Renting was a stop gap until people could save enough to buy. Today, owning a home is a long-term project.
A survey of tenants suggests demand for the private rental sector looks set to be high for the indefinite future. Almost 30 per cent of tenants plan never to buy a home.
The findings of the survey echoes recent data from the English Housing Survey which revealed the number of privately rented households has doubled over the past 16 years from 2m in 2000 to 4.5m in 2016.
In London, privately rented households have risen from 13.6 per cent of all households in 2003/4 to 28.1 per cent in 2015/16.