Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
The Department lacks good enough data to understand the nature and extent of problems renters...
Conclusion
The Department lacks good enough data to understand the nature and extent of problems renters face. The Department lacks sufficient data on the challenges facing landlords, tenants, and local authorities within the sector. For example, it lacks robust data on complaints, overcrowding, harassment and evictions, and has a limited understanding of who is vulnerable and how this impacts their renting experience. Many issues facing both tenants and landlords are closely related to other policy areas (such as housing benefits, tax laws, and court systems), and data must be shared across government departments to improve understanding and inform decision-making. The Department also lacks data to evaluate the impact of recent legislative changes on the overall operation of the market, and so is unable Regulation of private renting 7 to benchmark success. For example, in 2015 the Department introduced changes in the Deregulation Act to prevent retaliatory eviction of tenants who raise complaints. However, it does not have data on landlords’ reasons for evicting tenants, meaning it does not know how effective the changes have been. Recommendation: The Department should develop a coherent data strategy to identify and collect the data it needs to: • understand the problems renters are facing; and • evaluate the impact of legislative changes. Once complete, this strategy should be shared with this Committee and the Levelling up, Housing and Communities Committee.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2023 5.2 The department utilises a range of data from various sources to inform policy decisions and ensure effective private rented sector (PRS) regulation, regularly engaging with other government departments, LAs, and stakeholders to enhance insights. 5.3 The annual English Housing Survey (EHS) provides detailed insight into people’s housing circumstances and condition, including private renters. The 2020/2021 EHS headline report is published and will be followed by a series of detailed topic reports in summer 2022. 5.4 Additional analysis on aspects of tenant experience is conducted as required to further understanding. The department commissioned a segmentation of private renters based on socio-economic demographic characteristics, using 2019/2020 EHS data, to explore variations in housing experiences and attitudes among different renters' cohorts. 5.5 The department is working to further develop its approach to data to support its renters reform programme, including improving data on security, quality and local authority level data. The department is conscious of needing to balance reporting demands on LAs, which come with resource and cost implications, with a need to ensure robust oversight of the sector and will continue to work closely with LAs and other stakeholders to support this. 5.6 The department recognises the importance of understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of interventions and is committed to monitoring and evaluating reform programme impacts. 5.7 The department will continue to publish relevant PRS data and will build on our existing data, address gaps where needed, and consider how best to evaluate future PRS reforms. We will continue to work closely with LAs and other stakeholders to consider what further data requirements to fully understand impacts of future reforms and outcomes for tenants and landlords.