COMMENT: Landlords have ‘nothing to fear from looming Decent Homes Standard’

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Nearly two thirds of landlords support the Government’s plans to introduce a set of minimum standards for the private rented sector, it has been claimed.

BTL lender Paragon Bank says its polling among some 500 landlords reveals 62% either strongly or generally supported the Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector.

Richard Rowntree (pictured), Paragon Bank’s MD of Mortgages, says: “The vast majority of landlords have nothing to fear from a Decent Homes Standard as they are providing a good quality home to their tenants already.

“It’s the minority of landlords who don’t meet these standards that are tarnishing the wider reputation of the sector.”

This new standard was included within the government’s recent ‘A fairer private rented sector’ white paper published last year, which is expected to enter parliament as draft legislation next month.

As well as the Decent Homes Standard, it will also include extra cash for local authority pilot schemes to bolster policing of bad landlords, something Paragon says good operators within the PRS are increasing annoyed about.

Three quarters of those polled said they felt frustrated that Local Authorities don’t act against landlords who let sub-standard homes.

Decent improvements

Despite this, a new report by the lender points out that the Government’s own data highlights how the ratio of non-decent homes within the PRS has been reducing over the past 15 years from 44% in 2008 to 23% today.

The addition of good quality homes has diluted the presence of poorer stock; in 2008, 1.8 million privately rented homes were classed as decent, rising to 3.3 million in 2021 – an 83% increase.

There has also been a reduction in the number of properties classed as non-decent – falling from 1.4 million to 990,000, a 29% reduction.

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