Housing: Landlord and Tenant Legislation

Baroness Hanham Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and I declare a long-standing property interest, which is in the register.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham)]

My Lords, the Government have no plans to consolidate all landlord and tenant legislation. “Landlord and tenant legislation” covers social and private renting, plus residential leasehold. It also covers renting and leasing in the commercial sector. The features and requirements of each housing sector or tenure type are reflected in specific legislation. A wide range of housing regulations is now being looked at as part of the red tape challenge.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I thank the Minister for that disappointing Answer. The problem is that as each statute replaces something in the previous one, it has reached the point where even legal practitioners have great difficulty following these laws. Does she not think that a consolidation Act would mean that it could get to a point where ordinary leaseholders and tenants might be able to check on their own duties and responsibilities, which would be worth while?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, consolidation Acts take an enormous time to put together. As I have already said, landlord and tenant law covers several Acts. We appreciate that leasehold law in particular can be complex and that people find it difficult to understand. That is why the department provides guidance for leaseholders and free advice and information, which can be sought from the Leasehold Advisory Service. Consolidating legislation, while helpful, requires considerable Civil Service and parliamentary time, so there needs to be a very significant benefit from it.

[Baroness Deech]

Does the Minister agree that the way in which English or British law is presented on its original enactment, and even worse when it is amended, makes it very hard to understand and that we are not making best use of modern technology and computer-aided amendments in order that we and ordinary people can read the law as it is? Great efforts could be made in that direction, both in this House and outside, so that one does not have to rely on secondary sources in order to be able to understand primary legislation.

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I am sure that everybody would say amen to that. Unfortunately, it is not quite within my brief to deal with how legislation is constructed. I guess that it probably has a history which goes back generations. That is not to say that it should not be modernised, but I think that it will be in somebody else’s hands rather than mine.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss]

My Lords, I wonder whether the Minister would consider asking the Law Commission to look at this, particularly in the light of what the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, has said.

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I hear what the noble and learned Baroness says and I will see what the response to that is from other sources.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

My Lords, one of the most common complaints from private tenants is the failure of landlords to do major repairs such as a broken boiler or leaking roof. Could my noble friend the Minister clarify what steps can be taken to allow a tenant to carry out such major repairs and legally deduct the moneys from their rents? Would she also comment on the desirability of those rights being contained in legislation and not just relying on the varied proposals in common law?

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, whether the tenant is able to do repairs to property and how that is dealt with will be on an individual tenancy agreement. Some landlords allow them to do repair work, some do not. Some demand that resources will be provided for it and some do not. This is something that each tenant needs to ensure is in their agreement so that they know exactly what the situation is.

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

My Lords, would my noble friend consider closely the suggestion made by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss? This is precisely the sort of area where the Law Commission could be immensely helpful to us. Many of us in the House recognise that the complexity of our legislation grows exponentially from Parliament to Parliament, and the Law Commission would have the authority and the experience to be able to give very good advice about how this could be avoided.

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I am sure that the Law Commission pays enormous attention to what we say in the House. It will have heard what has been said and, if it thinks that that is a valuable investigation to undertake, I have no doubt that it will do so.

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I declare my housing interests as in the register and support the proposals of the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes. Does the Minister agree that it would be unwise to think of reforming landlord and tenant legislation to bring back security of tenure on an indefinite basis and rent controls, even though we face alarming rises in rents and some very bad landlords, because such a return would bring back the deterrent to institutional investment at a time when we badly need more money to come into rented housing? Would it not be better to use tax incentives and disincentives to reward good landlords and encourage investment by institutional investors?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Best, in his question. Bringing back indefinite security of tenure and rent controls is not the right way forward. We need a vital and highly flexible private rented sector, and previous experience has shown that measures such as he has described act only to reduce supply and that does not help tenants. As I am sure he knows, changes were made to stamp duty in the 2010 Budget, and we already have a commitment to look at the rules on real estate investment trusts. These are important signals about the value that we place on such investment and on the private rented sector.