The current recession has hit Britons in all walks of life very hard and many have had to turn to private sector landlords after having been refused a mortgage for a first home, or upon relocating to a different city in order to find employment. According to Landlord Assist—one of the most prominent organizations in the rental sector, this influx of new tenants and an increasing social awareness among buy-to-let investors of how renters are being impacted by the recession has helped to dispel the negative, stereotypical portrayal of landlords are “greedy” and uncaring.

Graham Kinnear of Landlord Assist argues that today’s landlords are far more “socially aware” than before and often place a strong emphasis on providing tenants not simply with basic levels of accommodation, but better-maintained flats and homes, as well as personal customer care and affordability in many parts of the country. Kinnear believes that this represents a very clear improvement over the boom years, when rents in some regions were out of reach for most and when a larger proportion of residential properties were in a state of poor repair.

The private rental sector in the UK is also continuing to develop, with a recent report in The Guardian indicating that there were now approximately one million landlords across the country. But monthly arrears on the part of tenants and the continued lack of buy-to-let loans remain the two biggest barriers in the further expansion of the private rental sector.