Recommendation 17

The data suggests that the reduction in the size of the PRS, which the Minister partly attributed to the covid pandemic, began three years before the pandemic, in 2016–17. For this reason, we see little reason to believe the decline is short term, although the pandemic may have exacerbated the trend. The only certainty is that the Government does not know what is happening in the PRS and has not said what role it wants it to play in the wider housing mix. In particular, it is difficult not to suspect, given the changes to how the buy-to-let sector is taxed, that the Government would like landlords with smaller portfolios to leave the sector. Whatever the Government’s ultimate intentions, however, there can be no doubt that landlords with small portfolios are currently critical to the provision of private rented accommodation, and the impact of any measures that could make the sector less attractive to them should be carefully thought through.