UK private rented sector data and assessing compliance with deposit protection requirement

Project Summary

Coherent and robust statistics are key to understanding the private rented sector and the way in which it is changing. Whilst a wide range of statistics provide a considerable amount of information, there are still several gaps in what we know about the sector. This briefing paper identifies and provides a critical commentary of the main data sets which are available across the UK.

  • There are 30 key data sets that could be used to estimate the size of the PRS in each jurisdiction.
  • Lack of information on landlord behaviour and a lack of disaggregated and granular geographical data are important data gaps.
  • Whilst there have been some encouraging developments, there needs to be continued and sustained emphasis on the development of private rented sector data by UK government statistical agencies

Timeline: December 2019 – March 2020

Team: Dr Jennifer Harris (Lead Researcher), Professor Alex Marsh (Co-Investigator and Theme Lead), and Dr Gareth James (Knowledge Exchange)

Theme: Governance

 Briefing paper: UK private rented sector data