The government's Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said that its white paper on rental reform, which was part of a 2019 manifesto promise, has been delayed yet again. The further delay of publication from this autumn until 2022, comes as the creators of the report are given extra time to develop a balanced set of reform proposals.

As the business of being a landlord becomes increasingly regulated and professionalised, letting agents too have upped their game. These days most of them are highly professional companies with experienced staff, codes of conduct and membership of industry bodies.

While the property sales boom has been one of the surprise success stories of the past year and a half, the overall strength of the rental market has been less clear. Reports and news stories have tended to focus on particular issues like arrears or evictions, rather than getting a sense of whether the private rented sector is in a better or worse position than it was in 2019. However, a few recent studies have tried to shed a bit of light on this. 

The UK government has extended temporary rules allowing Letting Agents to conduct Right to Rent checks via video rather than in person, from May 17 to June 20, 2021.