Industry group welcomes House of Lords' swipe at Build To Rent

The Residential Landlords Association has welcomed a report by the House of Lords that institutional investors behind the Build To Rent sector “have so far achieved little” in terms of providing for the private rental market.

The RLA says the new Theresa May-led government now needs to back the UK’s buy to let landlords, and the association praises the Lords’ report for saying that ministers addressing the country’s housing supply “should not overlook the role the existing housing stock plays.”

The report also hit out at the government for “creating uncertainty in the already dysfunctional housing market” through an array of tax changes and house-buying subsidy schemes like Help To Buy, while neglecting the social and private rental sectors. 

The RLA is now calling on May and new Chancellor Philip Hammond to drop their predecessors’ attacks on the buy to let market and ensure that the tax and planning systems encourage individual landlords to invest in new properties and bring empty homes back into use.

“This report confirms everything we’ve known. Corporate investors are simply failing to develop the new homes to rent we need. The vast majority of landlords are individuals, renting out just a few properties” says RLA chairman Alan Ward.

“With the right planning and tax policies, they are ideally placed to invest in new homes to rent and to make better use of the country’s existing housing stock, including converting large properties into more useable smaller units of accommodation.”