years, compared with 11% in 2021.
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Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, said: “Right across the country it is tenants who are suffering as landlords decide to sell up. No amount of changing the rules about when landlords can sell will address the central problem in the rental market, namely a chronic shortage of homes to meet demand.
“What tenants need is greater choice. That means encouraging and supporting the vast majority of responsible landlords to stay and continue to provide decent quality housing.”
Homelessness in the UK surges
A separate study from Shelter shows homelessness has risen by 14% in 12 months to at least 354,000 people, which includes a total of 161,500 children.
There are also 326,000 people in temporary accommodation and almost 4,000 people sleeping rough each night, according to Shelter.
London is the most common city for homelessness, with one in 47 people living outside of a home. The town of Slough had the highest rate of people sleeping rough outside of the capital city, with one in 51 living in homelessness.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “As the country prepares to wind down and celebrate the festive season in our homes, it’s unimaginable that 354,000 will spend this winter homeless – many of them forced to shiver on the wet streets or in a mouldy hostel room with their entire family.
“Across England, extortionate private rents combined with a dire lack of genuinely affordable social homes is trapping more and more people in homelessness. Parents are spending sleepless nights worrying about their children growing up in cramped and often damaging temporary accommodation, as weeks and months turn into years without somewhere secure for them to call home.”
