Renters’ Rights Bill

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the LGA. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brown, on their eloquent maiden speeches. I am sure from these speeches that the breadth and depth of their experience will add greatly to the work of this House, and I look forward to working with them.

We support the objectives of the Bill and see it as a major step towards a safe, secure and affordable private rented sector. Having a home is something many of us take for granted—a place of refuge, security, comfort, safety and reassurance—yet for so many people, including large numbers of children, this is a far-off dream. In my own city of Bristol, 54% of people in the misery of temporary accommodation have dependent children. What kind of start in life is this for them?

The severe shortage of social rented dwellings means that more and more renters are now dependent on private rentals. Shelter reports that there has been a net loss of 24,000 social homes per year since 1991 through the right to buy and demolition. New build has replaced less than half of them. In the meantime, the private rented market has more than doubled since 1980, with unaffordable rents leaving renters struggling to make ends meet, with many ending up in debt and homelessness. As others have said, there is a desperate shortage of, and need for, social homes at affordable rents.

Most landlords fulfil their responsibilities and treat tenants with respect and consideration, but where exploitative and irresponsible landlords fail to comply with standards and conditions required, it is right that early enforcement powers to fine and sanction are provided in addition to legal redress, which may take much longer.

Many of the proposals in the Bill will be welcome to renters, but what is missing is any form of rent stabilisation. As we have heard from other noble Lords, the high rents in the private sector place a huge burden on renters—one-third of renters spend half or more of their income on rent. They are often intimidated from challenging increases by fear of eviction and being made homeless. Even with the banning of Section 21 evictions, landlords can still force eviction through rent hikes that tenants cannot afford. Without some form of rent control, tenants will still not be protected from summary eviction and the threat of homelessness.

Various ways of pegging rents have been mooted, such as to inflation, wage growth or the Bank of England base rate. There needs to be a framework which allows reasonable predictability for rent so that tenants can budget and not be priced out by rent hikes. Rent controls are well-established in European and other OECD countries. This is by a combination of local and national measures, and I hope that the Government will perhaps look at some of these as we progress with the Bill.

The Bill gives tenants the right to challenge unreasonable rent increases, but many tenants will feel unconfident or intimidated in challenging their landlord at a tribunal. So I hope that, through the process of the Bill, the Government will give some thought to measures for the stabilisation of rents.

The CAB tells us that one in four of the complaints it receives is about disrepair, damp, mould and excessive cold. Making the decent homes standard a legal requirement is essential. Renters often experience horrific conditions of disrepair, damp and even infestation with vermin, and they survive on a knife edge of insecurity with the constant fear of being forced into homelessness. I am sure that those of us who have been councillors who have already spoken in this debate are well aware of some of the dreadful conditions that people live in, with landlords who repeatedly fail to carry out effective repairs and maintenance work. The online database publishing information on private rented sector dwellings and landlords could be a very powerful enforcement tool, depending on what information is to be included about landlords’ records and the condition of dwellings.

However, bringing unfit properties up to standard may be costly, and effective enforcement will pose very serious challenges for cash-starved local authorities. Local authorities’ budgets have been cut to the bone and, if they are to enforce compliance, they will need the resources to do so. Tenants must be confident that the law will be enforced promptly and not be buried in lengthy bureaucracy. This will be essential for the success of this legislation, and the Government must give assurances that enforcement will be fully funded.

The banning of discrimination against benefit recipients will help people with disabilities who are on benefit. Evidence shows that people of colour are more likely to be in substandard accommodation and that black and Asian people are more likely to be denied the right to a safe and secure home. It will be essential for anti-discrimination measures to be rigorously enforced.

However, problems of accessibility remain. Private rented dwellings are often too small to allow a wheelchair or accessible bathrooms and kitchens. People are having to remain in hospital as the needs caused by injury or illness cannot be accommodated in their private rental property. Renters have had adaptations refused by landlords. Access rights are human rights for tenants, and they must be guaranteed in law, so I hope we will make some progress on this in Committee.

As my colleagues have said, Liberal Democrats also believe that accommodation for service personnel should comply with the same decent homes standard and that the accommodation of refugees and asylum seekers should be on the same principle, as in an amendment tabled by Liberal Democrat colleagues in the Commons.

We welcome the first steps that the Bill is taking to provide a fairer private rented sector, with clear rights and responsibilities, and with sanctions and redress for non-compliance. The private rented sector is the second-largest tenure in the UK, yet privately rented homes are the most insecure, most expensive and the lowest quality of any tenure. Reform is long overdue.