Private landlords in England have made enough money from rising house prices in the last three decades to build at least 3m council homes, research suggests.
Owners of private rental properties have seen their assets grow in value by £400bn since 1990, equivalent to the amount needed to build more than 50 times the 54,000 council homes that were built in England in that period.
The windfall calculation, commissioned by the Renters Reform Coalition campaign group and based on Office for National Statistics data, comes as landlords demand tax cuts to help ease the impact of rising interest rates. The National Residential Landlords Association has said many landlords “simply cannot afford to soak up” rising costs and will have to sell up or raise rents.
