Introduction by Dan ChannerThe Private Rental Sector has come of age. PRS has increased in absolute size and in terms of households it accommodates.

Approximately 1 million more people renting than 5 years ago. In 2007 about 13% of UK households were renting, now its almost 17%Some forecasters believe in ’20 by 20 – that’s 20% of the country renting by 2020

As a result of this growth a Select Committee of 10 cross bench MPs have written a report on how to “improve” the rental sector

Some of these ideas will be discussed by the panel.

Does the Sector need fixing?

• There is currently no legislation to regulate the operations of letting agents. While 60% of landlords are members of regulatory schemes, 35% operate in their own stead. This places risk on the tenants and landlords.

• The huge growth in the private sector has added pressure on the model, which has not experienced this level since pre WW2– a new management model is

needed to accommodate this rapid growth.

Enforcement of Legislation•The enforcement of legislation and landlord regulation is a complex and highly debated issue with the panel, whom were not able to reach a consensus or prescribe a exact formula for how this may be implemented.

•The panel agreed that any prescriptive formula would have to be extremely carefully thought through – Giles Peaker argued that even an extremely complex model would inevitably have cracks, loopholes, category errors and overlaps.

Licensing of Landlords•Finders Keepers’ Landlord survey discovered that a large majority of Landlords surveyed were in support of landlord licensing.

•Concern this is just additional red tape rather than a conscientious effort to improve landlord standards.

•Increasing overall cost of renting with virtually no real benefit to tenants or landlords.

•How do we regulate?

Tenancy duration

•The panel agreed that the private sector benefited from its flexibility and any interference such as giving tenants the right to demand longer leases would reduce flexibility and supply.

•A panel member suggested that allowing tenants to request a longer tenancy would enable greater stability, but not enforcing a set time would maintain the flexibility within the private rented sector that many tenants value.

Rent Caps or Predictable rents• The Select Committee has argued for predictable rent increases.

This is in conflict with the statement made by the Housing Minister to not cap rent prices.

• Tunke Ekpe suggested that the market should be left to make the prices decisions – there are numerous factors which affect the rental price which can not be accounted for the broad instrument that is a level cap.

• Christopher Hamer argued for predictable rents in place of caps, which would provide stability for tenants without the rigidity associated with caps, he also believes that rental caps could have negative knock on effect on other areas of the market.

• Another concern raised was that caps would create an incentive for landlords to end tenancies rather than renew.

Rent Caps or Predictable rents• The Select Committee has argued for predictable rent increases.

This is in conflict with the statement made by the Housing Minister to not cap rent prices.

• Tunke Ekpe suggested that the market should be left to make the prices decisions – there are numerous factors which affect the rental price which can not be accounted for the broad instrument that is a level cap.

• Christopher Hamer argued for predictable rents in place of caps, which would provide stability for tenants without the rigidity associated with caps, he also believes that rental caps could have negative knock on effect on other areas of the market.

• Another concern raised was that caps would create an incentive for landlords to end tenancies rather than renew.