Written question asked by Oliver Colvile (Conservative) on Monday, 20 March 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 March 2017. It was answered by Lord Barwell (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 March 2017 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Social Rented Housing: Letting Agents

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish a definition of the term social lettings agencies as used in the white paper, Fixing our broken housing market, published in February 2017.

Answer: Social letting agencies can support vulnerable people and people on low incomes to access and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector. We want to prevent people reaching crisis point, and for those who are already homeless to be able to move out of temporary accommodation or hostels to a settled home as quickly as possible. There are a number of different models of social letting agencies and in the Housing White Paper we set out our interest in exploring the relative effectiveness of these different models with the aim of securing more housing for households who would otherwise struggle – providing security for landlords and support for tenants.

Secondary information