Late last year, Berlin made the vast majority of Airbnb-style short-let rentals illegal.

Mark Prisk, the Housing Minister, has claimed that landlords' responsibilities for checking the immigration status of their tenants, as proposed in the Queen's Speech, will be a "light touch".

Eric Pickles has come down hard on "rogue landlords", publishing the first draft of the Tenants' Charter and launching a package of proposals designed to give more rights to private tenants.