London Assembly calls for "tough" reforms to private rented sector

The committee has today published a report (58-page / 737KB PDF) in which it sets out a number of recommended measures, which it says aims to create a balance of power between landlords and tenants.

Recommendations by the committee include measures to stabilise rent, which the committee said are becoming "increasingly unaffordable even for Londoners on average wages", to introduce a requirement for landlords to register to be able to operate in London and to impose higher penalties on landlords in breach of regulations.

The committee also recommended that the current six month minimum tenancy period for homeless households placed in the private rented sector as an alternative to social housing should be increased to 24 months and that the Mayor should set up a 'decent homes fund' for the private rented sector to allow landlords to access low-cost loans for property improvements.

The report said that the capital's private rented sector has grown by 75% in the 10 years to 2011 and that one in four Londoners now rents privately. It predicted that, within 12 years, the sector will overtake owner occupancy to become the largest housing tenure in the capital.

The report is the result of a major review of London's private rented housing which the committee was appointed to undertake in July last year.

"The private rented sector has always played an important role in housing Londoners," said chair of the committee Len Duvall. "Our committee is very clear that the sector should continue to play such a role and that it should grow in a way that increases the overall supply of new homes."

"Many will argue vehemently that the recommendations that empower tenants, bring sense to rent rises and ensure better standards by landlords and letting agents will lead to a catastrophic loss of homes in London; that landlords will simply pack it all in and walk away from the market, taking their homes with them. I and my political colleagues, some from different political parties, do not come to that conclusion," Duvall said.

"However, increasingly hard-pressed tenants will no doubt question how most other western economies can have a better regulated sector whilst also enjoying much larger, more affordable and better functioning private rented sectors than we do. Why can’t we do the same in London?" he added.