Housing: Section 21 Evictions

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Ranger of Northwood

Tuesday 20th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

The noble Lord is right that, if we increase the supply of homes, whether for private rent, social rent or home ownership, we will alleviate pressure in the market and bring down costs for renters and home owners. That is why this Government have put such emphasis on housebuilding and have such a track record on it, delivering 1 million homes over this Parliament and 2.5 million new homes since 2010.

[Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)]

My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister please explain this to me? I went to Blackpool last year to look at some of the worst cases of rented housing and the abuses that terrible landlords inflict on tenants who are vulnerable. When I hear this debate I find that we bundle all landlords together and do not target interventions on the type of landlords that we really want to get out of the system. Will we look at how we can have targeted interventions at the type of landlords that we really want to improve?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My noble friend is absolutely right that the vast majority of landlords do a great job. The availability of private rented accommodation is a really important part of our property sector. We are bringing forward other measures in the Bill that will focus on standards and targeting enforcement of them. There will be a new private rented sector ombudsman and a new decent homes standard for the private rented sector. The majority of people will already comply with that, and we will focus our efforts and enforcement on that minority.