GOVERNMENT can assist the private rented sector to reach its full potential in the drive to provide quality housing for all, but only by introducing practical solutions to safeguard the public.

This was the message put to letting agents at the annual conference of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, ARLA, in London.

John Crossley, chairman of ARLA, warned that tampering by government at the margins was not the solution. It would not help housing benefit tenants, neighbours, the public at large or investment in the rental market through the buy to let initiative.

As well as real reform of the housing benefit system, government should introduce a practical framework of standards for hostel-style and bedsit accommodation, described as houses in multiple occupation, HMOs.

However, the middle ground of the private rented sector, as represented by ARLA, other professional bodies and the buy to let investor has no need of new solutions, only more of an effort to safeguard those deposits and rents not held by regulated agents.

Starting with the problems faced by benefit tenants in their search for reasonable housing, Mr Crossley said: “Giving these individuals the responsibility for handing over the rent themselves instead of it being paid directly to the landlord by the local authority does not address the problem.

"It is merely patronising the hapless benefit tenants, not helping to house them in the private rented sector.”

Mr Crossley explained that the problem does not lie with the potential benefit tenant but with the system.

“Payments, already scheduled in arrears, are paid late. There is no deposit guarantee system through which to protect property and there is always the risk of ‘clawback’ of rent from landlords and agents when an authority believes the rent should not have been paid on behalf of the tenant.”

Turning to anti-social tenants, Mr Crossley said that government expects too much of the private sector. “It is trying to put the onus on mature and respectable landlords to do the work of police or local authorities and control anti-social behaviour. “