Renters’ Rights Bill
Baroness Janke Excerpts(1 day, 22 hours ago)
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Lord Cromwell (CB)
My Lords, a number of speakers have driven home in detail the problems of rural areas with old buildings. The choice is quite simple: we either continue with the existing exemptions or knock down about a third of them and start again. Can the Minister tell us which it is going to be?
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Tope’s Amendment 251, which I have also signed. We have all spoken of the support we give this Bill because it offers the opportunity to address the problems and injustices suffered by renters in the PRS, which is the most insecure, most expensive and lowest quality of any tenure. However, the Bill fails to recognise that certain vulnerable groups of tenants suffer disproportionately, as we have heard, and need special measures to give them the level playing field they need to be able to live in suitable accommodation that is fair, reasonable and secure in the private rented sector.
Refugees and asylum seekers are just one such group, and their housing experience is in need of radical reform. My noble friend’s amendment, suggesting that the decent homes standard should apply to housing for refugees and asylum seekers, offers an opportunity to move forward.
However, the asylum housing system in the United Kingdom leaves tens of thousands of people in inadequate accommodation, where they often live for years in conditions that significantly undermine their physical and mental well-being. The current outsourcing of asylum housing to private companies has created a system that is marked by significant issues, including exorbitant costs, excessive profit making, substandard housing, and inadequate safeguarding and oversight. I read in the Sunday Times this week that the owner of one such company, Clearsprings Ready Homes, is now a member of the Sunday Times rich list as a result of rapidly expanding contracts from the Government at the taxpayer’s expense.
These providers need to be properly accountable. Refugee organisations report appalling conditions and many incidents of poor, unsafe and cold properties with infestations and mould. It should therefore form part of contracts with providers that the decent homes standard should apply to properties that are paid for by government. Taxpayers’ money is being used to fund substandard accommodation and providers are not being sanctioned. Many of those who are obliged to live in such misery are children, forced to live in virtual isolation and incarceration with housing conditions that are woefully inadequate for their needs. I therefore support my noble friend’s amendment and call on the Minister to reflect on this situation. If she is unwilling to amend the Bill, can she say what the Government are proposing to do to resolve the desperately pressing circumstances of refugees and asylum seekers and the housing crisis that they face?
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate on the decent homes standard and its potential application across a broader range of accommodation types. As we have heard, the Bill introduces new powers for the Secretary of State to specify additional standards for qualifying residential premises, which offers the potential to raise housing quality and improve conditions for tenants across England. This is, in principle, a welcome ambition, particularly if it helps to extend protections to the most vulnerable in our housing system.
We must recognise the dignity of all residents, regardless of tenure. However, while the intention behind these amendments is laudable, it is vital to interrogate the practicalities and the legal impact of such proposals. For instance, how would the Government define “qualifying residential premises” in the context of asylum accommodation, where providers may be delivering services under a Home Office contract rather than under tenancy agreements? What enforcement mechanisms are appropriate in temporary or institutionally managed housing? Where would the burden of compliance ultimately fall?
We must also examine the legislative implications for landlords and housing providers, particularly those operating on constrained margins. Applying a uniform standard across such a diverse landscape of housing may sound straightforward in principle but in practice it could impose significant compliance costs, particularly in sectors such as mobile home parks or supported houses, where the business model and the regulatory framework already differ markedly from the private rented sector.
Stakeholders such as G15, representing London’s largest housing associations, have raised these very points, urging caution in implying one-size-fits-all approaches and stressing the importance of clarity, resourcing and consultation. Similarly, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has warned of the unintended market disruption that could follow from ambiguous or overly broad standards, particularly if applied unevenly or without sufficient support for implementation.
Amendment 252A, tabled by my noble friend Lady Coffey, seeks to exempt certain buildings from the requirements to maintain specified energy efficiency criteria, specifically those in rural areas, those that are listed buildings or those that were constructed prior to 1900. This raises an equally critical set of questions. As we have heard, many older and listed buildings simply cannot meet modern EPC targets, such as EPC C, without intrusive and costly works that may fundamentally alter their structures or even their appearance. The amendment, therefore, is a measured and proportionate intervention designed not to weaken the decent homes standard but to ensure that it is applied with practicality and flexibility where needed.
Finally, we must ask whether there is a clear and coherent framework in place for assessing which tenures and building types should fall under the decent homes umbrella and whether, without such a framework, we risk creating legal uncertainty or burdens that will ultimately be passed on to tenants themselves.
Baroness Grender (LD)
My Lords, having been extremely brief on everything, I beg noble Lords’ indulgence on this issue, which is extremely important. I sincerely hope we make a bit of progress on it. I want to thank the Renter’s Reform Coalition for their very hard work on this amendment, indeed, on the whole of the Bill. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister of Burtersett, who strongly supports this amendment but is unable to be here tonight.
While this was debated on Report in the House of Commons in terms of its drafting, the original proposal was ruled out as not in scope of the legislation. Therefore, this is a new draft to reframe it as a review of the impact of the Bill on rents. The amendment has been redrafted in response to that feedback. To be clear, according to the Renter’s Reform Coalition, the likely projection of increase in rents as a direct result of the Bill is limited to the net core cost to landlords of £12 per home per year or 0.1% of mean annual rents. I will explain why rents continue to be a problem in spite of whatever the impact of the Bill is likely to be according to the coalition.
This amendment proposes that the Secretary of State must within 18 months of passing the Bill establish a body to report on the impact of the Act on rent levels in the private rented sector. A report published under this proposed new clause would include an analysis of any changes in average rent levels, an overview of the historic affordability of properties and consideration of proposals for improving the affordability of properties. The report should also include characteristics such as age, income and employment status.
Some of the context will be very clear to noble Lords. Private tenants have the highest weekly housing costs of any housing tenure, with lowest income tenants in particular often spending huge proportions of their income on rent. On average, renters spend 34% of their household income on housing, compared to 19% for mortgagors and 26% for social renters, and high rents hit poorer tenants hardest. One in three private renters spends at least half of their monthly household income on rent alone. Nearly 30% of private renters struggled to pay their rent in 2022.
England’s rent burden as a share of disposable income is among the highest in Europe. An analysis from Generation Rent has shown that not a single borough of inner London is affordable for roles across education, healthcare, social care, construction, retail, commerce and hospitality. Recent data released by Zoopla shows that renting a new home is on average £270 per month more expensive than in 2021, meaning that rents have increased by more than £3,000 annually in just three years. An increase in housing affordability would enhance the Government’s objective of driving growth. New research from the Mayor of London, London Councils, Trust for London and G15 shows that a 1% increase in housing affordability in this city could yield a boost of £7.3 billion in economic output over a decade. This research clearly showed that worsening housing affordability has a negative impact on productivity.
We welcome the fact that the Government are ending the bidding wars, but without also including something that acknowledges the issue of rent—and this is a very small version and modest in terms of what it does to the Bill—rents will remain too high across the board, and there will be no measures within the Bill to tackle that issue, or the current measures will be limited.
The amendment stipulates that any report made would need to include proposals for improving the affordability of rent levels in the private rented sector, but it does not prescribe what those policies should be. A report of this nature is an invaluable opportunity to consider the factors that make renting increasingly unaffordable and measures to address these factors in the round. Undertaking this thorough assessment of this complicated issue will take time, given the various intersecting factors that are contributing to the unaffordable nature of renting.
The report could consider: supply and demand in the private rented sector; the role and long-term future of the local housing allowance; the shortage of social housing; the effects of various kinds of rent control and stabilisation measures in comparator nations; an assessment of the potential impact of introducing any kind of rent measures—our preference would be for rent smoothing, as we have discussed several times, not rent controls; any impact on rent prices since the passing of the Act; and other relevant factors. In other words, this is not about being prescriptive but about studying all the impacts on rent. The impact report proposed in this amendment would provide an ongoing mechanism for acknowledging the scale of the affordability crisis. It would provide an opportunity for the Government thoroughly to assess the available evidence on unaffordability in England.
This amendment, as I have said, would not commit the Government to any one policy or approach but aims to gather evidence, data and information in a way that we do not believe is currently sufficiently gathered, and neither does the Renters’ Reform Coalition. It is also an opportunity for the Minister to commit publicly to further considering how to bring rents down in relation to incomes. I will draw my remarks to a conclusion, but this amendment is simply seeking to strengthen what the Government are already trying to do to improve the private rented sector. Without this piece, there is something very substantial missing. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, my Amendment 273 would require, within 12 months of implementation, a report on the impact of the Bill on BME and ethnic groups. I thank Race on the Agenda and Shelter for their briefings.
The private rented sector has the highest number of ethnic minorities relative to other tenures—23% compared with 19% among social renters, and 8% among owner-occupiers—yet black renters are disproportionately faced with barriers that prevent them securing a home in the sector compared with white renters. Generation Rent’s 2024 survey of private renters around the UK revealed that minority-ethnic renters were significantly more likely to face obstacles in accessing new tenancies. Racial minority respondents were almost twice as likely to have been refused a tenancy when they attempted to move home, with 12.5% reporting this experience compared with 6.3% of white British or Irish renters. Some 7% of England’s population are BME, yet in June 2024 20% of homeless households were BME; 8% of households living in poor conditions were BME compared with 3.5% identified as white households.
It is well-documented that black and minoritised groups experience both income and wealth inequality. This makes it much more difficult for these groups to cushion the shocks of rent increases or large deposits, pushing them deeper into problem debt with the associated mental health difficulties that that brings. Measures in the Bill, such as banning discrimination against people on benefits and families with children, should help reduce discrimination against BME groups, as will the ending of the bidding up of rents and the constraints on upfront payments. These are also positive measures.
I will end with a comment from Race on the Agenda.
“We note that although some provisions are made in the Bill to address housing discrimination in general terms, there is a problem as the Bill has not conducted a full racial impact assessment and does not sufficiently include robust measures to tackle racial discrimination in housing and homelessness”.
I hope that, in the light of this, the Minister will embrace the need for the review set out in this amendment.
Renters’ Rights Bill
Baroness Janke Excerpts(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Baroness Janke
“Permission for home adaptations(1) The Housing Act 1988 is amended as follows. (2) After section 16 insert—“16A Home adaptations(1) It is an implied term of every assured tenancy that a landlord must give permission for adaptations where a local council has carried out a Home Assessment and recommends adaptations which constitute reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.(2) A tenant may appeal a landlord’s refusal to give permission for such adaptations.””Member's explanatory statement
This new clause would ensure that landlords of private and social tenancies provide permission for home adaptations for people who have disabilities where a Home Assessment has been carried out.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 133 in my name and that of Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb. This amendment would require landlords to grant permission for home adaptations that constitute reasonable adjustments where these have been recommended by local authority assessments.
Disabled individuals in the private rented sector often face significant barriers in accessing essential adaptations that allow them to live safely, independently and with dignity. According to the English Housing Survey for 2022, 21% of private renters live in homes that fail to meet the decent home standards and 16% of private renters with a long-term illness or disability are in homes with at least one category 1 hazard, such as the risk of falls or inadequate heating. These conditions are not only uncomfortable; they can actively endanger health and undermine independence. The Family Resources Survey for 2022-23 reports that 24% of people in the UK are disabled, amounting to approximately 16 million individuals. With such a significant proportion of the population affected, the case for making housing adaptable and accessible is both moral and practical.
We know that many disabled renters face long delays, refusals or restrictive conditions when requesting simple modifications. Even small adjustments such as installing grab rails, ramps or stairlifts can make the difference between a person being able to remain in their home or being forced to move, rely on care or live in unsafe conditions. This amendment seeks to remove those barriers by ensuring that tenants can make necessary changes, subject to the existing checks and balances of local authority assessments. It offers a proportionate, workable solution that respects landlords’ rights while upholding the basic needs of tenants.
The amendment would also help to reduce demand on already stretched social housing by enabling more disabled people to remain in private accommodation that suits their needs. Given that nearly a quarter of the population is disabled, the need for accessible and safe housing is clear and pressing. This amendment offers a practical step to ensure that those who need adaptations are not denied them by process, delay or indifference.
I urge noble Lords to support this amendment in order to make real the promise of equality under the law and to ensure that disabled renters can live in homes that support their independence, health and dignity. I beg to move.
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)
My Lords, my Amendments 178 and 191, along with Amendment 133 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, highlight some of the challenges that disabled people face living in rented accommodation. Life is hard if you have to live with a disability, and it makes sense if where you live can help you have as much of an active life as possible. When we talk about disabled people, we are not just talking about wheelchair users; we are talking, for example, about people who might react badly to certain colours or intensity of lighting. Step-free access these days ought to be almost automatic, given our ageing population.
The sad reality is that Britain’s housing stock has not been designed with disabled people in mind, and the provision of adaptations for disabled housing is quite scarce. My Amendment 191 would give people reassurance that they can ask about and discuss disability adjustments when looking for somewhere to live, without being disadvantaged. Amendment 178 would take this further and give tenants a right to make minor adaptations for disabilities without needing consent from the landlord.
Taken together, these amendments would support people with disabilities to live healthier, happier lives by ensuring that they have specific rights to meet their needs. I hope that the Minister can take this issue away and look at it, as there are some simple ways forward that will have a huge beneficial impact on disabled people and their families.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
I understand the noble Lord’s point about reinstatement. However, the property being adapted will usually extend the length of the tenancy, which is one of the initial objectives. This already happens where a tenant asks for a home adaptation to be carried out. That will usually mean that they will extend the length of their tenancy. If the tenant does decide to move out, the landlord can seek someone else who would benefit from that adaptation. I will come back to the noble Lord regarding his point about any necessary reinstatement costs. Normally, landlords will be able to find another tenant who would benefit from the adaptation that has been made to the property.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister, and I look forward to seeing her letter and the various assurances that she has given us today. This amendment stemmed from the fact that refusal by landlords has been a major obstacle in the private sector to disabled people who are trying to get adaptations, and it seems that there are a number of measures within the Bill that will really start to tackle this problem. The Equality Act requirements have not prevented landlords refusing tenants who have requested adaptations.
As the Minister says, the business of reinstatement is not always necessary. I admit that some hoists might need to be reinstated, but there is a huge shortage of rental places available for people with even minor disabilities. Bathroom improvements and stairlifts can be a great benefit and make the property much more in demand, because they are in very short supply. I accept that some reinstatement may well be necessary at some stage, but you need only to look at how much demand there is for these properties before you think that you would necessarily have to reinstate them after somebody with a disability has left. The fact that the tenants have a longer period of tenure as a result is also an important factor.
The point of this amendment was that getting it under the disabled facilities grants, meaning that local councils would have their inspection under some form of supervision, was meant to be a safeguard to ensure that things were not being done in an ad hoc or an unsafe way. I am very pleased to hear that disabled facilities grants are being boosted, because the fact that there has been so little money in them for so long has been a major impediment to getting these improvements. I look forward to reading the Minister’s assurances in the letter, and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Janke
“Right to request Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installation(1) It is an implied term of every assured tenancy to which this section applies that— (a) a tenant may request the installation of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) at the dwelling-house if the tenant asks to do so in accordance with this section and the landlord consents;(b) such consent is not to be unreasonably refused by the landlord;(c) the landlord is to give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request, except as provided by subsections (2) to (5).(2) Where the landlord reasonably requests further information from the tenant about the proposed FTTP installation on or before the 28th day after the date of the tenant’s request the landlord may delay giving or refusing consent until the 7th day after the date on which the tenant provides any further information that the landlord requests where the following circumstances apply—(a) the installation of FTTP at the dwelling-house would require the landlord to obtain the consent of a superior landlord under the terms of a superior tenancy, and(b) the landlord seeks the consent of the superior landlord on or before the 28th day after the date of the tenant’s request.(3) The landlord may delay giving or refusing consent until the 7th day after the date on which the landlord receives consent or refusal from the superior landlord.(4) Where the landlord and the tenant agree that the landlord may delay giving or refusing consent, the landlord may delay until whatever date is agreed between the landlord and the tenant.(5) Where more than one of subsections (2) to (4) apply, the landlord may delay until the latest date to which the landlord may delay giving or refusing consent under any of the subsections.(6) This section applies to every assured tenancy other than a tenancy of social housing, within the meaning of Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008.”Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment introduces a right for tenants to request Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installation, similar to the right to request keeping a pet, by ensuring that landlord consent for FTTP installation cannot be unreasonably refused and that decisions are made within a specified timeframe. This provision is intended to reduce delays in broadband infrastructure improvements in rented properties.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, in moving Amendment 134, I will also speak to Amendment 135. Both are also in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Black of Brentwood and Lord Best. I am grateful to Openreach for raising this issue with me, and to Generation Rent and the Good Things Foundation for their support. These amendments would introduce the right for tenants to directly request a full-fibre broadband installation. Tenants would be able to request from their landlord directly, who would have to decide within a specified timeframe. Landlord consent would not be able to be unreasonably refused.
Broadband was historically delivered through electrical signals in copper phone lines, but this technology faced limitations, including vulnerability to weather and limited information-carrying capabilities. A demand for connecting multiple devices grew. Copper networks have increasingly been replaced with fibre-optic cables, enabling more reliable broadband and faster download speeds for households and businesses across the UK.
Four years ago, less than a quarter of British homes and offices could access full-fibre broadband. Today, around seven in 10 premises, or 20.7 million, have access to full fibre, and gigabit-capable network coverage has increased from 40% in 2021 to 83% last year. This progress has been commendable, but there are still challenges to building this vital infrastructure, which is why I tabled these amendments to resolve an increasingly pressing matter.
Although the provision of ultrafast broadband has been mandated in new builds since 2022, tenants in older residential properties have to rely on freeholder permission to upgrade existing copper to full fibre. This can pose significant challenges to the provision of gigabit-capable broadband to residents, if landlords are difficult to identify or are unresponsive to requests for access.
It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of multi-dwelling units across the country whose tenants could be disfranchised from the benefits of gigabit-capable broadband. Although there are existing rights to enter communal areas in flats to repair the ageing copper network, providers cannot use these same rights to upgrade tenants to the latest technology, despite the benefits it brings.
Although the telecommunications code was amended in 2022 to help broadband providers get access to multi-dwelling units by providing a tribunal process, this route is often very ineffective, takes a great deal of time and cost, and results in properties still being bypassed. The law also allows providers to apply to the tribunal only when a tenant has asked for a broadband service, but if the building does not already have a fibre network in place, there is no service available for the tenant to request. As a result, tenants, often in lower-income areas, will be left with slower, outdated broadband options, restricting their ability to access vital public services, work remotely, and access online education.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
The noble Earl makes an excellent point. Anyone who has travelled on the east coast main line will be incredibly frustrated about the dipping in and out of the broadband signal, and if you go through the Hatfield Tunnel on the A1, you will lose your broadband there as well. So he makes an important point.
The Bill is of course about housing, which is why we are considering the housing aspects of it, but I am sure my colleagues in DSIT are very aware of the absolute need to make sure that we have good broadband connection wherever we are in the country.
Baroness Janke (LD)
I thank the Minister for her comments, and I am very interested to hear how the Government will move forward on this. As they have rejected this amendment, I would be very interested to see what measures will be taken. Whatever reassurances we have in here, there are still large numbers of people who are digitally excluded and, as other Members have said, they are entirely reliant on broadband connection for so many things, whether it is medical appointments, work or for economic reasons. It is a real inequality and a great exclusion if they cannot have reliable connections. I hope that this will be a priority and that the Minister will inform us—perhaps in a letter—about what developments are taking place and by when. She mentioned some dates and I should be interested to see them. With those reassurances, I withdraw the amendment.
Renters’ Rights Bill
Baroness Janke Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, as colleagues have already said, the Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to abolish no-fault evictions. We support the measures in this Bill, particularly the provisions by which tenants can challenge rent increases. We support amendments in this group that seek to establish a fairer basis for rent increases and would prevent excessive and unpredictable increases, the severe impact of which may cause eviction and homelessness. We also support the amendments in this group that will reduce the need for tribunals to hear challenges from tenants. We feel that there is a fundamental problem with the concept of market rents, which are currently calculated by looking at a range of advertisements. This does not provide an accurate assessment of the actual rents that people are paying.
One-third of private renters are already paying half or more of their income on rent, well above the commonly accepted affordability threshold of 30%. Measures to stabilise rents within tenancies are essential to ensure that the Bill delivers the secure, stable system it promises, as well as empowering tenants to challenge unfair rent increases that result in unwanted moves.
For many renters, though, a rent increase is as good as an eviction notice. Without an established index that outlines what a fair increase looks like, the First-tier Tribunal will remain effective in supporting renters.
Rent increases must not become the new no-fault eviction. Over 300,000 renters moved last year because of a rent increase they could not afford; that is more than 900 renters a day. Market rent is an artificially high indicator for judging what an appropriate rent should be. The database proposed in the Bill, once established, would be able to capture what rents are actually being paid. This could then establish benchmarking for an appropriate rent, rather than having the traditional understanding of market rent.
Amendment 77 in my name reflects Liberal Democrat policy, which would limit any in-tenancy increase in rent to a percentage of the Bank of England base rate. This is different from inflation and other indicators that are often used. Landlords do face increasing costs from time to time, but the increases they face and want to pass on to tenants are generally more likely to be related to the cost of interest on their borrowing. Therefore, that is the appropriate measure for landlords to look to and should be considered appropriate for a rental increase. It is also often much less than the much more volatile changes in the market rent that are related to inflation.
We would relate rent increases to much more realistic, modest and accurate reflection of what landlords’ expenses are and use the Bank of England base rate as an appropriate limit on the amount of rent increase and any in-tenancy rent increase. That is the rationale behind this amendment.
Lord Best (CB)
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 79 and the related Amendments 84 and 85 in my name and the names of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Grender and Lady Thornhill. I believe these amendments would overcome an inherent defect in the Bill, both for renters and landlords, making this a rare opportunity for amendments with appeal across the piece.
The amendments seek to protect tenants from unpredictable and unaffordable in-tenancy rent increases, but they also have distinct benefits for landlords. Together, the amendments would establish a fair basis for in-tenancy rent increases for a fixed period. As with the earlier amendments in this group from the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, and the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, the amendment would restrict rent increases to an index of inflation: in this case, either the consumer price index or an earnings index. However, in these amendments, the indexation is limited to four years, countering the concern that rents will be controlled. After four years, a market rent—if necessary decided by the First-tier Tribunal—would be allowed.
These amendments address the central issue of renters’ security, which lies at the heart of the Bill. Tenants need to know that their rented property is their home and they cannot be forced to move out by a massive rent increase. As the Housing Minister in the other place, Matthew Pennycook, said at the Bill’s Report stage in the Commons:
“Once section 21 evictions are done away with, unscrupulous landlords will no doubt attempt to evict tenants who assert their rights by means of extortionate rent rises”.—[Official Report, 14/1/25; col. 259.]
The Renters’ Reform Coalition and Shelter have campaigned assiduously for in-tenancy rent increases not to become a means of eviction by price.
The Bill’s remedy is to place a requirement on tenants to take their case to the First-tier Tribunal to set a market rent that cannot be exceeded. I argue that this whole First-tier Tribunal arrangement is a highly unsatisfactory mechanism for settling on appropriate rent levels. For a start, the outcome of tribunal hearings is unpredictable and sometimes arbitrary. Deciding on a market rent is an art, not a science. Sometimes the tribunal has accepted a case made on the basis of the asking rents advertised on Rightmove and Zoopla. Sometimes, however, the tribunal has explicitly dismissed the use of these asking rents, since there is no knowing what relationship actual rents have to the initial asking rent. Moreover, it is common practice for in-tenancy rent increases to be at lower levels than the open market rents for new tenants because landlords sensibly wish to keep their existing tenants.
There are other drawbacks to the Bill’s use of the tribunal route to determine a reasonable rent increase. First, this mechanism depends upon the renter actually taking their in-tenancy rent increase to the tribunal. This can be a daunting requirement for the renter. As Generation Rent has pointed out, very few tenants have any knowledge of the FTT. Even where renters are fully cognisant of their legal rights, many will be reluctant to go down this road, as doing so is likely to mean falling out with the landlord and negatively affecting the relationship. Taking their case to the tribunal will often involve hassle and expense, particularly if they are to present their case in person. It may require travelling a considerable distance and taking time off work, and the process itself may be intimidating. The whole business is fraught with uncertainty and anxiety.
Secondly, assuming the process is followed, the market rent determined by the tribunal may still mean that the renter faces an alarming increase. A recent Zoopla report shows market rents for new lets are 27% higher—£270 per month—than three years ago, which is an increase well above earnings growth. Many commentators are suggesting that shortages may push market rents much higher in the years to come.
The noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, mentioned the guideline of an affordable rent being 30% of take-home pay, but this is only a guideline and not a requirement of any kind on landlords. Sadly, a lot of tenants are paying over 40% of income on rent as the Affordable Housing Commission, which I had the pleasure of chairing, has shown. At that level of income-to-rent ratio, there is always the danger of arrears, let alone hardship to the renter.
From the landlord’s perspective, I suggest that the proposed regime based on appeals to the First-tier Tribunal is highly unsatisfactory. Those representing landlords have argued that large numbers of tenants could be tempted, as we have heard today, to take proposed rent increases to the FTT in the knowledge that they, the renters, have nothing to lose. They cannot be asked to pay more than the level the landlord proposes and they might be successful in arguing that the rent should be less. In any case, the process would save them money by delaying any increase until after the tribunal hearing, as we have heard, which could be months ahead.
A number of your Lordships have made the point that the number of cases referred to the tribunal could clog up the system and delay any decision being taken, at an ongoing cost to the landlord. Another way of looking at this, among the many that have been suggested, is that even if 99% of tenants accepted their landlord’s proposed rent increase, that would leave 50,000 cases still going to appeal. There is no way the FTT could deal with these numbers.
This overwhelming of the system seems more likely if rumours are true that specialist firms are planning to offer a no-win no-fee service, paid for by sharing the rental savings, to handle cases at tribunal hearings on behalf of renters. So, for both landlord and tenant, the dependency on securing a decision from the First-tier Tribunal—theoretically every year for every tenancy—is fraught with danger and potentially undermines the whole Bill.
I know the Government are rightly worried that introducing any form of rent control would have a significant detrimental impact, as history and international comparisons suggest. These Amendments 79, 84 and 85 do not undermine the overriding market principle; instead, they introduce a mechanism that removes the hazards of appeals to the First-tier Tribunal and provides the certainty of indexation for in-tenancy rent increases. After four years of occupation, the rent can be reset at the market level, determined by appeal to the FTT if necessary. Since most renters move within a five-year period, the amendment would ensure that rents are predictable throughout the great majority of tenancies.
The amendment adopts the same rent stabilisation proposition and indexing of increases devised by the Renters’ Reform Coalition, but the amendment limits this inflation indexing to a four-year period. There may be exceptional circumstances in which indexing a rent, rather than going for a market rent, could cause hardship or financial difficulty for the landlord. A case might be where the landlord spends substantial sums on upgrading the property and needs compensation from higher rents, or has borrowed heavily—probably with a buy-to-let mortgage—and needs to increase rents by a bigger margin to satisfy the lender’s requirements, driven in part by the rules of the Prudential Regulation Authority. To cover these relatively rare cases, an additional amendment could place the obligation on the landlord to go to the tribunal, rather than the tenant, to seek a setting of a market rent, instead of applying the usual indexation.
Renters’ Rights Bill
Baroness Janke Excerpts(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the LGA. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brown, on their eloquent maiden speeches. I am sure from these speeches that the breadth and depth of their experience will add greatly to the work of this House, and I look forward to working with them.
We support the objectives of the Bill and see it as a major step towards a safe, secure and affordable private rented sector. Having a home is something many of us take for granted—a place of refuge, security, comfort, safety and reassurance—yet for so many people, including large numbers of children, this is a far-off dream. In my own city of Bristol, 54% of people in the misery of temporary accommodation have dependent children. What kind of start in life is this for them?
The severe shortage of social rented dwellings means that more and more renters are now dependent on private rentals. Shelter reports that there has been a net loss of 24,000 social homes per year since 1991 through the right to buy and demolition. New build has replaced less than half of them. In the meantime, the private rented market has more than doubled since 1980, with unaffordable rents leaving renters struggling to make ends meet, with many ending up in debt and homelessness. As others have said, there is a desperate shortage of, and need for, social homes at affordable rents.
Most landlords fulfil their responsibilities and treat tenants with respect and consideration, but where exploitative and irresponsible landlords fail to comply with standards and conditions required, it is right that early enforcement powers to fine and sanction are provided in addition to legal redress, which may take much longer.
Many of the proposals in the Bill will be welcome to renters, but what is missing is any form of rent stabilisation. As we have heard from other noble Lords, the high rents in the private sector place a huge burden on renters—one-third of renters spend half or more of their income on rent. They are often intimidated from challenging increases by fear of eviction and being made homeless. Even with the banning of Section 21 evictions, landlords can still force eviction through rent hikes that tenants cannot afford. Without some form of rent control, tenants will still not be protected from summary eviction and the threat of homelessness.
Various ways of pegging rents have been mooted, such as to inflation, wage growth or the Bank of England base rate. There needs to be a framework which allows reasonable predictability for rent so that tenants can budget and not be priced out by rent hikes. Rent controls are well-established in European and other OECD countries. This is by a combination of local and national measures, and I hope that the Government will perhaps look at some of these as we progress with the Bill.
The Bill gives tenants the right to challenge unreasonable rent increases, but many tenants will feel unconfident or intimidated in challenging their landlord at a tribunal. So I hope that, through the process of the Bill, the Government will give some thought to measures for the stabilisation of rents.
The CAB tells us that one in four of the complaints it receives is about disrepair, damp, mould and excessive cold. Making the decent homes standard a legal requirement is essential. Renters often experience horrific conditions of disrepair, damp and even infestation with vermin, and they survive on a knife edge of insecurity with the constant fear of being forced into homelessness. I am sure that those of us who have been councillors who have already spoken in this debate are well aware of some of the dreadful conditions that people live in, with landlords who repeatedly fail to carry out effective repairs and maintenance work. The online database publishing information on private rented sector dwellings and landlords could be a very powerful enforcement tool, depending on what information is to be included about landlords’ records and the condition of dwellings.
However, bringing unfit properties up to standard may be costly, and effective enforcement will pose very serious challenges for cash-starved local authorities. Local authorities’ budgets have been cut to the bone and, if they are to enforce compliance, they will need the resources to do so. Tenants must be confident that the law will be enforced promptly and not be buried in lengthy bureaucracy. This will be essential for the success of this legislation, and the Government must give assurances that enforcement will be fully funded.
The banning of discrimination against benefit recipients will help people with disabilities who are on benefit. Evidence shows that people of colour are more likely to be in substandard accommodation and that black and Asian people are more likely to be denied the right to a safe and secure home. It will be essential for anti-discrimination measures to be rigorously enforced.
However, problems of accessibility remain. Private rented dwellings are often too small to allow a wheelchair or accessible bathrooms and kitchens. People are having to remain in hospital as the needs caused by injury or illness cannot be accommodated in their private rental property. Renters have had adaptations refused by landlords. Access rights are human rights for tenants, and they must be guaranteed in law, so I hope we will make some progress on this in Committee.
As my colleagues have said, Liberal Democrats also believe that accommodation for service personnel should comply with the same decent homes standard and that the accommodation of refugees and asylum seekers should be on the same principle, as in an amendment tabled by Liberal Democrat colleagues in the Commons.
We welcome the first steps that the Bill is taking to provide a fairer private rented sector, with clear rights and responsibilities, and with sanctions and redress for non-compliance. The private rented sector is the second-largest tenure in the UK, yet privately rented homes are the most insecure, most expensive and the lowest quality of any tenure. Reform is long overdue.
Women and Men: Pay Gap
Baroness Janke Excerpts(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
I will talk to my colleagues in Health about that issue. I was not aware of it, but it is important and I will take it forward and come back to the right reverend Prelate.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, research has shown that the gender pensions gap between men and women is 17% at the start of women’s careers and a staggering 56% at retirement. What are the Government doing to make sure that women get a fair deal on retirement and do not lose out because they have taken on caring responsibilities or other unpaid but valuable work?
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
Measures have been put in place to improve the state pension outcomes for most women. More than 3 million women stand to receive an average of £550 more per year by 2030 as a result of the recent reforms. Under the new state pension, outcomes are projected to equalise for men and women by the early 2040s, more than a decade earlier than they would have under the old system, so I think we are on top of that issue.
Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
Baroness Janke Excerpts(3 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, there is no sign of disrespect when we call a Government a devolved Administration, but I am happy to call them devolved Governments in future if that is seen as more appropriate.
Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, findings of the IPPR show that there are huge differences in regional economic performance and prosperity in the UK and that this is down largely to overcentralised and inflexible governance. Can the Minister assure us that the Government will devolve powers to local decision-makers as a key part of the levelling-up agenda and not allow this to be operated by the dead hand of Whitehall from London?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, the Government remain committed to devolution. On the levelling-up agenda and fund, it is quite clear that, where that money is spent in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we will have effective engagement and work closely with stakeholders to build on existing spending, using the economies of scale that we can achieve through expenditure at the United Kingdom level.
Housing: New Developments
Baroness Janke Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, at this stage of the planning reform process we have had 44,000 responses and have continued engagement with the Local Government Association and other important stakeholders, and we will be responding to those responses in due course.
Baroness Janke (LD) [V]
My Lords, the city of Freiburg is widely recognised as a global first-rank model of urban sustainable life, based on strong and active democracy and citizen participation. Is it not time that councils in this country were given the real powers they need to redress the balance between overpowerful developers and democratic institutions?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, we need to recognise the existing frailties of the current planning system, which has not been reformed for over seven decades and has a very poor record on public engagement. Data shows that less than 1% engage on local planning consultations and only 3% engage on applications. That is something that we intend to improve with the reforms that we have outlined in the White Paper.
Housing for the Homeless
Baroness Janke Excerpts(5 years ago)
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Baroness Janke (LD)
My Lords, many young people today under 25 face homelessness because a family member is shielding or because the stresses within a vulnerable family make them unsafe. They struggle to get the support they need. High house prices and rents mean that over two-thirds of young people today are paying more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The Government can help young people move on from homelessness or avoid it altogether through equalising universal credit for young people living independently with that of the over-25s, restoring work allowance for vulnerable claimants, paying the most vulnerable a grant instead of the five-week wait for universal credit and raising the local housing allowance for homeless young people and care leavers, as announced in the 2020 Budget. Lastly, an accessible framework of support and advice is essential if we are going to help vulnerable young people and care leavers to move on for good and escape the scourge of homelessness and rough sleeping.