The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has welcomed figures from the latest English Housing Survey, which revealed that the private and social rented sectors are now equal in size. The number of homes in the private rented sector has risen from 2.2 million in 2001 to 3.7 million today, while the total number of Housing Association and local authority-owned properties is now 3.8 million.
The private sector has also seen the biggest fall in the proportion of properties with damp problems, falling from 21 per cent in 2001 to 13 per cent in 2010. However, in spite of the rising number of available properties, the RLA maintains that the UK faces a chronic undersupply of rental homes.
“Whilst the number of properties in the sector has increased by over a million in ten years, all the figures persistently show a chronic shortage of privately rented properties, denying tenants genuine choices over their housing needs, and serving only to drive up rents,” said RLA chairman Alan Ward.
