THE indisputable fact that the Renters (Reform) Bill is not going to be passed before the General Election is “deeply disappointing”, the director for England of Housing Justice, Jacob Dimitriou, has said.
“Reforming the private rented sector and strengthening the rights of tenants is one among a raft of measures needed to forestall rising homelessness in our country,” Mr Dimitriou said on Tuesday. He called on all parties to make a commitment to a Bill in the primary King’s Speech after July’s election.
The Bill had been described by the Government as containing “essentially the most significant changes to the sector in 30 years”. A key component was the abolition of Section 21 evictions — something first pledged by Theresa May in 2019. Currently, landlords can issue a Section 21 notice to start out the legal process to finish an assured shorthold tenancy. They don’t need to present a reason for issuing a notice, but must give tenants two months’ notice.
The Bill, which in effect created open-ended tenancies, had its Second Reading within the House of Lords on 15 May. It was not included among the many laws listed for debate before the proroguing of Parliament.
Among those that spoke within the Lords was the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, lead bishop on housing, who warned that the Bill wouldn’t provide “a significantly higher private rented sector”. As the Government had said that the abolition of Section 21 would need to wait until the courts were deemed to be ready, she expressed fear that reform can be “delayed indefinitely”.
Currently, one fifth of UK households live in private rented housing in England. The sector doubled in size between 2004 and 2016. Charities, including Shelter, had expressed concern that the Bill had been watered down, and offered insufficient protection to tenants.
In her remarks, Dr Francis-Dehqani described as “outdated” the notion that the country was “a nation of householders”. Her own three children, all young adults, were amongst those renting privately. “Without a major shake-up of all the housing market, it is probably going that they’ll struggle ever to purchase their very own property.”
It was essential to “think larger to repair our housing crisis”, she said, drawing attention to the brand new vision for housing, Homes For All, published last month (News, 3 May). Recommendations included a limit on rises in house prices and rents “according to inflation”.
The private sector was “often unsafe, insecure, unsociable, unsustainable, and unsatisfying”, and steadily the most costly tenure for tenants, she said; and reversing this “may require a certain quantity of sacrifice”.
Last week, the Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, wrote on social media: “The Tories’ decision to cave in to vested interests and abandon the Renters Reform Bill leaves in tatters the guarantees they made to personal tenants five years ago. Labour will pass renters reform laws that levels decisively the playing field between landlords and tenants.”
Last yr, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, said that the party would scrap Section 21 on its first day in office, if it won the subsequent General Election.
The charity Homeless Link reported in April that, since 2019, greater than 80,000 households had approached their local authority for homelessness support, after receiving a Section 21 notice.
