@Anonmousse
I havent RTFT but can I ask what the posters who think everyone should only own 1 house, think people who are living somewhere short term should live?
Eg- students
People leaving their parents home
People moving to a new area but unsure of preferred areas
People on temporary/6 months contracts
People whose own house is having renovations/is uninhabitable
Also re holiday homes - which are ethical? Is a hotel ok? What about a caravan?
Btw I dont have a btl or holiday home.
Those are people for whom the private rental market tends to work relatively well - in full time work, young, don't mind the instability, no kids, no pets, no disability requiring adaptations...
It's everyone else who I worry about. Simply by means of inheriting a dog - though nothing else changed at the same time - I went from being someone who could pick and choose where I live to someone who has to be grateful for whatever damp shithole I can find to rent. That was despite being (last time I was househunting) working full time in a well paid job (significantly above national average), always paying the rent on time and the dog being thoroughly house trained, non-destructive and non-barky.
Every time my tenancy comes up for renewal, I hold my breath and fear eviction, as I know that the risk of not being able to find a new tenancy is real, as is the consequential risk of street homelessness.
I don't think everyone should only own one house - for some people private rental is the best available solution - but for a great many others we're only private renting because it's our only option. Those are the people who need better help and protection from the law.
I would favour much greater regulation with regards to discrimination - for instance, if a home has 2+ bedrooms then they shouldn't be able to refuse to let to tenants with kids. If the home has a garden they shouldn't be able to refuse to let to dog / cat owners. If the tenant signs up to a tenancy of 1 year + then they have to allow disability adaptations. Etc., etc.
Oh, and anyone who paints over the damp before renting out a property should be strung up by their testicles in the town centre 
The current rules where LLs must give 6 months notice to evict a tenant is one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic - if you're someone who finds it harder to rent then you've got much more chance of finding somewhere.
I'd also favour a massive expansion in social housing - because the current situation where the government is paying out housing benefit to landlords is madness. They could spend less money in the medium-long term building / buying new social housing and have an asset to show for it at the end. At the moment it's just a never-ending spend, straight from public coffers to the pockets of private landlords.
As the OBR says
"We expect overall housing benefit spending in 2018-19 to total £23.4 billion, with 4.6 million recipients paid an average of £5,035 each. That would represent 2.9 per cent of total public spending and 1.1 per cent of national income."
obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-housing-benefit/
Hotels and caravans are ethical - they do not displace permanent local residents - but holiday homes (and worse, second homes that spend the majority of the year uninhabited so don't even contribute to tourism) are not ethical for that very same reason.