Committee publication · Correspondence · 17 June 2026
Letter from the Nationwide Foundation to the Chair dated 11 November 2025 concerning standards in the Private Rented Sector
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Inquiry: Housing Conditions in England
Summary
The Nationwide Foundation writes to the HCLG Committee following oral evidence on private rented sector standards, providing detailed follow-up on implementation scrutiny of the Renters' Rights Act, the interconnected nature of housing system challenges, landlord behaviour patterns, enforcement capacity disparities across local authorities, and a new Greater Manchester project supporting compliant landlord behaviour.
Key findings
- Enforcement capacity varies drastically: Huntingdonshire has one officer per 24,831 PRS properties vs. Nottingham's one per 267 properties, creating significant regional inequality in standards enforcement.
- Scottish PRS reforms failed to resolve housing crisis despite similar legislative changes, indicating regulatory reform alone cannot address affordability and quality without broader housing system strategy.
- Most landlords adopt reactive repair approaches (76%) and assess property conditions by subjective personal standards (89%) rather than law and regulation (56%), suggesting compliance gaps.
- Committee should monitor specific data points post-Renters' Rights Act implementation: eviction rates, enforcement activity, housing quality statistics, and National Landlord Database uptake.
- Nationwide Foundation launching Greater Manchester project using behavioural analysis to support non-compliant landlords and develop replicable intervention toolkit.
Tone
FactualTopics
Key actors
Nationwide Foundation, Kate Markey, Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, New Economics Foundation, The Dispute Service (TDS), National Audit Office, CaCHE
Notable line
“Most landlords indicated that their approach towards repairs was largely reactive, where they relied on tenants to report issues”
Key Quotes
“Implementation is vital to the success of the Renters' Rights Act. We are expecting the Government to publish their implementation timeline for the Act soon and we hope that the Committee will be able to scrutinise this and encourage swift implementation – particularly in relation …”
“Our RentBetter research shows that, despite similar PRS reforms in Scotland, there remains a huge housing crisis and affordability issues in the country.”
“… in Huntingdonshire, the most stretched local authority for PRS enforcement, there is one enforcement officer to 24,831 PRS properties, compared to Nottingham - the local authority that is best-resourced for PRS enforcement – where there is one enforcement officer to 267 properties.”
“Landlords' assessment of property conditions is driven by subjective factors related to their own personal standards (89%), tenant satisfaction (70%) and the The Nationwide Foundation is a registered charity (no. 1065552) and has limited liability being a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗