The poor and deteriorating state of the social housing sector demonstrates the need for a vibrant private rental landscape, insists Propertymark.

It cites a recent report from the Housing Ombudsman which revealed that 2024/25 witnessed a 474% surge in complaints about poor social housing living conditions compared to 2019/20.

Propertymark says this demonstrates exactly why we need a vibrant and growing private rental sector.  

Referencing the UK Government’s ambition to construct 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament, the report “shows a significant risk to the government’s vital 

The Housing Ombudsman recommends the government adopt a National Funding Settlement for social landlords, which is an annual event that apportions funding to local authorities in England, and to create a national resident body to resolve the imbalance of power between tenant and landlord. 

It also promotes a ‘universal vacant home’ standard before reletting a property, which refers to the idea of properties being empty, and that social landlords should strive towards a predictive repair model and enhance the way they handle complaints, and culture/attitude towards maintenance.  

Finally, the report stresses that “landlords also need to be transparent about the scale of the challenge – the difference in the proportion of non-decent homes reported to the Regulator of Social Housing compared to the English Housing Survey is stark and landlords need to understand what the true picture is.” 

Propertymark agrees with the Housing Ombudsman that the social housing sector is missing a consumer-choice dynamic as opposed to the private rental sector.  

Furthermore, consumers have an advantage in the private rental market in contrast to the allocation model of social housing as it is more difficult to relocate to a different social house if that tenant is unhappy with their social landlord.  

Ina statement issued over the weekend, Propertymark says it’s consistency campaigned for a review of all taxes relating to private landlords and that UK governments should restore mortgage tax relief to allow landlords to set the total amount of mortgage interest against rental income before tax is calculated, and to reduce additional taxes on buy to let properties.  

Nathan Emerson, chief executive of Propertymark, says: “While it is positive that the UK Government has recently announced its National Housing Bank which aims to inject billions into private investment and build an additional 500,000 homes, it is clear that satisfaction rates in the private rental sector are higher than in the social rented sector. 

“Therefore, all Governments across the country need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the issue of underinvestment and further encourage a vibrant and growing private rental sector by also reviewing the taxes that impact landlords throughout the UK.”