Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she plans to take to help ensure landlords do not leave the rental market.

The Government values the contribution made by responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants and believes they must enjoy robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back.

However, we are determined to level decisively the playing field between landlords and private tenants by providing the latter with greater security, rights and protections and cracking down on the minority of unscrupulous landlords who exploit, mistreat or discriminate against renters.

We do not expect our forthcoming Renters’ Rights Bill to have a destabilising effect on the rental market and will continue to work with good landlords and their representative associations throughout implementation.