A House of Lords report claims that the private rental sector has become ”increasingly unaffordable” and says out welcomes the proliferation of Build To Rent purpose built lettings apartments. 

The report – called Meeting Housing Demand and released this week – says that in 2019/20, the private rented sector accounted for 4.4m or 19 per cent of households in England.

As of 2019/20, private renters had on average lived in their accommodation for 4.3 years, which is considerably shorter than for social renters (12.2 years) or owner-occupiers (17.4 years).

The report says that in 1980, the average working-age family renting privately spent 12 per cent of its income on housing; today it spends almost three times this proportion, 32 per cent, while private renters in London spend an average of 42 per cent of their household income on rent.

It also quotes an independent housing policy consultant saying: “The private rented sector is by far the most expensive, by far the lowest quality and by far the least popular. It is absolutely the worst possible tenure for almost everybody in it.” 

He adds “Most people who are private renting would much rather be in something cheaper and higher quality. Who would not be? That means either social renting or owner occupation. It is absolutely the tenure of last resort.”

The report goes on to say: “Those living in the private rented sector are more likely to live in poor quality, overcrowded conditions than owner–occupiers, and often have limited forms of redress. Many tenants who would previously have been in social housing are now living in expensive private rented accommodation, with their rents subsidised by housing benefit, which is costing the government around £23.4 billion per year. 

“A transition to spending more on the social housing stock would address this problem over time and help meet the most critical needs.

“We welcome the expansion of ‘Build To Rent’ where it contributes towards a net addition to housing supply.”

Despite its scathing comments on the private rental sector, most of the report is actually given over to even stronger criticisms of the planning system, contributing towards the long-term failure of successive governments to meet house building targets.

Committee chair Baroness Neville-Rolfe says: “The government’s ambitious target of 300,000 new homes per year will only be met if government takes action to remove the barriers for housebuilders, particularly for SMEs who 35 years ago built 39 per cent of new homes but now build just 10 per cent.

“Uncertainty and the absence of a clear policy direction has only exacerbated housing problems. Our report provides a package of proposals to help deliver much needed housing and address the critical undersupply of new homes.”