ARLA is calling for government regulation of letting agents as well as more tax allowances for landlords to make improvements to their property, as campaigners gear up for Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement on November 23.

Explaining why regulation is needed, ARLA says in its submission: “In the absence of overarching Government regulation of the industry, an escalation in institutional investment and larger individual landlord portfolios could result in increased professionalism throughout the sector.

“However, ARLA believes that full mandatory Government regulation of sales and letting agents is the quickest and most effective method to eliminate unprofessional, unqualified and unethical agents from the rental market, thus improving the quality of the sector in the long term for all.”

The trade body wants to see incentives for landlords to improve property conditions such as a reduction in VAT on the purchase of materials and to allow improvements to be offset against rental income rather than CGT.

The group is also calling for the reintroduction of the Landlords’ Energy Saving Allowance to help comply with minimum energy efficiency requirements from 2018. The allowance was worth up to £1,500 before it was scrapped in 2015.

Other suggestions include allowing all lettings activity to be treated as a business for tax purposes. The submission document from ARLA said: “If this Government wants the whole private rented sector to provide professional services to their tenant customers, then by taxing landlords as businesses, the Government is making a clear statement that letting property is a business activity.

“Landlords should be able to take advantage of the same level of roll-over relief available to other businesses when reinvesting in the private rented sector and the Government should reduce the rate of capital gains tax for selling residential property to the same 20 percent rate as CGT on all other gains.”

ARLA is also one of many voices calling for the additional Stamp Duty charges and scaling back of mortgage interest relief to be scrapped.

The Residential Landlords Association has made similar calls to Hammond, asking him to focus on housing as a whole rather than just on home ownership.

Two thirds of 2,883 landlords surveyed by RLA said they would increase their rents to offset the tax changes.

David Smith, policy director for the RLA, said: “We have had a productive meeting with the Treasury and the point was made that there is a new team of people in place, which we hope means the new Chancellor is open to rethinking some of the unfair tax changes brought in by George Osborne.

“Along with our submission to the Autumn Statement we gave the Treasury a copy of the RLA’s Landlord, Investment, Finance and Tax Report 2016 to back up our arguments with sector research coming directly from landlords themselves.

“We are hopeful they may find alternative ways to stimulate the sector and take on board our comments about looking at housing more generally rather than concentrating solely on home buying.”