Renters’ Rights Bill to become law ‘as soon as possible’ says Rayner

The biggest overhaul of the PRS in many years will be debated in the House of Commons today as the Renters' Rights Bill, introduced by Deputy PM Angela Rayner, receives its second reading.

 

renters' rights bill angela rayner

The Renters’ Rights Bill which will provide a major overhaul of the private rented sector, is due to be debated in Parliament today.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner will introduce the bill for its second reading with the Government claiming it will give “greater security and protections for millions of renters”.

Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, is promising to make the bill law as soon as possible.

Cruel threat

With its ban on Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, the bill picks up what the Conservative Government failed to do in its equivalent Renters (Reform) Bill, which was lost when the General Election was called in May.

The Labour Government is calling Section 21 a “cruel threat” and “one of the leading causes of homelessness”. It is also pledging to clamp down on “unfair rent increases”.

I am determined to get this Bill in to law as soon as possible”

Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, says: “I am determined to get this Bill in to law as soon as possible. The thousands of children and families living in unsafe housing or under the cruel threat of a Section 21 eviction notice have been waiting far too long already.

“We will deliver on our promise to renters and transform the sector into one where families can put down roots, where children can grow up in healthy homes, and where young people can save for their future.”

Landlord and agent fines

The Government revealed a range of new fines for both landlords and agents who flout the measures being introduced in the bill.

For example, agents who market properties to rent belonging to landlords who have not signed up to join the Government’s new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will face penalties of up to £7,000 for an initial breach and £40,000 or criminal prosecution for repeated breaches.

Similar fines and potential prosecution face landlords who fail to join the new Private Rented Sector Database.

Your guide to the Renters’ Rights Bill

A legal view on what the bill means for landlords, agents and tenants


2 Comments

  1. Ranter Rayner and her ex-husband know an awful lot about buying councul houses at a discount and flipping them, if she is so concerned about the ‘poor’ who have nowhere to live and so fall back on the PRS, she should ‘immidiately’ stop the thatcherite practice of allowing social housing to be sold off to council tenats at huge discounts. A council tenant after three years can get a 50% discount on the purchase price of a flat that the taxpayer provided, crazy yes it is! And the replacement flat that the taxpayer then pays for to fill the gap, actually costs more than of course the flat that was sold, so social housing tenant rents 200k flat, after three yaers buys it for 100k, and we build another flat which now costs £225,000, so loss of £125,000 to taxpayer. She needs to look in the mirror and stop being a champagne socialist – full of rhetoric whilst taking advantage of very bad practice set up by the Tories to win votes decades ago.

  2. Rayner says that Labour wants a sector where young people can save for their future. Does this mean where rents are low enough to enable a young person to save towards the (conservative-sounding) aim of putting a deposit on his own future property purchase? How will this work, though, for the providers of the colossal investment that is the rental housing sector?

    Business thinking starts with the assessment of risk and return. Labour plans to curtail our property rights over our own expensive assets, increasing the risk of investing in housing, by subordinating our control of our assets to the whims of that demographic which credit agencies and banks say is the least responsible. Identity politics (in this case tenants good, landlords bad) is to trump the basic laws of economics because our Leftist masters say it has to. Let us see if it brings benefits to anyone beyond the worst tenants.

    At his talk to the Letting Industry Council last month solicitor David Smith identified a government aim of rent suppression through inviting tenants to complain, risk-free and cost-free, to the Tribunal about any rent rise.

    This is not the first government, however, to command the elemental laws to obey government diktat. In 2028 it will be the one thousandth anniversary of Rayner’s possible inspiration, King Canute, rebuking the tide. Progressives. Always on the right side of history, they tell us.

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