Member

The whole process of the private rented sector is one of great flexibility. I fully understand the concerns that have been expressed by those who espouse the cause of renters. Although I do not have any student accommodation, I am a private rented sector landlord with my wife. The variation in what people ask for and what they wish to do, and what a lessor is prepared to do, does not necessarily start at the beginning of the term; it may start when both parties are happy that they have somebody decent to deal with—somebody they can talk to and who is not going to fleece them. The risk is that this flexibility is going to be lost—we are talking particularly about students here—and I would be fearful of that. The only thing that makes me less fearful of that—and the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, may wish to challenge me on the point—is whether demand has fallen because of what seems to have been a decline in the number of foreign students who are coming to these shores and the degree of distance learning now taking place elsewhere.