England’s 11 million renters are set to get more security as Labour introduces a new housing bill that ends no-fault evictions and mid-tenancy rent hikes.
Plans for a Renters Rights Bill were first tabled by the Conservatives but were eventually scrapped ahead of July’s general election.
Labour’s new version of the bill will include an outright ban on “no-fault” evictions, an end to mid-tenancy rent hikes and rules that prevent landlords from blocking those on benefits or with children.
Homelessness and renters’ rights charities welcomed the tougher plans, which will also extend Awaab’s Law, ban ‘bidding wars’ and force private landlords to fix issues like damp and mould.
The plans will also:
- Allow tenants the right to have pets
- Mean landlords will only able to raise rent annually “at market rate”
- Enforce a timescale on landlords to repair properties
The Renters’ Rights Bill will be introduced on Wednesday and “decisively level the playing field between landlords and tenants”, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycock said.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Pennycock suggested the bill will end “injustice” for renters living in “substandard” properties, but would also work for “good landlords”.
Good landlords “will benefit from clear regulation” which “will eliminate unfair competition from those who, for far too long, have got away with renting out substandard properties to tenants”, he added.
A ‘Decent Homes Standard’ will be applied to the private rented sector for the first time, with the Government highlighting that 21% of privately rented homes are currently classified as “non-decent” and more than 500,000 contain the most serious hazards.
Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said abolishing Section 21 evictions was “painfully overdue” and would give tenants “more confidence to challenge disrepair and poor treatment” by landlords and letting agents.
Mr Twomey also welcomed the planned doubling of notice periods ahead of evictions and said a proposed ban on landlords “pitting tenant against tenant in bidding wars cannot come soon enough”.
The promise of greater protections against unreasonable rent increases was welcome, he added, although tenants remained “vulnerable to backdoor rent-hike evictions”.
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate agreed the government was right to “pull the plug” on no-fault evictions, which have “haunted England’s renters for years now”.
Included in the reforms is a legal requirement for landlords and letting agents to publish the desired rent for a property, in a crackdown on the practice of forcing potential tenants into a bidding process.
Landlords and agents will be banned from “asking for, encouraging, or accepting any bids” above the publicly stated price.
“Renters need to know they won’t be booted out of their homes by eye-watering rent hikes and the discriminatory practices that push so many into homelessness must be stamped out,” she added.
However, National Residential Landlords Association chief executive Ben Beadle sounded a note of caution, saying it was vital for the bill to be fair to both tenants and landlords who, he said, would need time to prepare for the biggest overhaul to the sector in 30 years.
A Conservative spokesperson said any new laws must be “coherent and thought-through” to ensure “choice and freedom” in the housing market.
“Badly drafted laws will cut supply, forcing up rents and reducing choice for renters,” they added.
The current backlog in the courts remained an issue for any evictions procedures, he added, and Westminster’s cross-party Housing Select Committee has warned that they risk becoming overwhelmed.
“This will not serve the interests of tenants or landlords seeking justice,” Mr Beadle said.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner promised “no more dither and delay” on rebalancing the rights of tenants with those of landlords.
“Renters have been let down for too long and too many are stuck in disgraceful conditions, powerless to act because of the threat of a retaliatory eviction hanging over them,” she said.
“Most landlords act in a responsible way but a small number of unscrupulous ones are tarnishing the reputation of the whole sector by making the most of the housing crisis and forcing tenants into bidding wars.”
