Recommendation 25

The Government should assess whether the data held by the VOA could be used to determine justified rent increases in the PRS. If it concludes that it could, we recommend either that this information be made public so that landlords and tenants can easily see what a justified rent increase would be or, if it cannot be, that the VOA be given initial responsibility for determining whether an increase is justified, with the tribunal serving as an appeals court. If the Government determines that the data is not suitable for this purpose, it should consider ways of collecting it. One way might be for it to require landlords to declare rent levels through the property portal. Whatever the Government chooses to do, it should explore alternative mechanisms to those currently used for establishing justified rent increases with a view to removing some of the burden from landlords and tenants themselves.