Private landlords gain about £27bn a year from housing benefit and tax breaks, according to the Generation Rent lobby group.
There are about 1.6 million buy-to-let landlords in the UK, and about 4.75 million households rent from them. Numbers both of landlords and of private tenants are rising.
The £27 billion total comes from:
- £9.3bn of housing benefit
- £1.69bn of “wear-and-tear” tax relief landlords can claim on their properties
- £6.63bn of tax that landlords do not have to pay on mortgage interest payments
- £9.06bn of tax landlords do not pay on their annual average capital gains
Generation Rent estimates the landlords' total annual income at £77.7bn - £42.3bn in rent and £35.4bn in rising house prices.
In 2013, just 22,510 new social homes were built, out of a total of 109,640 newbuilds. There are about 610,000 empty homes in England.