Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Lord Polak and Baroness Grender
Baroness Grender (LD)
My Lords, we support this amendment. I remain at a loss as to why the Government do not support this simple measure, for the following three reasons. First, this is not new legislation; it is updating older legislation, so there is no additional bureaucracy. Secondly, it reduces reliance on local government and puts the power into the hands of the consumer—the tenant. Thirdly, it will not cost a good landlord anything; it will give them cover. It will add costs only for bad landlords.
I am delighted that we had a much more detailed debate in Committee here than in the other place. However, the Government were reluctant to give tenants legal rights to take action through the courts. My question is: why? In Committee, it was clear that the Government believe that local authorities should be responsible for human habitation. Of course, it is only right that the council is there to step in where needed to take action and drive up conditions. But we should empower renters who can to challenge their landlords through civil means, so they do not have to rely on the state unnecessarily. Currently, in most cases of poor conditions, the tenant’s only practical remedy is through environmental health departments at their local council. A complaint to the council will trigger a health and safety inspection, which can then lead to the council requiring the landlord to make improvements under the Housing Act 2004.
Of course, the government safety net should be there. Much of the Bill is very welcome in strengthening the incentive for councils to operate that safety net. However, this is an opportunity for renters to feel more able to raise the alarm in the first place. We know from Shelter’s survey that more than 10% of renters feel either that their issue is not serious enough to take to the council, or that nothing will change as a result. Bringing back to life this legislation as a means of civil redress for private renters, as this amendment would, would free up local authorities to focus on those who really need help.
This is important because local authorities, as we all know, are struggling to manage the demands on their environmental health officer teams as the private rented sector balloons. We argued this in Committee and to back this up, data indicate that only a fraction of complaints result in investigations. There were 51,916 complaints about housing conditions to the responding councils in 2013-14, but only 14,043 inspections of private rented properties, so the rate is very low. The follow-up is about one prosecution per council per year at the moment.
In Committee, the Government argued that tenants have all they need in the publication of the How to Rent guide, which is on their website, so I looked it up. The Government’s guide provides a general overview of what to expect as a renter—that you should expect your landlord to provide a gas safety certificate, for example. But it is not a detailed consumer guide to renting and for the most part it advises renters to seek help via their local authority rather than empowering them to take action for themselves, which is what this amendment is all about. Of course, those who critically need help should be signposted to a local authority.
Finally, in Committee the Government argued that this would cost landlords more money. For the vast majority of landlords who are compliant with the law and keep their property in good condition, nothing would change once this law was introduced. What it would do is to underpin the right of the tenant as a consumer. The fitness for human habitation reform can easily be linked to the existing health and safety requirements. This is not about creating new burdens for landlords, so my central question remains: why are a Conservative Government not leaping at the opportunity to give greater power to the customer—the tenant? This is that opportunity.
Lord Polak (Con)
My Lords, everybody is of course entitled to live in a decent and well-maintained home that is safe and free from harm. Where someone rents a home from a private landlord and it does not meet the standards, and if complaints to their landlord are not dealt with, as I understand it, tenants can report this to their local authority, which can indeed take action. It is important that tenants raise such problems with their local authority, otherwise it will not know.
What I found interesting in doing the research is that the party opposite seemed to have most of this covered in the Housing Act 2004. If a property is dangerous or in a state of disrepair, a local authority can enter and inspect the home or premises and demand that the hazard is removed—and in some cases, ban the property from being used until it is fixed—under the 2004 Act. If rooms are too small, a local authority can enter and inspect the property and assess whether their size is suitable; again, that is in the Housing Act 2004. If a property is overcrowded, a local authority can enter and inspect the property and decide the number of persons allowed to live there. I could go on. In other words, the Housing Act 2004 seems to cover most of this and I do not understand why this amendment will help in any shape or form.