Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the proportion of private landlords using a deposit protection scheme who make use of the (a) insurance and (b) custodian options; and how many tenancies where those options have been used have lead to disputes over deposit repayments.

All landlords must protect any deposit taken in connection with an assured shorthold tenancy in a Government-approved Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme. The most recent data received from the Tenancy Deposit Protection schemes showed 2,185,270 (52 per cent) deposits protected in an insurance scheme and 1,989,718 (48 per cent) within a custodial scheme on 30 September 2020. In the 6 months to 30 September 2020, there were 6,667 disputes adjudicated upon by insurance schemes and 6,465 disputes adjudicated upon by custodial schemes.