The two largest landlord organisations in England and Wales, the National Landlords Association (NLA) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), have announced plans to merge with a view to creating a single organisation and delivering a stronger voice for landlords in the private rented sector.
The new organisation, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), would have a membership of more than 80,000 landlords and manage around half a million properties, which is about 10% of the PRS.
The planned merger has been approved by the existing boards of both organisations and comes as landlords face one of the most challenging periods for compliance throughout legislative change.
The new association will aim to launch officially on 1st January 2020, subject to initial approval at a general meeting of members on Tuesday 17th September 2019.
The two chairs, Alan Ward of the RLA and Adrian Jeakings of the NLA, have said in a joint statement: “After more than 20 years of friendly competition the time is right to create a single organisation to represent and campaign for landlords.
“With so much of our work done in parallel there are major benefits to be gained for our landlord members.
“We will be stronger together when presenting a unified voice to government both nationally and locally about the importance of supporting the majority of landlords who do a good job providing the homes to rent the country needs.”