Further boosts are expected for the rapidly growing build-to-rent industry.
In this year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced a £1bn fund to help schemes get off the ground. Answering questions in the Commons, CLG minister last week Don Foster dropped a heavy hint that there is more to come.
Asked by Green MP Caroline Lucas and Labour/Co-op MP Meg Hillier about the private rented sector, Foster said: “It is absolutely right to say that we need to increase the availability of privately rented accommodation and that is why the Government have introduced £1bn of funding through various schemes to provide support for that. I suspect that further announcements will be made in a relatively short time.”
Lucas was asking about making longer tenancies available, while Hillier was pointing out that in her constituency, Hackney, more people rent privately than own their own homes.
The exchanges between the politicians referred to the reluctance of buy-to-let lenders to accept longer tenancies.
Housing minister Mark Prisk was also asked in the Commons about tenancy deposit schemes.
He said that in England and Wales more than seven million deposits have been protected since it became a legal requirement in April 2007 up until the end of this March.
He added: “During this time there have been 91,802 cases dealt with by the free alternative resolution service offered by each of the schemes.”
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