Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Empey and Lord Murray of Blidworth

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, I declare an interest on the register in regard to this matter.

The Government cannot take this legislation in isolation. As a country, we are taking policy actions that diminish supply and increase demand. Our population is increasing—and that is a deliberate decision. The net effect of that, of course, is that, with local authorities not building properties in the manner and at the rate that they used to, we are creating circumstances where we have a perfect storm of increased demand and reduced supply. The supply is reducing, and the Bill will have the perverse effect of reducing it even further.

We have to take a holistic view. It is not simply a question of dealing with tenancies in isolation; we have to look at the big picture. As we have heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, in her proposal, the vast majority of these people are small-business people. Most people in the sector have these properties as part of what they deem to be their pensions. But equally, we all want to see fairness. We know that “landlord” is almost a dirty word. Historically, we have had Rachman and suchlike tainting the whole sector. There has been a steady drip of measures over the years mitigating against provision in the rented sector, such as interest no longer being offset against tax for people who are doing buy-to-lets and so on. Regulation has increased—some of it very necessary for health and safety, but the burden is going up.

Clearly, in places such as London, there is massive demand that is basically impossible to meet. Unlike countries such as Germany, where the rented sector is totally different—in many cases it is the norm that people rent properties and do not own them—we are in a different place. We concentrate on private ownership of our own properties, so rental is different. Reference was made to assessment. I ask the Minister: has an assessment been made of the impact on the supply of properties?

The number of properties will, I expect, continue to diminish, and that puts extra pressure on local authorities. The LGA has been explicit about that. This is increasing homelessness, and we have the pressures there and the pressures from immigration and from asylum seekers. Yet we are taking measures—whether in this sort of legislation or others—that mitigate against people taking on a private property to rent. Unless somebody can make a profit out of renting, why would they bother? Then you have all the hassle of going through the courts, not getting paid, et cetera.

On the other side of the coin, there are properties that are in a very poor state. We have seen examples of landlords who do not maintain them properly. Nobody wants that, and the Government clearly have a mandate to make change. However, I am far from convinced that the fairness that we all want to see, and which the Government have a right to insist upon, is necessarily achieved by the measures in this Bill. While the proposal from the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, may or may not be to the Government’s liking, at least one can see where they are coming from and why they are doing it.

If the Government are not prepared to adopt that, let the Minister come forward with a coherent mechanism that a landlord can use if they happen to have a tenant who is not abiding by the rules. It does not have to be Amendment 8; it could be something else, but let us see it, get it on the table and discuss it, so that the consensus whereby we all wish to see improvements can be achieved. There is no point having a Bill the perverse effect of which will be to reduce supply. Nobody will gain from that. I ask the Minister kindly to address that in her summing up.

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

My Lords, I too support the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lady Scott of Bybrook. I should say that my wife owns a one-bedroom property which she is in the process of selling, in part because of the potential effects of this Bill and the reasons so eloquently outlined by the previous three speakers.

As a young barrister, I used to practise landlord and tenant. I used to go around the country defending and prosecuting cases of repossession or otherwise, or resisting possession claims for properties. I know how long and painful the process is to try to repossess a property in circumstances where a tenant has not paid rent. I also know the pain that that can inflict on a small landlord who is using the rent to pay the mortgage and to pay the maintenance on that property.

As the noble Lord made abundantly clear in his speech a moment ago, not all landlords are of the Rachman ilk, with thousands of properties under their belt, and out to do down the tenant. As the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, said, in so many cases, this is a relationship of happiness and contentment. The landlord looks after the property and uses the rent money to pay the mortgage on the property and maintain it for the tenant. The tenant has the flexibility of being able to leave that property when they wish, and they do not have the burden of maintaining it. It is an important flexibility within the labour market.

The abolition of Section 21 will have a very damaging effect on our housing market. I say that because the court system is simply not ready for a situation where the only grounds upon which you can take back a property in a circumstance where a tenancy has failed would be by bringing proceedings for non-payment of rent or for some other breach of the tenancy. Those sorts of proceedings take a very long time to work their way through the court system. I recall, as a young practitioner, there still being cases under the 1977 Rent Act where the rent had stayed the same as it was in the 1970s and the tenant was effectively irremovable. It was a nightmare for the owner. It was a rigidity in the housing system, which was ended by the use of Section 21 notices.

To describe those notices as being no-fault evictions is very much only half the story. As the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, pointed out, the purpose of Section 21 notices is to enable an agreement to rent a property to come to an end, perhaps because you want to live in the house yourself, or you want to sell the property because you need the money for some other purpose. Section 21 serves a vital role in the housing market and its abolition is something we would all come to regret.

I therefore strongly urge the Government to consider carefully an exemption for small landlords of the type suggested by my noble friend in this amendment. This is worth very careful consideration. We have not heard enough about the readiness of the court service to implement this abolition.