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

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2020 Grand Committee

Moved by

[The Earl of Courtown]

That the Grand Committee do consider the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020.

Relevant document: 4th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, this Government are committed to ensuring that all tenants live in safe, secure and high-quality properties. These important regulations help deliver that commitment for private tenants. Private landlords make an extremely valuable contribution to the housing market. The majority of landlords in England provide well-maintained and safe accommodation for their tenants, allowing them to put down roots, work and thrive in their communities. However, some landlords wilfully flout their responsibilities and put their tenants at a significant risk of harm as a result. This is not acceptable. These regulations will target those irresponsible and unscrupulous landlords and will help to level the playing field for the majority of good landlords who already meet this requirement. As a result, the regulations will help to drive up safety and standards across the private rented sector and reduce deaths and injuries caused by electrical faults.

The numbers are telling. In 2016-17, 16 people died and 871 were injured in England as a result of electrical fires in the home. In a five-year period, the London Fire Brigade dealt with 748 fires caused by electrics. In the same period, only 97 fires it dealt with in London were caused by gas. Only 60% of homes in the private rented sector have all the recommended electrical safety features installed, compared with 75% of homes in the social rented sector. This amounts to a compelling case for change.

These regulations will require all landlords to have the electrical installations in their properties inspected and tested by a qualified and competent person at least every five years. Good landlords already keep the electrics in their properties safe, but there are those who avoid doing this and undercut the good ones. They will now have to comply and better protect the safety of their tenants. If they do not like it, they can leave the business. The regulations will also require landlords to provide a copy of the electrical safety report to their tenants, and to their local authority if requested, to give tenants the information they need for their peace of mind and to support local authority enforcement.

But what about those landlords who decide to continue to flout the law and put their tenants at risk of electrocution and perhaps even fire? These regulations will provide local authorities with strong enforcement powers to tackle this minority of landlords. Local authorities will be able legally to require landlords to carry out vital remedial works. If landlords still do not comply, the council will be able to arrange the works and recover the cost from the landlord.

Local authorities will also be able to request proof from landlords that the electrical installations in their property are in fact safe. If a landlord has to carry out essential remedial work, they must let their local authority know. There will be a serious penalty for landlords who do not comply with the requirements—requirements that they should already be meeting. Local authorities will have the power to issue financial penalties of up to £30,000; it will be for them to decide the level of penalty. They can see the severity of the issue and will know best how to tackle irresponsible landlords in their areas.

Our local authorities are working hard to enforce standards in privately rented properties, so we are mindful of the risks of putting new burdens on them. That is why we have legislated that they may retain the proceeds of these financial penalties for enforcement purposes, allowing councils to keep up the good work and drive up standards further. This will contribute to the long-term financial stability of housing enforcement teams. These regulations form part of the Government’s comprehensive programme of work to improve safety in all buildings and conditions in the private rented sector in particular, where overall standards are significantly worse than in other tenures.

We took decisive action to address the risks identified following the Grenfell Tower tragedy and accepted in principle all recommendations in the Grenfell Tower inquiry phase one report. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary will introduce a fire safety Bill which will clarify that, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, building owners and managers of multioccupied residential buildings must ensure they assess fire risks linked to external walls, including cladding, and the entrance doors to individual flats. We also accepted the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review of building safety and will publish a building safety Bill as soon as possible.

This is all in addition to the renters’ reform Bill, which will deliver a better deal for renters. I look forward to sharing the details of this Bill with Members of the House over the coming months. However, I can tell noble Lords now that it will improve security and affordability for tenants and professionalise the sector. It will include measures to drive criminal landlords out of the sector while strengthening the rights of landlords who have a valid reason for regaining possession of their property.

I appreciate the opportunity to set out all this exciting new work and thank noble Lords for their interest in this important matter. These regulations will help drive up standards and reduce injuries and deaths due to electric shocks and fires caused by electrical faults in residential premises within the private rented sector. As I said at the start, the majority of landlords are proactive in ensuring the safety of their tenants, so these requirements will not put an additional burden on those landlords who make a welcome contribution to the housing market.

It is reasonable to expect all landlords to make sure their tenants are safe from the risk of electrocution or fire. Ultimately, these regulations will help ensure that tenants are kept safe. I beg to move.

[Lord Tope (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his thorough introduction to these long-overdue regulations, which I welcome. Before I go any further, I declare an interest as a patron of the charity Electrical Safety First. It has been campaigning for many years—longer than I have been involved with it—for these regulations, which they too very much welcome.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I first declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and pay tribute to the work of Electrical Safety First. As we have heard, it has been assiduous in its campaigning over many years to get these regulations before us today, as have noble Lords on all Benches, including the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, the noble Lord, Lord Tope, and my noble friend Lady Hayter. I thank the Government for bringing them forward and offer them many congratulations. It is appreciated.

I am generally pleased that the regulations are here but, as has been outlined, this has taken years. It could not have been any slower; it has gone at a snail’s pace. I remember the debates during the dreaded Housing and Planning Act, in which the noble Lord, Lord Tope, and I moved amendments yet could not get any action from the Government. Then, they finally moved forward. I have tried to write down how many people I have dealt with since then: when we first raised this issue in that Bill, the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Trafford, was the Minister and the noble Baroness, Lady Evans of Bowes Park, was the Whip; we then had the noble Lord, Lord Bourne; then the noble Viscount, Lord Younger; then the noble Baroness, Lady Bloomfield; now we have the noble Earl, Lord Courtown. I am sure there were many other Whips, but that is five Ministers.

Frankly, the length of time this has taken is outrageous. The Minister listed the number of fires, injuries and fatalities. It is shocking that we have waited so long for this. It is unacceptable. As the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, said, people need answers. We discussed this five years ago and are finally getting some regulations; now we are worrying, in the present crisis, whether they will happen. We need an answer.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, was mentioning other things that have not happened, she reminded me of discussions about the rogue landlords database. Again, we could not get the Government to agree to make it public. They were not having it and we lost votes. I remember meeting with Greg Clark from the other place; very nice man though he is, we could not make any progress whatever. Two years on, the Government decided that they wanted to make it public. The noble Lord, Lord Bourne, told me, “I want to do it, Roy, but I just can’t find any parliamentary time to do it in.” I thought, “Hang on, two years ago you had the vote and voted against it.” I know he was sincere about it and wanted it made public, but it is very frustrating when you sit here, make the points, win the votes and the arguments, yet they will not budge—then, literally a year or so later, there is a complete about-turn by the Government. They told us, “We want to do it, but we can’t get any time because of the pressure of legislation.” Up until last December, we had not actually been very busy in this House; there were no huge swathes of legislation coming forward, so time could have been found if we had wanted to.

A number of questions have been raised that I was going to ask, so I look forward to getting answers to them. On the issue of communication, how will we get this out to tenants so that they know what their new rights are? Equally, how will we get this out to landlords so that they know their new responsibilities? Will we use charities such as Electrical Safety First to get this information out, which will be very important? As the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, and the noble Lord, Lord Tope, said, what about electrical safety standards in the social rented sector? These questions need looking at, as does that of vulnerable people in the owner-occupied sector, who may not have the cash resources to get work done. We need to know about that.

I genuinely thank the Government for introducing these regulations—it is just regrettable that it has taken so long. I hope they have learned that they need to move at at least at a snail’s pace—we have not even got that far—in future to get these things on board.

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, as always, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part for their valuable contributions. I am really pleased to note the general support for the intention of these regulations and our work to improve the private rented sector. I also understand the Committee’s concerns over the delay. I will come to that point later. If I do not cover everything in great detail or miss various points, I will ensure that I write to noble Lords on some of these issues.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, and the noble Lords, Lord Tope and Lord Kennedy, asked how we will ensure that landlords, tenants and local authorities understand these new requirements. We will ensure they understand them; officials have been working closely with landlords, letting agents and trade organisations, as well as the electrical safety industry, which is already disseminating information to its members. We are also publicising the regulations across social media. In addition, ahead of the regulations coming into force we will publish guidance for landlords, local authorities and tenants. The introduction of the regulations before Parliament has already attracted broadly positive and welcoming media attention, including from the national press. We will continue to publicise them, to ensure maximum possible coverage. We will also work closely with local authorities to ensure they have what they need. We are fully committed to bringing these provisions forward as soon as we can but, as the noble Lord commented, these are exceptional times.

The noble Lord, Lord Tope, also asked whether local authorities will be overburdened with these regulations and raised additional financial support. These regulations will not mean additional work for local authorities, because local authority environmental health departments are already responsible for enforcing electrical safety standards in the private rented sector. The new regulations will in fact make it simpler for local authorities to do this, because landlords will now have to provide them with proof that their electrics are safe. As I said before, local authorities will also be able to keep any money raised from financial penalties to fund their enforcement activities, helping to raise standards in the long run, and these penalties can be up to £30,000 for the most serious offenders.

The noble Lord, Lord Tope, also looked at compliance with, for example, the wiring regulations, even if the wiring was installed before the edition was in force. The regulations state that a landlord must

“ensure that the electrical safety standards are met”

and that

“investigative or remedial work is carried out”

if a report requires it. The electrical installation should be safe for continued use. In practice, if the report does not require investigative or remedial work, the landlord will not be required to carry out any further work.

The noble Lords, Lord Tope and Lord Kennedy, and the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, mentioned social housing. As I said in my opening speech, these regulations apply to the private rented sector. This is because that is where the standards were lower—in the private sector, as opposed to the social rented sector. These regulations target this sector. However, the Government are also separately considering safety measures for social rented properties.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, mentioned rent holidays taking account of a person’s situation. The Government have always been clear that our priority here is to put people first, which is why support is in place to help affected people and minimise any social and economic disruption. We have announced a range of measures to support people and communities, including a £500 million fund for households experiencing financial hardship, while ensuring that statutory sick pay is available from the first day that people take off work. If I can add anything more in relation to the noble Baroness’s speech, I will write to her on that.

I went over this in a slightly different area earlier, but the noble Lord, Lord Tope, asked about the 18th edition of the wiring regulations. In statutory instruments there are strict rules about making ambulatory references. In this case, when referring to an external publication such as a British Standard, a date or version number must be given. The national standard is set out in the current edition of the wiring regs—the 18th edition, published as a British Standard. If the wiring regulations are updated, we will have to consider carefully whether it is necessary and appropriate to update the electrical safety regulations. This depends on the level of update in the regulations.

The noble Lords, Lord Tope and Lord Kennedy, mentioned homes in multiple occupation. All existing houses in multiple occupation, both licensable and non-licensable, will need to comply until 1 June 2020 with the requirement in the 2006 HMO management regulations to have electrics tested. Any new tenancies created from this date will need to comply with the new electrical safety regulations from 1 July 2020.

In respect to existing tenancies in HMOs, all such properties should already have a certificate stating they have been inspected and tested in compliance with the 2006 regulations; this certification lasts for five years. In some HMOs, an electrical installation condition report may run out between the coming into force of the regulations on 1 June 2020 and 1 April 2021. However, during the familiarisation period, local authorities can rely on their enforcement powers under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, which requires that electrical safety hazards are remedied, and tenant safety is protected. Local authorities use their housing health and safety rating system to assess electrical safety hazards, and they have a duty to take full enforcement action if they identify a hazard at category 1 level.

The noble Lord, Lord Kennedy and the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, also asked why this has taken so long. The Government announced in July 2018 that we would introduce a mandatory requirement on landlords in the private rented sector to ensure electrical installations in their properties are inspected every five years. Following that announcement, we worked closely with experts in the sector, considering this complex issue carefully to make sure the changes were proportionate and delivered real benefit to tenants without undue burden on landlords, inspectors and testers. I should emphasise that I note the comments made by the noble Lords, and I am sure the department will as well.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, also mentioned guidance. We will be publishing guidance for tenants, as well as for landlords and local authorities, before the regulations come into force in June 2020. This will ensure tenants are aware of their rights and will know to approach their local authority if they have concerns. We continue to have regular contact with local authorities and their enforcement officers, who will have regular interactions with tenants. When the regulations are made, subject to parliamentary approval, we will publish an update to the suite of “how to” guides, including How to Rent, which must be provided to all tenants by their landlords.

The noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, also asked why there is no landlord register. We want to strike the right balance between supporting good landlords and tackling criminals. We introduced the database of rogue landlords to target the worst offenders and better protect tenants. Our consultations on how to open up and extend information on the database to tenants closed on 12 October 2019. We are currently reviewing responses and will update the House soon.

The noble Baroness, Lady Grender, brought up the subject of property guardians. I was interested to hear what she said on this issue. The Government are committed to ensuring that all renters live in safe conditions. Many property guardians live in HMOs, to which these regulations will apply. More broadly, the Government will soon publish updated guidance to help guardians understand their rights. We are also undertaking research to understand the size of the sector and the severity of problems. This will inform future policy decisions, addressing the concerns raised by her.

This is a major step towards levelling up the private rented sector and making sure it will offer high-quality, safe and secure housing. Along with our social and owner-occupier sectors, this is housing that this country deserves. I commend the instrument to the Committee.

Motion agreed.