Thank you to those who contacted me about private sector rents.
For too many people, renting is characterised by insecurity, high rents and poor conditions. I believe we need to fundamentally reform the sector to tilt the balance of power towards tenants and make renting fairer, more secure, and more affordable.
I have long supported a ban on section 21 evictions and the simplification of tenancies, which will prevent renters from being uprooted with little notice and give them more flexibility and rights. The Renters (Reform) Bill seeks to do this.
But I am concerned by how long it has taken for this legislation to materialise, with ministers promising reforms as far back as April 2019. Since then, more than 78,000 households have been threatened with homelessness by section 21 evictions. Meanwhile, the Government has indicated that the ban will be delayed until changes to speed up the courts system are complete, despite the four years they have had to prepare.
Alongside my colleagues, I will seek to strengthen the Bill as it progresses in Parliament, including by supporting measures to end bidding wars for rental properties, extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to private landlords, introducing new thresholds to prevent landlords asking for disproportionate advance rent, and ensuring the remaining grounds for eviction are sufficiently tightly drawn to prevent misuse.
While I understand and appreciate the good intent behind calls for rent controls, I think they are a sticking plaster for deep-seated problems. Namely a lack of enough good-quality, genuinely affordable houses. A situation that is only worsening with falling housebuilding rates. We need to fix the fundamentals and build more homes.
I want to see bold measures to fix the housing market. I believe the long-term answer to the housing crisis is more social housing. That is why I support calls to reform arcane purchasing rules to make it easier for councils to buy land for development, to empower councils to negotiate better deals for their communities with private developers, and unlock more government grants to deliver new homes, bringing in a new generation of council housebuilding.
