Transforming Private Landlords

1. Introduction. This chapter briefly sets the scene, describes the aims of thebook, presents the analytical perspective that will be used andoutlines the structure of the book.. 2. Private landlords in historical perspective. When the Conservative Government of Mrs Thatcher came to officein 1979 determined to roll back the state, the privately rentedsector was a 'stagnant backwater of backwater of the marketeconomy' and private landlords had a very poor reputation.The sector had been suffering from net disinvestment and decliningin size since the early years of the twentieth century. Thischapter presents the context within which the incoming ThatcherGovernment of 1979 sought to breath new life into private lettingas an investment. It will describe the nature of privatelandlordism in its Victorian heyday and document the subsequentdecline of landlordism up to the late 1970s.. 3. Government policy since 1979. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a series of measures that wereintroduced in order to revive the privately rented housing market,a process that to some extent has continued into the new century.This chapter critically examines the development of governmentpolicy towards the privately rented sector, and especially the goalof reviving the private landlord, under the Conservative(1979-1997) and New Labour Governments (1997 to date).. 4. Private landlordism in contemporary Britain. This chapter examines the contemporary nature of privatelandlordism in Britain. It also seeks to examine the extent towhich private landlordism has changed over the period since 1979.It draws on a succession of surveys of private landlords conductedby the authors and subsequent surveys carried out by the Departmentfor Communities and Local Government. 5. The Business Expansion Scheme. In 1989, the Conservatives extended the Business ExpansionScheme - which provided tax relief to investors in new, smallcompanies - to include companies letting residentialproperty. This chapter presents an in-depth review of theexperience of the BES, based on the authors' research intothe scheme.. 6. Financial institutions. This chapter examines the success of recent government attemptsto attract financial institutions back into the private lettingsindustry, such as the introduction of Housing Investment Trusts.The chapter draw on two qualitative studies of financialinstitutions and private renting conducted by the authors, as wellas other research and scholarship. It will also discuss theimplications of this experience in relation to residential lettingsfor the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts.. 7. Buy to let. Over the past decade, there has been a revival of interest ininvestment in rented housing by private individuals, a phenomenonwidely referred to as 'buy to let'. Indeed, in contrastto much of the post-war period, such investment is now seen as anormal way for people to invest part of their savings, free of thestigma that was previously associated with private landlordism.This chapter reviews the evidence on the buy to let experience. Itdraws on research into buy to let in the context of the materialabout private landlordism presented in the previous chapters.. 8. Conclusions. This chapter brings together the key findings from the previouschapters to reflect on the nature of contemporary privatelandlordism in Britain. In particular, it assesses the extent towhich, and the ways in which, it has been either revived ortransformed since 1979 and the lessons for the future. It alsodiscusses the lessons of this experience for housing policy.