In April 2000 the Government issued its Green Paper on housing, Quality and Choice: A decent home for all (DETR, 2000a). The majority of this was taken up with proposals for social housing; only one chapter (chapter 5) dealt with the private rented sector. Perhaps significantly this was headed ‘Promoting a healthy private rented sector’, evidence that the continuance and viability of this sector is part of central policy, not least in so far as it provides extra housing choices for those who are not willing – or who are not yet willing – to buy their own home, especially younger households. A secondary function is the flexibility private renting provides for the economy by enabling people who need to move to find work to obtain accommodation, while enabling those who are away from home for some time to let out their properties. The Green Paper therefore declared a policy of wishing to see the sector grow and prosper with no major legislative changes intended that could have an inhibiting effect; rather the declared objectives were to raise the standards of management among the majority of private landlords, particularly those who rent only a few properties who, arguably, lack management skills and experience. The Green Paper here stressed that encouragement, support and education largely provided at a local level by authorities and professional and voluntary organisations would be the preferred way forward, though central government accepted it would have a role in spreading best practice and in giving support generally.

The features of a system based on encouragement, support and education were identified as use of local accreditation systems for landlords and development of a National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS) by relevant trade bodies so that small landlords may be able to identify reliable agents through whom to let, while in some cases registered social landlords might be able to provide low-cost management services for landlords.

With regard to landlords who provide bad accommodation or a poor service or both, the import of the Green Paper was that they should either improve or get out of letting altogether.