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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the role of letting agencies on trends in the level of rents in the private rented sector.

The Government keeps trends in the Private Rented Sector under review, including the role of letting agents.

The English Private Landlord Survey 2021 asked landlords if they had increased their rent and, if so, what were their motivations for doing so. It found that 64% of landlords surveyed had not increased their rent in the last two years. Where landlords had increased the rent, the most common factor was to account for changes in market rents. 71% of landlords who had raised rents cited changes in market rents as an influencing factor. 34% of landlords who had raised the rent cited advice from an agent as influencing their decision.