29th
Mar 2017
A Foundation set up by a major Building Society is funding the University of York to carry out a thorough review of the private rented sector to find whether it meets the requirements of tenants, and will the raft of tax changes and regulations improve the sector.
The University of York's Centre for Housing Policy will be conducting the probe with Julie Regg and David Rhodes at the helm; the authors of The Private Rented Sector: Its Contribution and Potential in 2008, affectionately known as the Rugg Review.
Industry experts and stakeholders will be contacted and if interested asked to provide information backed with evidence in the near future. The Foundation is also funding the same team for a different study on how much the PRS approaches the housing needs of vulnerable tenants to be published with the main report.
Helen Hayes MP, a member of the all-party parliamentary group on Housing and Planning, said: “It’s clear to me that while recent changes to the private rented sector have been significant, particularly around its size and the wide-ranging circumstances of the tenants living in it, unfortunately these changes are not at all well understood.”
She continued: "The 2008 Rugg Review work was extremely useful and well-regarded, so I warmly welcome this opportunity for it to be revisited, giving politicians and policymakers an up-to-date and robust picture. I expect this review of the sector to pave the way for meaningful policy changes and interventions”
The chief executive of the Foundation Leigh Pearce says that the review is needed now more than ever “to provide a comprehensive picture of the private rented sector, as there is little agreement about what is truly happening.”
Pearce added:”We see a sector that is providing homes for those who have been homeless while at the same time, people are being made homeless from the sector”.
The review is set to be published sometime during next year's summer.
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