Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020

Baroness Grender Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2020 Grand Committee

That is all I have to say, other than to welcome these long-overdue regulations.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, my party gives its full support to these regulations. Indeed, my noble friend Lord Tope and our former colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, have been assiduous campaigners for this change over a long period. Their dogged persistence, alongside that of other opposition parties, has finally borne fruit. I also congratulate Electrical Safety First on its constant and unwavering focus on getting this done. These regulations will start to keep many people safe from electrical accidents and fires.

Every year, around 350,000 people are injured and 70 people are killed in the UK by electrical accidents. Compare that with, altogether, 300 injuries and 18 deaths per year due to fires, explosions, carbon monoxide poisoning and gas leaks. That leads to my first question: why has this taken so long? I looked back at some previous debates to find that, in April 2018, I raised the issue of the achingly slow pace with the then Minister, who promised something soon. The electrical safety working group completed its work in autumn 2016. Even then, regulations were promised by spring 2019. The people who have been injured in the interim period, and the families of those who have been killed, expect an answer now. I appreciate that it is not easy to answer that right here, right now, but I would like an undertaking to write to explain why these regulations have taken so long to come through.

As with the ban on tenant fees, the wheels of government appear to move slowly when it comes to people in the private rented sector, who, I believe, continue to be treated as second-class citizens. This extends to the current coronavirus pandemic. Much effort is being made to ensure that there are holidays for mortgage payments. Every time the Government make such a move, I ask them to ask themselves the following question: how do we mirror this now in the private rented sector, given that, even by the Government’s own figures, which I believe to be a significant underestimate of 4.8 million households, over one-quarter of the population is excluded from something like a mortgage holiday? What is the equivalent in the private rented sector? Will the Minister urgently look at rental holidays, too, to help those who are often the poorest through this crisis?

Will the Minister also use this opportunity to revisit the issue of a central register for landlords to enable tenants and local authorities to ensure tenants’ rights are enhanced and upheld? The Government originally said no to banning tenant fees, but rightly changed their mind. Again, they said no early on to mandatory checks, but again, they rightly changed their mind. Will the Government now change their mind about a central register of private rented sector landlords? This would help local authorities in particular. As the Minister will know, local authorities have had their funding reduced by 60p out of every pound, as my noble friend Lord Tope explained. The £30,000 financial penalty for a breach of regulations is very welcome, but will the Minister outline what additional support will go to local authorities in advance?

We always have a chicken-and-egg debate at this point. I urge the Minister to consider what funds are made available to the local authority to raise its first £30,000 penalty in breach, so that it can then pay to reinforce. It is exactly like the recent legislation on the prevention of homelessness. What is the up-front payment that goes to a local authority so that it can then start to enforce, as I believe it should? Paragraph 12.8 of the Explanatory Memorandum seems very similar to what exists for rogue landlords. What is the up-front payment to help ensure that it is upheld? Under paragraph 11, “Guidance”, I notice that there is further information about how the guidance will come through and be explained to people. What resource will be placed behind explaining to people their new rights, and how they can assert them as tenants?

We are very grateful to the Minister for giving us a brief and most welcome update on progress towards a Bill on the private rented sector. If he would like to take a fast-track approach to dealing with no-fault evictions, I recommend my Private Member’s Bill, which is currently in the Lords, as a way to ensure that we address this issue at a slightly faster pace than the Government are currently dealing with private rented sector issues.

I will touch briefly on the issue of property guardians, which I have also raised with the Government. Towards the end of Theresa May’s premiership we were getting closer, as I understood it, to introducing greater rights for property guardians. I had a very useful meeting with Minister Wheeler and the noble Lord, Lord Bourne, about this. I felt that we were getting quite close to a solution; then there was a change at No. 10, since when it has gone very quiet. The property guardians issue is an increasing problem that we need to be ahead of, so I refer the Minister to a recent investigation by Vicky Spratt of the i newspaper of a former residential care home. Not untypically with property guardian issues, there were 31 residents, who are often older renters. Nothing has been tested. They have all had to sign NDAs, which are unenforceable—but how do they know that?—and the HMO licence is not an HMO licence. I point out to the Minister that recently, Colchester Council took Camelot Guardian Management Company Ltd to court on this very issue.

The property guardians issue is a growing problem that the Government could be well ahead of in legislation. It would be good, at the very least, to offer to sit down with interested parties and follow up the discussion held a year ago, when it felt as if we were getting close to something useful and helpful, because they are not included under any kind of assured shorthold tenancy rights. We now have teachers, NHS staff and low-income workers being housed in former care homes that are, frankly, dilapidated buildings. It is on the increase and being advertised in a lot of local authority areas.

Finally, will the Minister update us, as my noble friend Lord Tope asked, on any plans to include mandatory electrical checks in the social rented sector, and on what the Government are going to do to ensure home safety visits for vulnerable and older people, who are sometimes owner-occupiers? Again, this would be very useful. All those questions having been asked—for which, many apologies—I welcome this legislation. But it was achingly slow, and people deserve an answer on that.