Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Lord Best

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

I congratulate our Chair on going through these complicated provisions. She is doing very well and should receive congratulations from all of us.

We now move on to the chapter relating to the private rented sector database, which is an essential component in the efficient bringing in of the provisions of the Bill. The database should be set up even before the Act comes into force.

Amendment 219 seeks an obligation that the database operator must establish and operate the database within one year of the Act being passed. It seeks to set down a timetable for the bringing in of the database. All these amendments, like my earlier amendments, are meant to be tidying-up amendments and helpful to all of us taking part in this debate. The other amendments in my name in this group are Amendments 231 and 232. In an earlier version of the grouping, Amendment 237 was in this group but somehow it has disappeared. Can it be brought back to this group so we can discuss it as well?

Amendment 231 would require

“the database operator to ensure that facilities are available for persons to report breaches of any requirement”

by means other than a computer. I have already spoken to the problems of the computer inept, including myself, and my noble friend the Minister is sympathetic on that issue.

Amendment 232 would require

“the database operator to ensure that facilities are available for people to access information on the database, in situations where they do not have access to a computer or electronic device”.

Again, it would help those such as me, who are digitally inept.

Amendment 237 would remove

“the exception for landlords to be registered on the private rented sector database before a court can grant possession in cases”

under ground 7A of the Housing Act 1998, as amended; for example, proceedings brought by the landlord for possession for anti-social behaviour. That seems to be a sensible amendment. There should not be restraint on a landlord bringing such proceedings, which are socially vital for the community in which those tenants are playing a part.

Those are all the amendments. I hope I have been able to describe them lucidly and correctly to your Lordships. I beg to move.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 220 and 225. Amendment 220, in my name and those of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Kennedy of Cradley, is the first of several amendments to support and enhance the Bill’s proposals for a PRS database. I am grateful to my noble colleagues and also to the Lettings Industry Council, Generation Rent, and the Large Agents Representation Group for help in drafting these amendments.

The database, as proposed by Clause 76, will contain some basic information about the landlord and the property. This will assist local authorities in the carrying out of their duties in the enforcement of required standards in the PRS—private rented sector. It will save councils time and money—chasing landlords for the information the council needs and locating properties failing to meet statutory requirements.

However, the database can do much more than this, and Amendment 220 makes it clear that it can have a wider, more significant role. It would surely be a wasted opportunity if the property database was of use only to local authorities. The amendment makes it clear that information on the database should also be available for the benefit of tenants, landlords and their agents. Not least, this new resource should enable landlords and agents to identify any obligation for them to obtain a licence from the local authority where the property is subject to a licensing requirement and would assist them in making such an application.

For tenants and prospective tenants, Amendment 220 makes explicit what is surely intended; namely, that the database is being created to provide important information for those seeking a property to rent who want essential details about their future home and its landlord.

Amendment 225 seeks to assist the new database process by clarifying that its functionality should allow data to be uploaded by landlords’ agents as well as by the landlords themselves; otherwise, landlords will need to be contacted constantly by agents to obtain the information they need. With around half of rented property being supported by lettings agents, this tweak is another reason why the amendment is a necessary addition to the Bill.

This property portal amendment is supported by those representing renters and those representing landlords and property agents. With the additional features that we will discuss in the next group, these amendments seek to ensure that the database has a transformative impact in raising standards, helping enforcement and widening knowledge of all the properties in the sector.