BPF urges local councils to encourage professional landlords

Permalink: BPF urges local councils to encourage professional landlords
by Gill Montia

The British Property Federation (BPF), a body that represents the interests of all those involved in property ownership and investment, is calling on local authorities to promote the buy-to-let sector ahead of the publication of a government Green paper, later this year.

The government is currently undertaking a review of the rental sector but the BPF is keen for local councils to use their existing powers to develop the corporate rented sector.

The Federation is asking for more generous section 106 agreements, which stipulate the community benefits a developer must provide, and for proposed housing developments to contain a smaller proportion of affordable housing.

The BPF’s director of residential policy, Ian Fletcher, believes that the government review will take years to produce legislation that will benefit the rental sector and that reforms are needed now.

He points out that local councils already have the powers to treat developments built to let under different terms from those built for private sale and that using these powers could enable the professional rental sector to cover more of the increased demand for rental property, created by the credit crisis and housing market downturn.