Ripe for regulation?

A fall out from the previous government housing policy is now clear. The coalition government has decided not to introduce plans which would have provided much better measures to regulate the private rented sector. This is surprising given that the Conservative pre-manifesto policy wanted to provide greater incentives to increase the number of professional long-term landlords into the market through tax incentives.

The proposal for a new regulatory structure was considered necessary in order to encourage greater compliance with the legislative provisions already in place, so as to raise minimum standards of housing condition within the private rented sector, where too many rented properties are poorly managed. The proposal focused on creating a National Register of Landlords.

The maintenance of such a register was with a view to achieving the objectives of:
l better safeguards for tenants including a reduced risk of fraud;
l assistance for existing local authority enforcement activity, including proper targeting of measures;
l to provide information