Landlord Flavours
There are different types of landlord - many, maybe not most, are buy-to-let, running 1-4 properties, using an agent, looking for a return on investment, chasing a narrow margin above the mortgage. They are seeking longer term tenants, and a stable and consistent income. They may or may not be evil.
Accordingly (punitive) contractual fees and terms ape the mortgage sector - they don't want people moving around - they are not going to help this situation, in fact I would posit they are a contributory factor.
There are other landlords who offer short term lets (under 6 months), typically for cash, deposit optional, often for migratory workers (EU rather UK would be typical). This is a high risk type of letting for both parties, quality varies, for both parties.
Unfortunately the law is currently geared against this - you could let a room for 3 months, and then if that person doesn't leave and doesn't pay rent, it could then take a further 6 months to legally evict them. (Hence, in part, the drive towards high non-refundable fees, high deposits, and the dearth of short term lets - and it is only short term lets that would facilitate the worker mobility that is being described in the article).
What would help would be a new type of property tenancy under law with balanced protection for landlord and for tenant, but would also fast track eviction based on say 50% of the tenancy term (rather than 200%). Where the landlord could be assured of repossession within 6-8 weeks after the end of a 3 month tenancy where the tenant then doesn't leave.
In reality this type of tenancy does exist now, but it's fairly brutal and unregulated and at the lowest end does involve garden sheds, bunk beds and baseball bats.
In fairness I would say that the ability to evict people faster is not the solution being proposed; evictions are rare; it's about creating landlord (and tenant) confidence in the market for super short term lets (SSTLs)
SSTLs being the point between B&Bs and assured shorthold tenancies. Again, being aware for these do exist for B2B letting but pricing can be £200 per day - not relevant here.
Toodles.