Tenants need fair laws to give them the living standards they deserve - Simon Hobson

I grew up in the 1990s in a rented house owned by a private landlord. That childhood home had cold draft ridden metal framed windows, no central heating and no wall or roof insulation. It was a regular winter activity for my younger sister and I to take a finger and scratch a picture into the ice which had formed on the glass inside of our bedroom window. It was a place where our mother would, as part of her house cleaning routine each week, rub mould from the walls’.

I and 11 million private tenants in England have been waiting for this Conservative governments Renters Reform Bill, first announced in 2019. Much like all those promised Brexit benefits, I had begun to think this bill would never materialise. But as this Parliament nears its end, the government in Westminster has finally got round to introducing the bill.

England has some of the most aggressive and anti-private tenant laws in all of Europe. From the outset, renting a home through private channels is an onerous task. You’ll have no chance of even being considered if you’re in receipt of benefits. Assuming you are not claiming benefits, you will need proof of income, guarantors, credit history and ‘right to rent’ identification checks, all before you can walk through the door. Not to mention the greedy deposits and over-hyped monthly rental prices. Then there is the constant fear that your landlord could decide, at a whim, to cancel your rental contract and throw you out on the street. This occurs because tenants are forced to sign contracts with embedded ‘break clauses’. Worse, under English law, the landlord can evict a tenant having only given ‘reasonable notice to quit’ - a term undefined in law and, which does not even need to be served in writing. These so-called, ‘no fault evictions’ mean that no one living in rented accommodation has security of a roof over their head. Even in the middle of a cold and damp English winter, a landlord could make you homeless. And, if you’ve got children or pets, good luck finding a landlord prepared to house you and your loved ones.

Change looked like it was afoot when, in June 2022, the government published its white paper for introducing a Renters Reform Bill to Parliament. Two key elements of this proposed legislation are to tackle the ‘no fault eviction’ and the dangerously low-quality of privately rented homes. By the end of 2022, the Ministry of Justice recorded a rise of 69% of landlords telling tenants to leave without a reason, when compared to the same period a year earlier. The English Housing Survey 2021-2022 stated that one in five rented homes contained a health and safety hazard, a steep decline in living conditions from only five years before, when the English Housing Survey 2017-2018 declared one privately rented home out of seven as containing such hazards. Introducing ‘Decent Home Standards’ and establishing a new ombudsman covering private landlords and a new property portal, as the bill proposes, may mitigate the worst of the current rental practices, especially if this gives tenants and councils the information to identify ‘rogue’ and unscrupulous landlords.

The Renters Reform Bill is a first step towards England treating its private home rental tenants with respect. But already it looks uncertain that the plans will make it into law. Maybe because some of the 2.3 million private landlords in England, have the ear of the government. Nearly one in five MPs are currently landlords, with Tories making up the vast majority, according to the latest Register of Members' Financial Interests, dated 2nd May, 2023. This compares to around 3% of the UK’s adult population, as per the 2021 Census, meaning MPs are roughly six times more likely to be landlords.

Just as it looked as though private tenants were about to receive some legal rights, it appears that up to 30 Tories are preparing to vote against their own government's bill, whilst 20 plan to abstain from voting, as reported by an Conservative MP who - conveniently - wished to remain unnamed. As we have seen over the Covid PPE contracts, Partygate, undeliverable Brexit promises, negotiations with our teachers, doctors and nurses, Tory ministers and backbenchers alike will say one thing and do another. It is not Britain and its people that they put first but their own political ambitions and interests. Chief amongst those interests are their bank balances.

As a Liberal Democrat I believe in people. I want every person to be unhindered by their life circumstances so that they can rise to their full potential. Part of what restricts so many people in England and in Devon are the onerous and obviously unfair private tenancy laws. I want to see this Renters Reform Bill become law and then built upon, England’s private tenants need fair laws that give them the living standards and security they deserve.

Written by Simon Hobson - Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesperson for Torridge and West Devon