Are UK buy-to-let landlords dying out – and should we care?

Neil France, who has seven properties, said of tax changes in the budget: ‘It will cost me an extra £2,500 a year. I can’t absorb that kind of hit.’ Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

As a buy-to-let landlord of 15 years, Neil France had a feeling things were about to get worse for him and his sector.

“You’ll never lose votes for hammering a landlord. That’s the reality,” France, 68, said. “It used to be estate agents and bankers; now it’s landlords.”