During the recent Renters’ Rights Bill Committee a number of MPs voiced worries about how the bill might affect the private rental market.

But true to form, Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, claimed, “there is no evidence of a landlord exodus.”

The Renters’ Rights Bill will immediately abolish Section 21 and introduce Awaab’s law to the PRS.

The Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, Gideon Amos pointed out evidence suggesting that landlords will shift to short-term holiday lets because of the Renters' Rights Bill.

The MP said: “Landlord groups have argued that the Bill risks pushing landlords out of the sector and into short-term holiday lets.

“One of the landlord’s associations estimates a 1% to 2% drop in rental stock. There is agreement on the topic across the sector, and there is a plausible worry that without any additional controls there will be a leeching of stock into more short-term holiday lets.

“For locations that particularly suffer from that phenomenon, the consequences could be the closure of businesses and services locally.”

However, Mr Pennycook rejected the warning of landlords switching to holiday lets or selling when claiming “good landlords have nothing to fear”.

He said: “It is important to state that this government value the contribution made by responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, and believe they must enjoy robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back.

“As such, good landlords have nothing to fear from our reforms and should be in no rush to change legitimate business models, as I have said repeatedly.

“The private rented sector has doubled in size since the early 2000s. There is no evidence of an exodus since reform was put on the table by the previous government. Our proposals will ensure that landlords have the confidence and support they need to continue to invest and operate in the sector.”

The Housing Minister’s comments were made despite growing evidence that landlords are exiting the market.

The Guild of Property Professionals contends that the Renters’ Rights Bill will spark “an exodus,” and a trade association claims that many landlords will opt to sell up out of the sector rather than purchasing new properties.

During the Committee meeting, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer came out with the party’s stance emphasising and the necessity of incorporating rent controls, demanding rent controls must be introduced into the Bill.

She told the meeting: “I encourage the government and the Committee to look to European countries where rent caps co-exist with large private rented sectors, such as in Germany, where more than half the population rents privately and where they also have in-tenancy rent caps.

“The argument against rent controls is that they will break the private rented sector, but it is already broken, with immediate and severe consequences right now, for all the reasons we heard about in the evidence sessions.

“However, we need to talk about the risks attached to any policy of in-tenancy and between-tenancy rent controls. Any system to introduce them needs to be carefully designed and built.”

The Housing Minister shut down Ms Denyer demand by explaining the government believes that by introducing rent controls it “could have a detrimental impact on tenants and cause supply issues”.