This ^^^^^^^
Over the past few years, due mostly to government policy, private landlords have been net sellers of property. You would expect this to have had a downward pressure on house prices, although the concomitant is the reduced supply of private rented accommodation, and the subsequent increasing of rents and bad behaviour of bad landlords.
Based on the above, if anything, on balance, "we" should be desiring more supply of private rented property for the public good.
It's almost as if government wants to encourage increased rents and bad landlord behaviour.
The answer to most of the housing issues which obtain today is to build hundreds of thousands of new homes, both private and social. In fact, when touting to be elected, parties acknowledge the fact, and promise to do exactly this....... then, once they have their hands on the cheque book, they dont, (although they will tell us that they have). Bit like Boris's promise to build 40 new hospitals and recruit 50,000 new nurses. If he had kept his promise, (not that you would have expected him to), the current problems with the NHS would be much less serious than they are.
The fact is that, whilst I don't deny that there will be bad private landlords, every time I see a story in the media involving bad landlord behaviour, (including the recent death of the little boy), it is almost always related to council or housing association, or other social property.