“The Government will put measures to tackle the high cost of renting at the heart of its plan to fix the broken housing market.”

The Housing White Paper included a section on providing a fairer deal for renters. However, no new initiatives were announced for the PRS that will impact on private residential landlords.

Banning letting agent fees £0– A continued commitment to bring forward a consultation “early this year” on the banning of fees to tenants, ahead of bringing forward legislation “as soon as Parliamentary time allows”. £0The majority of the sector beleives that a ban on fees will involve passing the costs on to landlords, who will then look to recoup these costs elsewhere; inevitably through higher rents. £0

Implementing Housing and Planning Act 2016 £0- A repeated pledge to implement the measures passed last year in the Act to improve standards in the sector.

Working to promote 3-year Tenancies – A new commitment to promote longer tenancies, but restricted to private rented homes delivered by housing associations and institutional investors (aka. Build-to-rent sector).

• Working with the British Property Federation and the National Housing Federation to encourage longer-term tenancies in the build-to-rent sector
• Will “consider” what more can be done for security of tenure for families in the rest of the PRS, while “encouraging continued investment

Attracting institutional investment for build-to-rent schemes £0- The Government is consulting on a range of measures to support more build-to-rent developments, including:

• Change the National Planning Policy Framework so authorities know they should plan proactively for build-to-rent where there is a need
• Make it easier for build-to-rent developers to offer affordable private rental homes instead of other types of affordable housing
• Ensure that family-friendly tenancies of three or more years are available for those tenants that want them on schemes that benefit from these changes.

Wider Housing Policy Announcements

Getting the right homes built in the right places £0– consulting on the principle of a new, standardised way of calculating housing demand to reflect current and future housing pressures:

• Making sure every part of the country has an up-to-date, sufficiently ambitious plan so that local communities decide where development should go
• Giving communities a stronger voice in the design of new housing to drive up the quality and character of new development, building on the success of neighbourhood planning
• Simplifying plan-making and making it more transparent, so it’s easier for communities to produce plans and easier for developers to follow them

Speeding up house building £0– giving local authorities the tools to speed up house building as well as powers to make sure developers build homes on time:

• Providing greater certainty for authorities that have planned for new homes and reducing the scope for local and neighbourhood plans to be undermined by changing the way that land supply for housing is assessed
• Taking steps to address skills shortages by growing the construction workforce
• Holding developers to account for the delivery of new homes through better and more transparent data and sharper tools to drive up delivery
• Holding local authorities to account through a new housing delivery test

Diversifying the market £0- action to help small independent builders enter the market given including through the £33bn Home Building Fund.

• Supporting custom-build homes with greater access to land and finance, giving more people more choice over the design of their home
• Encouraging more institutional investors into housing, including for building more homes for private rent, and encouraging family-friendly tenancies
• Supporting housing associations and local authorities to build more homes; and Boosting productivity and innovation by encouraging modern methods of construction in house building.

Should you wish to discuss this with us further, please do not hesiate to contact us. £0