Demographic data from the latest Census suggests that the Private Rental Sector now provides homes for 20.3 per cent of the population of England and Wales.

The same data shows that while the number of home owners has increased, as a proportion of the population it has fallen from 64.3 per cent in the 2011 Census to 62.5 per cent in 2021. 

Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director of the Generation Rent activist group, says: “Despite an array of supposedly pro-home ownership policies over the past decade, the private rented sector was the fastest growing tenure. 

“A million more households are paying high rents to private landlords, face a much greater risk of living in a poor quality home than other tenures, and live with the threat of eviction at short notice without the chance to appeal.

“In 2019, the government belatedly recognised the need for a much better deal for private tenants, including the abolition of unfair Section 21 evictions, but as we start 2023 we are still waiting for the legislation that will make this a reality.”