Propertymark said the Housing Ombudsman’s ‘Spotlight Report: Repairing Trust’ report showed the need for a strong and growing private rental sector (PRS).
The report found complaints about poor living conditions in 2024 to 2025 were up 474% compared to 2019 to 2020.
The ombudsman’s report stated that the Government’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes could be at risk because of the unsustainable way existing social homes are maintained.
The analysis warned that without changes, there is a real risk of a managed decline in one of Europe’s largest social housing sectors, particularly in areas where homes are least affordable.
At current building rates, it would take over 60 years to replace these homes.
To tackle this, the Housing Ombudsman recommended a National Funding Settlement for social landlords, which would divide funding to local authorities in England each year.
The report also called for a national resident body to balance power between tenants and landlords.
The ombudsman said social landlords should work towards a ‘universal vacant home’ standard before reletting properties, use predictive repair models, and improve how they handle complaints and maintenance.
Additionally, the report stressed that landlords need to be open about the scale of the problem, pointing out a clear difference between the number of non-decent homes reported to the Regulator of Social Housing and those recorded by the English Housing Survey.
It said landlords must get a true understanding of the situation.
Research from the English Housing Survey found 76% of private renters were happy with their housing services, compared with 64% of social renters.
Of those who complained, 47% of private renters and 66% of social renters said they were not happy with the response to their complaint.
Propertymark agreed with the Housing Ombudsman that the social housing sector was missing a consumer-choice dynamic, unlike the PRS.
Furthermore, Propertymark called for a review of all taxes on private landlords by the UK Government and devolved administrations.
The organisation said Governments should scrap mortgage tax relief to let landlords offset all mortgage interest against rental income before tax, and reduce extra taxes on buy to let properties.
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, said: “While it is positive that the UK Government has recently announced its National Housing Bank which aims to inject billions into private investment and build an additional 500,000 homes, it is clear that satisfaction rates in the private rental sector are higher than in the social rented sector.
“Therefore, all Governments across the country need to keep their fingers on the pulse of the issue of underinvestment and further encourage a vibrant and growing private rental sector by also reviewing the taxes that impact landlords throughout the UK.”
