Arla welcomes government Green Paper

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) has welcomed the government's recent Green Paper on the housing market, explaining that it put the sector at the top of the public agenda.

While the policies outlined did not specifically mention rental, Arla commented that it showed that the government was ready to tackle housing issues and landlords could play a significant role in the process.

Adrian Turner, chief executive of the group, said: "While not introducing any measures to help us speed the growth of the private rented sector, the government has clearly recognised that the sector provides choice in housing and acts as a safety valve in providing housing needs that cannot be met by either owner occupation or social housing.

"Without buy-to-let investors rescuing the private rental market, the housing crisis would be considerably worse."

However, Mr Turner warned the government to carefully consider any new regulation of the private rental marketand suggested that poorly-planned policies could drive landlords away and worsen housing problems.

"Any new proposals for regulation have to be shown to be justified, well thought out and, above all, practical," he pointed out.

"For the health of all types of housing; tenure, owner-occupied, shared-equity, socially or privately-rented housing, we must introduce change carefully and with a mind for the whole housing picture."

A recent study by Birmingham Midshires showed that the average return for a buy-to-let investor in the UK was 13 per cent last year.