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Government focus on rental welcomed

The BPF has welcomed interest expressed by housing minister Caroline Flint aimed at increasing investment in the private rented sector.

The minister’s statement today said:

“Attracting institutional investment into new private rented property is an important factor in the current debate about housing supply.

“Success in designing a financial model that supports new build designed for a broader private rented market would be an attractive product in the housing market. Such investment models could support more professional approaches to being a landlord and help improve the overall quality of the sector.”

Ian Fletcher, British Property Federation residential director, said:

"Rents are rising and this is a prime opportunity for the government to bring in big investment to create a branded rental sector. Rental delivers choice, flexibility and best of all affordability that millions need. What we need now is for the government to work with local authorities to encourage build-to-let, because buy-to-let has been choked off by the credit crunch. Longer term there is also a huge issue about how to make best use of the private rented sector in the government’s plans for growth points, growth areas and eco towns.

“There is no silver bullet to solving current housing conditions. We need a sustained effort to support different circumstances now and in the future. Today’s announcement is simply a further step in what will be a long walk towards restoring confidence in our housing markets and meeting the government’s longer-term housing aspirations.”

Our responses to other aspects of today’s announcement are below. Use these as quotes if you wish.

Rent to buy

The BPF hopes that the government follows the example of the latest low cost home ownership schemes, where public and private sector bidders were able to compete to provide such a scheme. The immediacy of current circumstances may dictate that the pilot is Housing Corporation-led, but any more general roll out should be open to private and public sector bidders.

House builder rescue schemes and mixed tenure sustainable communities

The government is right to have an eye on past mistakes, one of which was to create mono tenure estates. The BPF believes that the government should consider how the private rented sector will be built into house builder rescue schemes and how private sector investment can be used to provide such units, saving the public purse.

Mortgage restoration

The BPF thinks that some restoration of the wholesale mortgage market is vital and we hope the Crosby Review expected tomorrow will not be a damp squib.

A review of rental being undertaken by Julie Rugg and David Rhodes, from the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York will report in October 2008.

For more info on build-to-let, interviews, stats or background, please call the BPF on 020 7802 0113.