King’s Speech

Lord Carrington Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Carrington (CB)]

My Lords, I welcome much that is in the gracious Speech but would like to concentrate on the housing measures, both new and carried forward from the previous Session. In this respect, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, for his remarks and would like to build on some of them. I therefore declare my own interests in the private rented sector, as set out in the register.

As the Secretary of State Michael Gove has said in the other place, the best solution to our housing problem in this country would be a greater supply of housing, which I hope this Government and future Governments will address. However, in the meantime there are challenges in the housing market that need to be addressed urgently. In this respect, one of the biggest problems is the private rented sector. I am greatly looking forward to the swift arrival of this Bill in this House, as it will belatedly address some very real issues that are causing significant pain to those who rent and unnecessary uncertainty among those who provide rental properties to the degree that some are exiting this important market which serves many important roles in the economy. Indeed, the rental sector is approximately 20% of the housing market. Our debates at Second Reading and in Committee will look into these issues in depth and from the side of both the renters and the owners of rental property and, hopefully, we will be able to improve the Bill.

In the meantime, I want to highlight the cross-departmental aspects of this legislation that are already causing concern—certainly that concern is not unique to this legislation but affects other Bills across the spectrum. In respect of housing, it is correct that the lead should be the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, but in the instance of the Renters (Reform) Bill there is the necessity of huge input from the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. I will be grateful if the Minister will explain how exactly this interministerial involvement works, how commitments made in the Bill are actually delivered and in what timescale. It is clearly unacceptable that a housing Bill is conditional on the involvement of another ministry that perhaps does not see its work on a housing Bill as a priority focus.

The principal issues before the Ministry of Justice are Section 21, which allows no-fault evictions and Section 8 which is the alternative legal route for evictions and repossessions. The noble Lord, Lord Markham, outlined what needs to happen, and the noble Lord, Lord Young, and others highlighted some problems of the Government’s approach. With the Renters (Reform) Bill, the Minister of State has made it clear that unless landlords have confidence in systems that underpin the justice system, we will not have good landlords to provide properties available to rent throughout the country. She emphasised that work to provide that confidence remains a priority for the department and for the Ministry of Justice, but absolutely no timeframe is given. It all sounds like, in the words of Lewis Carroll,

“jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today”.

Meanwhile, until improvements are agreed and Section 8 is fit for purpose, no-fault evictions under Section 21 will continue with all the associated misery caused by unscrupulous landlords. At the same time, good landlords may take the opportunity provided by the delay and the uncertainty about the outcome of legal reforms to exit the sector. The CLA has already suggested that this is happening with the direct consequence of there being fewer houses available to rent and continued pressure on rental levels.

A similar issue is the involvement of the Department of Energy which has withdrawn the current minimum energy efficiency standards, which were certainly not fit for purpose in a large proportion of our older homes, but no new standards have been proposed nor any timetable given. Surely this, together with other proposals related to the promised decent homes standards, should have been part of this or another Bill and been included in the gracious Speech.

The issue of interdepartmental co-operation, or lack thereof, is certainly not unique to housing. As a cautionary tale, we passed the Agriculture Act in 2020 and the Environment Act in 2021, but we still await clarification from the Treasury on the tax treatment of farmers and landowners for environmental schemes developed and encouraged by those Acts. Tax issues relating to VAT, income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax are involved. Treasury consultation has taken place and closed back in June, but we still have no decisions. Inevitably, lack of information on tax has caused farmers and landowners to sit on their hands, thereby delaying measures designed to address carbon emissions.

The interrelationship of housebuilding, environment and tax will all come to a head very soon when the Government’s policy on biodiversity net gain is finally introduced. Failure by the Treasury to resolve tax issues will severely limit the incentive for farmers and landowners to offer land for biodiversity net gain and consequently affect housebuilding numbers, leaving aside lost biodiversity opportunities in the process.

I have tried to highlight the importance of interdepartmental co-operation, which has the power to make or break good legislation unless it operates in a strict timeframe, and warn of the consequences of not co-operating. I look forward to the Minister’s response on this issue.