A buy-to-let lender is claiming that its latest survey finds a majority of UK tenants have no wish in buying their own home, which is a bit of a slap in the face for Labour's proposed Rent to Buy scheme.

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The research was carried out with 2,000 UK tenants and states that 42% are interested in eventually buying their own home.

The vast majority of older tenants - 87% - have no intention of buying a home in the foreseeable future.

Surprisingly private renters aged 35 - 44 only 46% have aspirations to own their own homes however in the younger age bracket of 25 to 34 year olds, more than 60% want to purchase a home soon.

The survey also found that 47% of women are more interested in buying a home than men as only 34% of males wanted to purchase a home.

London has the highest number of renters wanting to buy their own home with 48% and Northern Ireland was a close second with 47%.

Private tenants in the South West and Wales were the lowest at 37% of renters even with the areas' relatively cheaper prices.

Around 25% of tenants are happy with not being tied down to living in a particular place or area.

Chief executive of the buy-to-let specialist lender, John Goodall, says: “Conversations around the private rental sector often assume the bulk of renters are simply biding their time until they can buy a house. However, the changing face of employment and a thirst for flexible living mean renting is more attractive than ever, and landlords should reflect this in their interactions with tenants.

“It’s crucial that investment in the private rental sector becomes a priority. What use is Labour’s ‘right to buy’ policy if renters have no interest in doing so? Instead the government must focus on encouraging purpose-built rental properties and cease its penalisation of landlords.”

McDonnell did not mention the Rent to Buy scheme in his keynote speech at the conference, however it should not be forgotten about his comments in the Financial Times' interview last month. In it he stated that tenants will have every right to buy their rented home, irrespective of the landlords' wishes.

He said: “You’d want to establish what is a reasonable price, you can establish that and then that becomes the right to buy … You (the government) set the criteria. I don’t think it’s complicated.”

He slated landlords by saying that they were only interested in making money by failing to reinvest in their properties and have no real interest in tenants.

McDonnell said: “We’ve got a large number of landlords who are not maintaining these properties and are causing overcrowding and these problems. In my street now, a third of the houses are right-to-buy, badly maintained, overcrowded; it’s horrendous."